Is there any ranking benefit to buying and redirecting high PageRank domains?

[Choice]

Hello,

I'm interested in learning how to assume ownership of a site without Google resetting the PageRank and the links back to zero. I've read that buying sites is one of the most powerful SEO "shortcuts" you can employ, but can be tricky.

I've heard that, unfortunately, buying an existing domain and 301 redirecting for SEO credit is not that simple. When the WHOIS registration information on the newly purchased domain is updated to reflect its transfer to you, the new owner, that domain will almost immediately be reset by Google to a PageRank=0. That's the standard practice when a domain changes hands. Since Google is a domain registrar, obviously, change of ownership information is readily available for their use in factoring it into their algorithms.

If you decide to 301 redirect the new domain to another domain you already own, you will get credit for the site's current incoming link profile, at least in the short-term. However, this purchased domain will eventually reset to PR=0 (usually during the next PageRank update) AND you will then get no credit for all of those links post-transfer.

What is your experience with buying and redirecting domains?

[Everett]

Google says they treat domain-wide redirects like that as 404 errors instead of 301s. How likely they are to do this depends on several factors, I think, such as:

• Are the two domains topically related?

• With respect to the domain names

• With respect to the topic of last known content

• Are the redirects all going to one landing page (i.e. home) or does each page redirect to a specific landing page?

• Is the content on the new URL the same content as the old URL?

I remember asking about this exact tactic circa 2008 and it was considered "busted" (as in Google knows and it's not worth it) even back then. I wouldn't do it.

[Choice]

Thanks for responding, Bruce! I appreciate your input.

I've sold multiple high-traffic websites in the past and the organic search traffic / rankings of those sites remain solid even up to this day. And, in those cases, no special precautions were taken during the transfer. However, they were not redirected to another domain either.

My thought is that if I buy the domain I am interested and wait awhile for a Pagerank update or two, it may be safe to redirect to my money domain. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[BruceA]

No expert, but I suspect that Google is on this one already.  In Googles world i guess, they want you make your Golden Ticket, not some-one else from the past. Google crawls your site and will decide in the fulness of time how good the site is and will rank accordingly.

My major concern would be building a castle on sand.  The sand is the high ranking domain, and unless you can convert this sand to concrete fast, then it will slowly blow away with the wind.

Bruce