Deleted domain with backlinks question?

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I have never bought expired or deleted domains but I have been reading a lot about it. I feel somewhat educated in this area and I do want to get into this but I don't have any experience with it except for what I've read on WF.

Anyway, I was looking through Expired Domains.net and seen there were some deleted (these were not expired but deleted) domains that were showing PR 2-4 & backlinks. So I checked a few with SEO Spyglass to see if this was accurate.

The few I looked at had anywhere from 4 to 14 backlinks showing up in Spyglass. Some of the backlinks to these domains had PR 2-4 still showing. I went to the backlinks to verify and they checked out.

Then I went to Namecheap to see if the domains were available and they were.

My questions?

1. If I buy them, will the backlinks stay?
2. Will the Pagerank come back or will it be lost once I register it?
#backlinks #deleted #domain #question
  • Profile picture of the author Enfusia
    Originally Posted by tinknocker View Post

    I have never bought expired or deleted domains but I have been reading a lot about it. I feel somewhat educated in this area and I do want to get into this but I don't have any experience with it except for what I've read on WF.

    Anyway, I was looking through Expired Domains.net and seen there were some deleted (these were not expired but deleted) domains that were showing PR 2-4 & backlinks. So I checked a few with SEO Spyglass to see if this was accurate.

    The few I looked at had anywhere from 4 to 14 backlinks showing up in Spyglass. Some of the backlinks to these domains had PR 2-4 still showing. I went to the backlinks to verify and they checked out.

    Then I went to Namecheap to see if the domains were available and they were.

    My questions?

    1. If I buy them, will the backlinks stay?
    2. Will the Pagerank come back or will it be lost once I register it?
    To the best of my understanding (which is from a good friend who is a top level domain broker) the PR is supposed to die on the vine with the new registration. Now this may take some time for it to show up but will at the 1st update that Google has it in their system.

    The links are supposed to stay. BUT, that could be a bad thing with Panda and Penguin. You will need to look over those links very carefully to be sure they won't actually stop you from ranking.

    Patrick
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    • Profile picture of the author LloydMS
      To the best of my understanding (which is from a good friend who is a top level domain broker) the PR is supposed to die on the vine with the new registration.
      I don't believe this is true at all. And it's partially explained by your second paragraph:

      The links are supposed to stay.
      Since incoming links are responsible for a large part of page rank, naturally if those links stay then it should influence page rank the same as before.

      Now, what you might be referring to is that when a site expires, it is very quickly de-indexed by Google and therefore it will not have any page rank. However, once you get the site back live, it will get a page rank whenever Google updates PR based upon links at the time of the update and other factors.

      Now, the question of whether or not the links will stick is answered with a solid "maybe". It all depends upon the source of those links. Some links will always naturally disappear, get deleted, move to a different page, etc. If the domain purchased links or if links were created by the person who had the site previously, those will very likely disappear.

      My suggestion would be to make sure you get a domain with a LOT of backlinks. That way if some do go away, others will stay. You need to make sure that you redirect those backlinks to the home page of the new site as you don't want the linking domain to get errors.

      You also need to make sure that the old links are not spammy. Buying a site with spammy links probably means it was penalized which is why it was given up. but there are definitely good sites that expired, with decent links, and were not penalized. But do remember there is no way to know until you purchase the domain if it was for sure penalized before. So be prepared to buy a domain, find out it was penalized, and basically get rid of it right away as it wouldn't be worth trying to restore it from a penalty.

      But, you might get lucky and get a decent domain. Worth a shot.
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      • Profile picture of the author tinknocker
        When I checked those domains that were deleted according to ExpiredDomains, I was surprised to find that they were listed - able to be registered and still showing they had backlinks.

        This is why I asked about this, because I didn't expect to see anything. I thought that info was inaccurate until I checked it.

        I know all the info that's in their listings isn't always/totally accurate so the PageRank it was showing may or may not be correct, I guess that's a chance I would have to be willing to take.

        I thought the backlinks were wiped clean when they weren't transferred before they expired?

        I can understand them not being indexed but the backlinks they were showing kind of surprised me.
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        • Profile picture of the author tinknocker
          Just wondering if anyone has a definitive answer?
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          • Profile picture of the author LloydMS
            Originally Posted by tinknocker View Post

            Just wondering if anyone has a definitive answer?
            lol. Pretty sure my answer was at least close to definitive

            Links don't disappear just because the site does. If I link to your site, and your site goes away, my link on my site is still there. And when the domain goes live again, it's still there. And you get to benefit from that link as long as it sticks around.
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            • Profile picture of the author tinknocker
              Originally Posted by LloydMS View Post

              lol. Pretty sure my answer was at least close to definitive

              Links don't disappear just because the site does. If I link to your site, and your site goes away, my link on my site is still there. And when the domain goes live again, it's still there. And you get to benefit from that link as long as it sticks around.


              I know if it's about to expire and I buy it & transfer it before it gets deleted then it will keep it's PR & backlinks, if they are real natural legit backlinks that are aged.


