Purchasing Expired Domains for SEO Value?
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While doing competitive research for a client I have stumbled on a "site developed by" footer link for a fairly established business that points to an expired domain.
I'm inclined to notify the business in question that the link is expired BUT I was curious to get some thoughts on if purchasing this domain and redirecting it to my site or another would be a good purely "SEO tactic" as it would seemingly pass "juice"???
Thanks,
Dave
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I would make sure you check the links in any case using something like Backlinkwatch.com, there might still be toxic links in there as well as the good link you mention.
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Great questions to consider Alan - thanks.
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there is one good domain pointing to it - that of the original business
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no bad links that I know of - in fact there is probably only one link pointing to this site - that of the original business
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I suspect the domain was abandoned simply due to human error - they simply forgot to renew the domain and more to the point perhaps at one point they were going to open up a business unit focused on web design/marketing and probably used their main site as a test case.
I've heard the same thing about how Google treats abandoned domains so I was just curious what the response was. Basically for about $15 (the cost to register the domain name) I could get a link of some value.
I really have no idea what the answer is on the question - I've never done anything like this and I have no idea if I should be... The onsite stuff I feel pretty comfortable with as it meshes a little more with my own wheelhouse, but the offsite efforts are still pretty elusive in my own mind.
Thanks again for the good insights.
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I'm aware of at least one (admittedly notorious) SEO agency that used the acquisition of expired domains as a core part of the business model. I don't believe it would be particularly credible in a post-Penguin world.
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If there is good links pointing to the domain?
what if there is bad links pointing to the domain?
Why was the domain abandoned?
Google is also a domain register, so they know that a domain has changed ownership. it has been said that links from the old owner are discounted when it expires or changes ownership, I don't know if this is true, but it is something else to consider.
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