Will an aged domain name with pagerank hold its value?

[ferriswannabe]

I found a 1 year old aged domain name with PR3. This has the keyword for a web service I would like to provide, not affiliate marketing. For example like webdesigner(dot)com. This is not the real one, but same concept. The cost is seventy dollars.

This is a parked domain. No backlinks. Why does it have pagerank?

If its due to old content, will my new content make it lose pagerank?

Will acquiring this domain name help in terms of seo?

Will changing WhoIs or owner name change cause problems?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[internetempire]

No backlinks means No PR. On some very unique cases, if you have 100-200 pages of unique content, even when you don't have any incoming links, you will still get PR1-2 ranking.

[paulgl]

If the domain is indeed parked, it will slowly lose all PR.

It's iffy if a domain that gets parked can retain an PR.

IF google finds it parked, then the PR is gone. You cannot
get a thing from old backlinks. Most are probably devalued
or gone anyway.

Domains are not SEO. It only makes link brokers and sellers
rich by doing parlor tricks with certain domains, then con
you into paying a huge price.

SEO is what you do to and with a website.

But if you like the domain, and it's cheap, no reason to not get
it if you want it. But there is still a lot of hard work involved.

Best way is to buy the website complete. That's a whole different
story. I think some people believe it's the same or similar.

Paul

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by ferriswannabe

This is a parked domain. No backlinks. Why does it have pagerank?

Either due to it being previously redirected or being faked.

Originally Posted by ferriswannabe

If its due to old content, will my new content make it lose pagerank?

PR is never from content but from links. If you change the structure of a site this might cause a temporary drop in PR or ranking but this is usually temporary.

Originally Posted by ferriswannabe

Will acquiring this domain name help in terms of seo?

Probably not that much. Without pre-existing links it won't be much help in terms of SEO. It can help some vs a brand new domain but I don't think it would be $60 worth of help.

Originally Posted by ferriswannabe

Will changing WhoIs or owner name change cause problems?

It shouldn't. Google doesn't appear to track this algorithmically. It could come into play though in the rare case of an in-depth visual inspection.

[ferriswannabe]

Bgmacaw - thanks for being so thorough in your answers, the actual name is logopick(DOT)com, i want to provide a logo service, so this name is not so bad. If it was you would you get it? Seems from your answer there is no reason to, I should save the money and register a new name?

Internetempire - thanks you for your info.

Paulgl - you said if google finds it parked it will lose all value, so if i buy it now and immediately build it up would that stop the value loss?

[paulgl]

Seems from your answer there is no reason to, I should save the money and register a new name?

Use one of those domain suggestion sites, like yahoo small business.

That's always the best advice unless you are apple and need ipad.com.
They will pay a bundle for it, like they did for iphone.

Google will continue to show it in the search results for a while.

If google has recently crawled the site, and many ranked sites get
crawled almost constantly, it's a moot point.

Bottom line, if you are counting on the PR being there for you,
forget it.

Stupid me. You gave the domain. So, we do a search and bingo.
Looks de-indexed and showing in domain websites. There ya go!

Oh. I probably would not put another keyword in there, like pick.
Guitar picks, for example. I saw logopicks.com which is guitar picks.

do something like logo-bonk.com (available)

Paul

[ferriswannabe]

Paul, thanks for the advice.

Those domain sellers must make out pretty good.

[joetheseo]

Ferris,

Reading the above posts gave me a headache.

I think some people try to make these little issues a lot harder then they really are. I own hundreds of websites and I've done a lot of my own testing.

Problems I have with the statements above:

False:
PR Isn't only about links. Have you ever seen a site that looks really good like a company, but barely has any backlinks? Exactly my point. PR is based on a wide range of factors from Quality of Links to Content to Relevance, amongst other things.

False:

"IF google finds it parked, then the PR is gone. You cannot
get a thing from old backlinks. Most are probably devalued
or gone anyway.".

- #1 Well this is just a bunch of crap. Don't really know how else to say it. I own plenty of PR domains that were once parked. In fact, several of them actually got ranked UP in PR with the April update.

- #2 The links are not devalued, in fact I still have several EDU and GOV links active on a lot of PR domains.

False:

Probably not that much. Without pre-existing links it won't be much help in terms of SEO. It can help some vs a brand new domain but I don't think it would be $60 worth of help.

- #1 The main reason you should be buying an aged domain is AGE... It's been "put through the ringer" enough times by Google to be fully accepted into the SERPS. Having AGE gives you the power to build massive amount of links very quickly.


Now Here's the TRUTH

Truth #1 - PR is based on Relevance and Links. If I buy an aged domain that used to be about Dog Training and make a site about Selling Toilets, the PR is probably going to go away because you're new site did not retain the relevancy.

Truth #2 - Regardless of if the PR goes away, an AGED domain over a year old will still generally rank higher then a new domain with the exact keyword. The Age factor allows you to build more links faster without getting sandboxed. Testing shows that exact domains really only work for "Sniper" candidates under 50k comp or so.

