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Do High PR Expired Domains Keep Their PageRank?

by brandonbaker
21 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I'm considering buying PR5+ expired domains through Godaddy Auctions, but I'm concerned that their PageRank won't last very long.

Do expired domains keep their pagerank, and if so, for how long?

Are there any ways to increase my odds of making their PageRank stick?
#domains #expired #high #pagerank
  • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
    There are folks on both sides of this issue. Even if Google resets PR when a domain expires or changes hands, the backlinks that got them to whatever PR are still in place, so it would seem to reason that the PR would go right back to where it was. That's one argument. I'm willing to bet that others will chime in with a different argument.
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  • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
    I doubt just because a domain expires for a short while, its PageRank vanishes instantly, forever.

    There's been quite a few instances in which large authority sites (including Hotmail.com, I think!) have been "saved" by one of their visitors', after the owner didn't renew the domain before it expired.

    Two thing you should check and/or do before and after buying an already PageRanked domain:

    1) Check to make sure it's not been spoofed. Run a "info:whatever.com" Google search on it, and if the result you get back is a different domain, the PageRank is probably spoofed.

    2) What you should really do if you're going to buy a PR'd domain is look up as many of the backlinks as you can in Yahoo Site Explorer or anywhere else, and re-create the pages to which those backlinks point (or create 301 redirects from where they were, to somewhere else which does/will exist on your site), so that Google doesn't encounter 404 errors when it crawls the site. If it finds them, it'll deindex the pages, and you can't exactly have PageRank flowing to a page that doesn't exist and isn't indexed any longer!

    Doing both of these things doesn't guarantee your PageRank will remain intact, of course, but it's a good starting point.
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  • Profile picture of the author TruisticMedia
    I was under the impression that if a domain name expires it loses its PR, but what these guys are saying does make sense. It is likely that as soon as the site comes back up it regains its pagerank shortly thereafter.
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    • Profile picture of the author brandonbaker
      Does anyone have any first hand experience with this?

      I've done some research over at DigitalPoint and many PR4 and PR5 domains that were sold 2 years ago still have their PR intact. So I know it's definitely possible, but these were not expired domains...
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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    Does anyone have any first hand experience with this?
    Yes, and my domains retained their page rank.
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    • Profile picture of the author cashcow
      Originally Posted by christopher jon View Post

      Yes, and my domains retained their page rank.
      Same here.
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      • Profile picture of the author brandonbaker
        Originally Posted by christopher jon View Post

        Yes, and my domains retained their page rank.
        Originally Posted by cashcow View Post

        Same here.
        I'd love to hear details about your experiences. What kind of measures did you take to make sure their PageRank stayed intact? Any tips on buying expired, high-PR domains on GoDaddy?
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        • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
          1. Has the domain's PR been spoofed in some way or has the domain only been used for redirection? For example, you might see a PR5 .net domain for sale but it was just being redirected to the .com domain of the same name.

          2. Is the domain indexed and how well is it indexed? Mainly, beware of sites with 25,000+ obviously autogenerated pages and parked domains that are still indexed.

          3. What is the domain's history so far as ownership changes and nameserver changes? A lot of changes may indicate problems, but not always. See if you can dig deeper into the site's history if you see this warning sign.

          4. How diverse are the backlinks? If a site has only a lot of links from a single source, for example a forum sig or a blogroll link, this can disappear overnight. But, if there are links from 100's of different sites and aren't obvious link network sites this indicates that PR will probably be retained.

          5. How soon can you get the domain back up and running with a new site? The longer a domain sits undeveloped the more likely it will be to lose PR and/or ranking. You'll also want to setup redirects from the old linked content to at least the index page if not new internal pages.
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          • Profile picture of the author brandonbaker
            Originally Posted by bgmacaw View Post

            You'll also want to setup redirects from the old linked content to at least the index page if not new internal pages.
            I've read this before, too, but I don't know how to go about this. If the domain is expired, isn't all the content lost? How do I go about redirecting the content if it's lost?

            Sorry, maybe just another way of wording that will make me understand what you're saying.
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        • Profile picture of the author cashcow
          Originally Posted by brandonbaker View Post

          I'd love to hear details about your experiences. What kind of measures did you take to make sure their PageRank stayed intact? Any tips on buying expired, high-PR domains on GoDaddy?
          Basically everything bgmacaw said here:
          1. Has the domain's PR been spoofed in some way or has the domain only been used for redirection? For example, you might see a PR5 .net domain for sale but it was just being redirected to the .com domain of the same name.

          2. Is the domain indexed and how well is it indexed? Mainly, beware of sites with 25,000+ obviously autogenerated pages and parked domains that are still indexed.

          3. What is the domain's history so far as ownership changes and nameserver changes? A lot of changes may indicate problems, but not always. See if you can dig deeper into the site's history if you see this warning sign.