              Did you ever buy a deleted domain that went back in a register eg; Namecheap/GoDaddy etc... and it kept it's backlinks & PageRank after it went live again?
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              • Profile picture of the author markthedoc
                I've just bought a deleted domain. It had quite a few decent backlinks showing so I went to Namecheap, it was a available so I registered it. I threw a WP site up there and within a few days the site is showing as a PR3.

                Now whether the site is still showing as a PR3 after the next Google PR update remains to be seen but if it doesn't all I've lost is a few quid so I'll take my chances.
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                • Profile picture of the author tinknocker
                  Originally Posted by markthedoc View Post

                  I've just bought a deleted domain. It had quite a few decent backlinks showing so I went to Namecheap, it was a available so I registered it. I threw a WP site up there and within a few days the site is showing as a PR3.

                  Now whether the site is still showing as a PR3 after the next Google PR update remains to be seen but if it doesn't all I've lost is a few quid so I'll take my chances.




                  That would be interesting to see if it stays a PR3 after the next update.
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                  • Profile picture of the author Martinsee
                    Originally Posted by tinknocker View Post

                    That would be interesting to see if it stays a PR3 after the next update.
                    This is true!
                    In case you build rich contents, build some backlinks new.
                    Your PR will still remain PR3.
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              • Profile picture of the author LloydMS
                Originally Posted by tinknocker View Post

                I know if it's about to expire and I buy it & transfer it before it gets deleted then it will keep it's PR & backlinks, if they are real natural legit backlinks that are aged.


                Did you ever buy a deleted domain that went back in a register eg; Namecheap/GoDaddy etc... and it kept it's backlinks & PageRank after it went live again?
                Again, the links stay (subject to natural attrition). The PR goes away fairly quickly after expiring. The next time Google does a PR update, the website's pages will be updated based upon all of the factors in place at that time, one of which is its link profile. So if the links remain, there is a good chance that you'll be able to get the PR back to where it was.

                Yes, I've purchased numerous expired domains with a backlink history and those links stay. I spend some time before purchasing to try and ensure the links are good by looking at referring domains and anchor text. But you run the risk of buying a site that even though it has incoming links, it's been penalized by Google and basically worthless. You don't have any control over that and it does happen from time to time.
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                • Profile picture of the author tinknocker
                  Originally Posted by markthedoc View Post

                  I've just bought a deleted domain. It had quite a few decent backlinks showing so I went to Namecheap, it was a available so I registered it. I threw a WP site up there and within a few days the site is showing as a PR3.

                  Now whether the site is still showing as a PR3 after the next Google PR update remains to be seen but if it doesn't all I've lost is a few quid so I'll take my chances.

                  Originally Posted by LloydMS View Post


                  Yes, I've purchased numerous expired domains with a backlink history and those links stay. I spend some time before purchasing to try and ensure the links are good by looking at referring domains and anchor text. But you run the risk of buying a site that even though it has incoming links, it's been penalized by Google and basically worthless. You don't have any control over that and it does happen from time to time.


                  LloydMS Did you purchase these expired domains the way markthedoc said he did?

                  The way markthedoc did it is actually the exact scenario I was envisioning when I was asking the question.
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                  • Profile picture of the author LloydMS
                    Originally Posted by tinknocker View Post

                    LloydMS Did you purchase these expired domains the way markthedoc said he did?

                    The way markthedoc did it is actually the exact scenario I was envisioning when I was asking the question.
                    Yes, an expired domain - available for registration.
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  • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
    Backlinks transfer over. PR remains put.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Originally Posted by Icematikx View Post

      Backlinks transfer over. PR remains put.
      Not true. Many things will affect both of those.

      If the domain is truly "expired," that means it has been
      offline for quite a while. You don't get an auto re-upping
      by google in every single case. I'd say you are betting
      on a 60-40 chance, or worse, it won't happen.

      Some domains bought right away by domains sellers may
      better the odds. A domain that gets released to the general
      public does not have very good odds.

      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author tinknocker
        Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

        Not true. Many things will affect both of those.

        If the domain is truly "expired," that means it has been
        offline for quite a while. You don't get an auto re-upping
        by google in every single case. I'd say you are betting
        on a 60-40 chance, or worse, it won't happen.

        Some domains bought right away by domains sellers may
        better the odds. A domain that gets released to the general
        public does not have very good odds.

        Paul



        This is what I was afraid of.
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        • Profile picture of the author LloydMS
          Originally Posted by tinknocker View Post

          This is what I was afraid of.
          But you don't need a PR to get your site ranked. It's not like Google only changes it's rankings every time it updates PR, right? So even if the domain has expired and lost its PR, as soon as you get it back online it will benefit from whatever inbound links are pointed to it. And that will help get you ranked right away. Depending upon the keywords you are targeting, it could get you to page 1 right away. All presuming that the links are good, not spammy, site hasn't been penalized, etc. And then at some point the URLs will get assigned a PR and you'll have a better understanding of how Google sees those pages at that time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Martinsee
    To your question :

    1. Yes,sure

    2. YEs, but it used to take about 7-15 days for your PR if you resubmit your domain to Google.
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