How to Use Aged Domains The Right Way

- Check out what the domain used to be about. Like I said above, if you're making a site around Selling Toilets, Dogtrainingguru.com Probably wouldn't be a good idea, even if it was PR3.

- Check and make sure the domain has a real PR. Do this by typing "info:yourdomain.com" in Google. Does the domain that appears match the one you're looking into buying?

- Forget the domain name when making your purchase. Finding a relevant domain to the focus of your new site is more important.

- When you find some Aged domains that are for sale, Go to the WayBackMachine and simply put it the domain and find out what it used to be about. If it even remotely is in the same category as what you're about to make your site around, then GO FOR IT!


And that's really about it. Aged domains can help you penetrate high comp SERPS much faster then New Domains.

Sorry for the rant,

Getting tired of bad info.

Joe

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by joecrupie

- #1 The main reason you should be buying an aged domain is AGE... It's been "put through the ringer" enough times by Google to be fully accepted into the SERPS. Having AGE gives you the power to build massive amount of links very quickly.

Sorry, but you're the one who's wrong. An undeveloped, never indexed, previously registered domain is no different from a brand new domain. I've tested this out many times after getting bad advice like you just gave. If you want to take advantage of domain age you have to buy a domain that has existing links and hasn't been deindexed. Otherwise, you may as well buy a new domain.

Originally Posted by joecrupie

The Age factor allows you to build more links faster without getting sandboxed.

Do you believe in the tooth fairy also?

[joetheseo]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

Sorry, but you're the one who's wrong. An undeveloped, never indexed, previously registered domain is no different from a brand new domain. I've tested this out many times after getting bad advice like you just gave. If you want to take advantage of domain age you have to buy a domain that has existing links and hasn't been deindexed. Otherwise, you may as well buy a new domain.



Do you believe in the tooth fairy also?

- I'm a little confused on why anyone would be wanting to buy an undeveloped, never indexed domain. Honestly, if the domain was never indexed then it wouldn't have a PR in the first place. Why you be considering buying a non-PR, non-indexed domain? Sounds to me like it's a FAKE PR redirect.

- Every PR Aged domain I've ever purchased has been indexed on Google in it's parked state. Generally I purchase only PR2+

- Aged domains can start out with 0 Google links and be fine. I have an aged domain that started with only 3 Yahoo links (was a PR2) and now just from basic link building and social bookmarking, It's a PR3.

- I don't have to "believe" in much because I have the accurate testing to back it up.

[ferriswannabe]

Joe,

Thanks for the advice. Now really confused.

Its hard when your ignorant on a subject and you have two people on opposite sides who can write with so much confidence on what they believe is right. And on top of it all, back their statements with proper testing.

Joe, I did try the way back site, but as for right now it not giving info due to having too much traffic or some other issue, will check later.

I did the info: search on google and came back with

NOTICE: This domain name expired on 03/05/2010 and is pending renewal or deletion.

On the whois it reads like this

Created on: 05-Mar-09
Expires on: 05-Mar-11
Last Updated on: 19-Apr-10

On yourmaindomain.com ( the place i found it for sale ) it reads

domain creation date: 05 - mar - 2009
domain expiry date : 05 - mar - 2009

So Google says expired 2010, whois says 2011, and on the seller it has the same dates for creation and expiry?

And last thing, on the site above they have it for sell at $69, but when i go click and through the parked page to the host (sedo) list price is $500 and asks me to make an offer?

Joe, your input?

[paulgl]

I don't rank up there with bgmacaw.
But she echoed what I said first (and second) in
a more extensive way.

But it makes no difference. A wise man cannot reason away
what a fool believes.

You will either spend $60+ or $5 and get to do the same amount
of work.

I would seriously caution you about logopick.com, as google
actually suggested I was looking for logopicks.com when I typed in
the domain. If that won't scare you off, nothing will. Google thought
I was searching for guitar picks.

For $60, you could get a domain and hosting for a year+.

People think certain things are sprinkled with magic fairy dust.

They are not.

Paul

[McBrett]

@Ferris.. nice work on the PR3 site.

I would define your success using metrics other than PageRank. Like the total number of visitors finding your site on search engines each week.

I've worked on a website before that generated an additional 3K visitors per month after I optimized it, but went from a PR3 to a PR2.

Would you rather have more qualified traffic or a higher Page Rank?

Second, if you do want to maintain your page rank. One thing I've found anecdotely is that you should keep the content fresh. If you've got a blog, make sure content gets added a couple times a month. Google loves regular content.

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by joecrupie

Now Here's the TRUTH

Truth #1 - PR is based on Relevance and Links. If I buy an aged domain that used to be about Dog Training and make a site about Selling Toilets, the PR is probably going to go away because you're new site did not retain the relevancy.

Well, the direct experience of >100 sites that Terry Kyle and I have purchased (with PR) directly contradicts this. As long as the backlinks remain, the PR remains.

[joetheseo]

Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin

Well, the direct experience of >100 sites that Terry Kyle and I have purchased (with PR) directly contradicts this. As long as the backlinks remain, the PR remains.