          4. How diverse are the backlinks? If a site has only a lot of links from a single source, for example a forum sig or a blogroll link, this can disappear overnight. But, if there are links from 100's of different sites and aren't obvious link network sites this indicates that PR will probably be retained.

          5. How soon can you get the domain back up and running with a new site? The longer a domain sits undeveloped the more likely it will be to lose PR and/or ranking. You'll also want to setup redirects from the old linked content to at least the index page if not new internal pages.
          And then after I buy them, I usually do some article distribution to target my new keywords that I want for the domain and maybe some social bookmarking. I'm not sure if those two things are even necessary to keep the PR, but I'm usually wanting to rank for a particular keyword so I want some links with the desired anchor text.

          Also, I look at the pages where the high pr links are coming from to try to judge if they check their links often. If they do, you might want to make sure your site stays on the same topic with the same kind of content or they might remove the link which could drop your PR in the next update (if there ever is another PR update, that is)

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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    Any tips on buying expired
    Do your research and make sure the domains are going to keep their page rank. As E. Brian Rose pointed out earlier, the domain has it's page rank due to backlinks. As long as you're not losing those backlinks there is no reason for the domain to lose it's page rank.

    I've also always been quick to get content back up on the site and not leave it a parked page.

    I don't buy a lot of expired domains so my experience is limited but I haven't had any negative results and I figure if it doesn't work out it's only couple of dollars.
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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    I've read this before, too, but I don't know how to go about this. If the domain is expired, isn't all the content lost? How do I go about redirecting the content if it's lost?
    google cache and wayback machine are two ways to retrieve lost web content.
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    • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
      Originally Posted by christopher jon View Post

      google cache and wayback machine are two ways to retrieve lost web content.
      That's true, but don't forget that the content you find through that may still be copyrighted to the previous owner of the site, who wrote and published it. You bought the domain, but that doesn't mean you own the rights to anything else. So you might get in a bit of "crap" for taking it and republishing it.

      Best thing to do, IMO, is check out where most of the highest PR backlinks point, and re-create a page (with some of your own content on) at that exact URL, even if the URL structure wouldn't be consistent with how you intend it to be for the rest of your site. Alternatively - and again - you can 301 redirect it manually (seach google for "htaccess 301 redirect" or something, for a how to), or with the "Redirection" plugin for Wordpress, if that's what you're using on the site.
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      • Profile picture of the author brandonbaker
        Originally Posted by DireStraits View Post

        Best thing to do, IMO, is check out where most of the highest PR backlinks point, and re-create a page (with some of your own content on) at that exact URL, even if the URL structure wouldn't be consistent with how you intend it to be for the rest of your site. Alternatively - and again - you can 301 redirect it manually (seach google for "htaccess 301 redirect" or something, for a how to), or with the "Redirection" plugin for Wordpress, if that's what you're using on the site.
        This sounds like an easy enough solution. I just hope that the original site owner that linked to the expired domain doesn't remove the link...
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Hi Brandon,

          Monitor your server logs for "404 page not found" errors. You will find your most important backlinks from those errors and either create a page using that URL or add a 301 redirect to an existing page.
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          • Profile picture of the author brandonbaker
            Originally Posted by dburk View Post

            Hi Brandon,

            Monitor your server logs for "404 page not found" errors. You will find your most important backlinks from those errors and either create a page using that URL or add a 301 redirect to an existing page.
            Right, but I'm afraid that if I wait that long, Google will zap my PR. Shouldn't I try to prevent this kind of thing? Or does that not matter?
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            • Profile picture of the author dburk
              Originally Posted by brandonbaker View Post

              Right, but I'm afraid that if I wait that long, Google will zap my PR. Shouldn't I try to prevent this kind of thing? Or does that not matter?
              Hi Brandon,

              Google won't drop indexed pages after only one 404 error. Just hurry and put a 301 redirect, or automate it with a script.
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  • Profile picture of the author NeilC
    Sometimes if you purchase an expired domain with good page rank and then set up a new site on it you might lose the PR after a few weeks, but if the links that got the domain the page rank are still in place and valid it tends to comes back after a while, sometimes takes a couple of month?

    There are all sorts of issues such as redirects, old and new pages, "broken" links and quite a lot else that can all have an influence on PR.
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  • Profile picture of the author resiymarko
    If a site has only a lot of links from a single source, for example a forum sig or a blogroll link, this can disappear overnight. But, if there are links from 100's of poles apart sites and aren't understandable link network sites this indicates that PR will in all probability be retained.
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    • Profile picture of the author EricW
      I have had great success with buying dropped domains and keeping their PR.

      You must analyze the backlinks to the site, are they to the root page or to a page that doesn't exist anymore?

      I use archive.org and add the older content it once had, then as someone else mentioned bookmark and article submit the site to quality directories.

      Google has so many algorithms, they don't just base the domain age on whois tools, they have a massive index of the web. As long as the links coming to the domain are solid, there is rarely ever an issue w/ keeping PR.
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