What research needs to be done prior to purchasing an old domain?
-
I'm planning on purchasing an old domain. I'd like to get an idea whether or not any "shadyness" was going on with the domain over the years. It's still indexed in google. I "whois'd" it, ran it through open site explorer, and did a "link:" search.
Anything else you would recommend for researching this domain?
-
Then you should be safe no matter what - if the price is right
All other advantages like is currently listed so no penalization and current back links are just a bonus.
At least this is how I see it
-
Thanks eye. I am purchasing for age and keyword in domain.
-
Mike is right but I think it's enough to see if it's listed in google and if it is it doesn't matter if it was blacklisted in the past or not - since it's clean now.
There are different reasons in buying a domain and based on your reason I think you should focus on the research side. (for example: if you buy a domain for the current trafic and the link profile is kind of dark you could expect a full drop after you've bought it but if you buy it for the name of the domain even if it drops, the domain will recover eventually so it won't be an issue )
1. Buying a domain for the name (brand or keyword).
2. Buying a domain for the history (back links)
3. Buying a domain for the current traffic.
Each of the three has a different "flow" in the review process.
Personally I've bought an old domain for the links in one of my client niche and I've only reviewed the domain for the future potential based on back-links and the investment turned out to be great even if the traffic was very very low.
-
Thanks Mike, very helpful.
-
Can the seller provide you with historical Google Analytics data? If there is a sudden drop in traffic then the domain may have been penalized. Is there a visible site on the domain today? Does it rank for any phrases (should it? given the backlinks it has)? Maybe enter it in http://www.ispionage.com and then click on the SEO tab to see if it ranks for any phrases today. If it's on page 1 for anything then it is unlikely to be penalized.
Also, does it link out to any bad neighborhoods? Google cares more about what you link to than what links to you (in terms of giving you a penalty). If bad neighborhoods link to you then you won't get penalized but if you link to bad neighborhoods and Google identifies it as such then you will get penalized.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Old Redirected Domain is replacing my current domain on SERPs
Hello everyone, All of a sudden a 2 year old redirected domain is replacing my current domain for 2 weeks now, my site is apitus.com and my old domain is aptitus.pe (the redirect is still working), however this only happens on my country google results (google.com.pe), if you check my site on google.com, everything looks ok even with a sitelink, which I no longer have on my country search results. Back to the issue, the first thing I thought was go to Search Console and take it out from the index, so I asked for access by uploading a file but since everything on that old site redirects to my current site I can't make such action. While still waiting for such access, is there anything else I could do?. Thanks in advance. PD: I'm adding the images of my SERPs CmzN8kY G3zZwwj
Technical SEO | | JoaoCJ0 -
Questions on switching domain name of my site
Hey guys, I purchased a domain name on May 1st and have been running my site on it since then. At the time when I added the domain name to the shopping cart, I felt that it was the best domain name a human could possibly come up with. But now, after two months, I am not so sure about it. And that means I am thinking of getting a new domain name and redirecting the old domain to the new one. Give that the domain is only two months old, there is not much to lose. However, my domain name does have some valuable backlinks, and has built some credibility in the eyes of search engines. According to MOZ Open Site Explorer, its Domain Authority is 10 and Page Authority (homepage) is 20. It's not much, but I fear that if I switch the domain name, I will reset the clock and the new domain name will have to earn the rankings from scratch That said, after searching this forum, I come across articles like this one from google and this 2012 article from MOZ that gave me some confidence. The MOZ article is from 2102, and there have been several changes since then. Is there an updated version of that article, or another legit article on the internet that you can point me to? As you can tell, I want to be more than sure that we don't take any hit during the migration process. Also want to mention that the site is on WordPress -- in case that is relevant. Thank you for your help.
Technical SEO | | deathbyseo0 -
What should I consider before setting up a sub domain?
Morning all! We've just been approached by IT. They've been asked to develop an online 'portal' where clients can upload and download materials. IT will be developing a portal that sits on the company network perimeter (hosted on our internal servers). The concept is that 3<sup>rd</sup> parties can get and update information in regards to progressing cases, the first use will be for agencies who will retrieve records via the portal and then post reports after a consultation. however I would like to have an automatic link to forward to the portal from the web address: oursite.com/dave We will look to create robot.txt and anything else to prevent from listings/indexes. Does any of the above mess with your SEO? The Directors have asked if they can have this on a sub-domain of our site. Is this wise? And, are there any major SEO considerations for my team to worry about? Better still, have any of you had to deal with this before? If so, what happened? All the best, John
Technical SEO | | Muhammad-Isap0 -
Purchasing a domain to redirect to a new domain (note same industry) - Black hat or White hat technique?
Hi Everyone, Ok so here is my question. I have a client who sells gourmet tea and gourmet spices. She has a culinary blog. There is a culinary blog that just posted that the website will be shut down in the near future. It has 100% white hat links. Would it be considered black hat to buy the domain and redirect it to my clients blog which is also a culinary blog? I would really like to ask Matt Cutts this question. Does anyone know how to send him questions? Thanks Carla
Technical SEO | | Carla_Dawson0 -
Does a sub-domain benefit a domain...
I have seen some mixed comment as the whether a sub-domain would benefit from the authority built up by its domain... but does a domain benefit from a sub-domain?
Technical SEO | | Switch_Digital0 -
Do I need an XML sitemap?
I have an established website that ranks well in Google. However, I have just noticed that no xml sitemap has been registered in Google webmaster tools, so the likelihood is that it hasn't been registered with the other search engines. However, there is an html sitemap listed on the website. Seeing as the website is already ranking well, do I still need to generate and submit an XML sitemap? Could there be any detriment to current rankings in doing so?
Technical SEO | | pugh0 -
Switch domain from one account to another at domain registrar
We need to move our domain from one account to another at our domain registrar (which is Moniker). Both the "from" account and "to" account will be at Moniker. The "from" account currently has privacy settings enabled and we'd also put these in place for the "to" account. Has anyone done this and see any impact on SEO? Is there any big or common mistakes that I should be aware of? Thanks all!
Technical SEO | | evoNick0 -
Duplicate exact match domains flagged by google - need help reinclusion
Okay I admit, I've been naughty....I have 270+ domains that are all exact match for city+keyword and have built tons of back links to all of them. I reaped the benefits....and now google has found my duplicate templates and flagged them all down. Question is, how to get the reincluded quickly? Do you guys think converting a site to a basic wordpress template and then simply using 275 different templates and begging applying each site manually would do it, or do you recommend. 1. create a unique site template for each site 2. create unique content any other advice for getting reincluded? Aside from owning up and saying, "hey i used the same template for all the sites, and I have created new templates and unique content, so please let me back".
Technical SEO | | ilyaelbert3