Ok, here's a case study for you.


I bought a domain that included the word "Anxiety" in it. The domain was a few years old and had a few PR4 backlinks.

When I purchased it, it was a PR3.

I did some research and determined that the content was about a Band named "Anxiety Attack" .. Ok cool.. The backlinks were to anchor "Anxiety Attack" .

Wait, Why not try and rank for "Anxiety attack" right?

Wrong.. and right...

While the site did move up for the keyword "Anxiety Attack"

The PR decreased to PR1 after building hundreds of qualified links before the PR update.


Joe

[cashcow]

Your site does indeed have backlinks. Check it out with the www in front of it.

I don't have a huge amount of experience with expired domains, but out of about 12 I purchased last year 8 of them maintained their PR, 1 of them went up from a 2 to a 3 and the others I was too lazy to actually put anything on and are now PR0.s All the ones that maintained PR, I did put content on them right away (I tried to keep to the same topic in general) and I did a minimal linking campaign with some article marketing. It's now several PR updates later and they still hold.

But, I think one big thing about whether the domains retain PR or not is if the high PR links remain or get removed. Some sites actually do go through their links and when they see that the site at the other end has changed they may remove it.

So, if you had a high PR page linking to you (like yours has a PR3) and that guy checks his links and sees that the site he originally linked to is no longer there and then removes his link, chances are your PR isn't going to be 3 anymore on the next update. Unless, of course, you made up for that with your own linking campaign.

Anyway, I know it's too late to make a long story short, but I found that it was much easier to get ranked and traffic with older domains that already had links than it is with new domains.

Lee

[Tom Goodwin]

Well, i'm certainly not going to post most of my sites on here because that's just pretty stupid.

But, here's one site that is very intriguing.

elegance-masculine.com

The site was previously PR4. But then it was DROPPED!. All of my domain purchases are for sites that are still valid, etc., BUT, this site had some good diversified backlinks.

So, I went ahead and bought the domain as a new domain (i.e., just paid the regular price and bought as a new domain from name.com). When I bought the site, it showed up as a PR0, but the backlinks were still there.

I purchased the site, added in some off-topic content.

Guess what happened?

I added zero backlinks between the time I bought it and the recent April 2nd PR update. YET, the domain became a PR3.

Google gave a DROPPED site, with different content, credit for its old backlinks and gave it a PR3. Just crazy, but its true.

Tom

Originally Posted by joecrupie

Ok, here's a case study for you.


I bought a domain that included the word "Anxiety" in it. The domain was a few years old and had a few PR4 backlinks.

When I purchased it, it was a PR3.

I did some research and determined that the content was about a Band named "Anxiety Attack" .. Ok cool.. The backlinks were to anchor "Anxiety Attack" .

Wait, Why not try and rank for "Anxiety attack" right?

Wrong.. and right...

While the site did move up for the keyword "Anxiety Attack"

The PR decreased to PR1 after building hundreds of qualified links before the PR update.


Joe

[joetheseo]

I don't disagree that Google can do some weird things.


I bought a PR2 domain that was about Utah Business college.. Had a few EDU links on it.

Turned it into a PR2 Business Autoblog and on the PR update it became a PR3.

Simply from Autoblogging and 0 backlink updates.


Believe it or not with 0 backlinks this site gets 1,000 uniques a month.

Lol.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by joecrupie

- I'm a little confused on why anyone would be wanting to buy an undeveloped, never indexed domain. Honestly, if the domain was never indexed then it wouldn't have a PR in the first place. Why you be considering buying a non-PR, non-indexed domain? Sounds to me like it's a FAKE PR redirect.

And that's exactly what it sounded like in this case. I bought a few domains like this early on, PR and no links, and the redirect effect was gone very quickly. They developed just like a brand new domain, essentially from scratch.

After buying over 200 pre-owned domains I've determined that in most cases it's not worth buying unless it has at least one page indexed in Google and has links in Yahoo Site Explorer. Otherwise, it has a good chance of being a dud.

Originally Posted by joecrupie

- Every PR Aged domain I've ever purchased has been indexed on Google in it's parked state. Generally I purchase only PR2+

Which agrees with what I suggest, buy a domain that has a good history, meaning it's indexed and has good, solid, diverse incoming links that will stick around after the transfer. Otherwise, buy a brand new domain unless the particular domain name has reason to be attractive to you.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin

Well, the direct experience of >100 sites that Terry Kyle and I have purchased (with PR) directly contradicts this. As long as the backlinks remain, the PR remains.

I've seen this work both ways and even a third way. Some domains retained PR and some didn't. Some, once new content was added, it went up, in some cases significantly. I haven't found any single factor to attribute this to.

[paulgl]

Ask yourself these 2 questions:

What is the PR of logopick.com?
How many links does google show it has?

Paul

[rhinocl]

I think one of the reasons that you get two experienced people with opposite opinions is that they are both correct based on their own experience. I have two sites that are very similar. I promoted both the same way. One went to PR2 the other only to PR0. Google is just not as consistent as you would expect a company that big to be.