13 replies to this topic

[redsuns82]

I have a question here, if i bought a domain which is few years old and rebulid it(content relevant to the domain) does this able me to get away from aging delay?And let say the domain whois info remain as the same as the last owner.

[Dharmesh Shah]

Not necessariliy. I think Google is now smart enough to detect when a domain changes ownership (and often reinstitutes its sandbox on the new domain).

In fact, I had a recent experinece whereby I bought an old domain to move an existing site. This previously owned domain is taking longer to rank than the original "fresh" domain despite having more links and proper 301s from the prior domain I was using.

That's just one anecdotal data point though. Your mileage will likely vary.

I have a question here, if i bought a domain which is few years old and rebulid it(content relevant to the domain) does this able me to get away from aging delay?And let say the domain whois info remain as the same as the last owner.

[Jill]

Maybe, maybe not. Try it and see what happens.

[redsuns82]

Not necessariliy. I think Google is now smart enough to detect when a domain changes ownership (and often reinstitutes its sandbox on the new domain).

In fact, I had a recent experinece whereby I bought an old domain to move an existing site. This previously owned domain is taking longer to rank than the original "fresh" domain despite having more links and proper 301s from the prior domain I was using.

That's just one anecdotal data point though. Your mileage will likely vary.

Yes i do understand that when your domain expired or change in ownership PR when drop to 0, but what i mean is that the domain is bought before it expired and whois info remain the same as the last owner.So does this helps?

[redsuns82]

Yes i do understand that when your domain expired or change in ownership PR when drop to 0, but what i mean is that the domain is bought before it expired and whois info remain the same as the last owner.So does this helps?

IMO A bot is a bot after all, so i think it does not know whether the last owner renew it or a new owner purchase it as long as the whois info remain the same and the domain content is related to the the previous content.

[chrishirst]

but what i mean is that the domain is bought before it expired and whois info remain the same as the last owner.

The question is;

Why would you buy a hostname and allow the previous "owner" to retain legal title to the name??

[redsuns82]

i don't mind leaving the whois info as long as all the inbound link and page rank is still intact and i will change the contact information in my website to mine.Honestly speaking how many people will whois the domain and email for contact and if it does, the most i will just change the email of the whois information.

[chrishirst]

i don't mind leaving the whois info as long as all the inbound link and page rank is still intact and i will change the contact information in my website to mine.Honestly speaking how many people will whois the domain and email for contact and if it does, the most i will just change the email of the whois information.

Quite honestly you have it utterly the wrong way around and you obviously do not understand what the whois information actually represents.
Contact details on the website can be what ever you make them. It matters little who looks at the whois and the whois contact email is simply that, a contact point.
The registration information is a legal document pertaining to ownership and all rights for the name. If you do not have your name there the previous owner, or whoever's name is there could deny you access to the name by simply transferring the registration and you could NOT do a damn thing about it.

Is it not worth the small risk that Google could "set the clock back" to protect your investment? There is no evidence that this is done as a matter of course, simply an indicator that it could be done should the need arise.

[torka]

Exactly. There are tons of sad stories around about site owners who allowed their "web designer" to register their domains for them... never checked how the designer set up the registration. So the designer sets him/herself up as the administrative contact on the WHOIS, if not the legal registrant outright, and at the first small disagreement, the designer transfers the domain registration to a new account (to which the site owner does not have access) and either simply parks the domain at the registrar or points it to a completely different physical website -- effectively knocking the site owner out of the water.

In fact, I had that happen to a band I used to work with. One of the members registered their domain name and pointed it to a site I designed for them. I noticed he had the WHOIS registration information in his name. I warned the band leader about that, advised him he really, really, really needed to get control of that domain name. He said he understood the importance, but for whatever reason, he never followed through. Eventually, they had a big blow-up, kicked the member out, and next thing they knew, he'd taken "their" domain name (of which he was the legal owner according to the WHOIS record) and pointed it to his own personal site, where he told (a strongly biased in his favor) version of the story of the breakup.

Fortunately, all the content was still there on the web server (over which I did have control), but I had to do a lot of scrambling to undo the damage. Not only that, but they lost quite a few fans who went to visit what they thought was the band's site, only to see a nasty story about how the band had "mistreated" one of its longtime members. They did finally recover the domain name, but it took them over five years and I don't know how much money to do so.

Sure, you can believe that the seller would never do something like that to you. But you can't know that for sure -- perhaps they don't intend to cheat you, but maybe on down the line you do something with their old site they don't care for... and they just happen to notice you've left their name as the owner of the domain... so they see the opportunity to undo what they perceive to be your "damage." Or maybe some other term of the sale isn't carried out to their complete satisfaction, and they see this as a way of exerting leverage over you to force your compliance with their terms.

I don't think that I'd want to let any outside party have that sort of control over my destiny. Especially not simply to try to shortcut Google's aging delay (which is very short term in the overall scheme of things) and particularly not when I can't be 100% sure the "shortcut" will even work in the first place.

The rules say the WHOIS record must contain accurate contact information. IMO, you're a lot better off -- and a lot safer -- in the long run by complying, and making sure the ownership and contact information in there actually reflects the current, correct, up-to-date information.

My

--Torka

[Ignoramus]

Spot on Torka.

I have a friend who runs a charity. She allowed the website designer to register the domain. Great positioning in the SERPs and loads of good links.

Sadly, things turned sour. The charity had to register a new name and start over. The lesson being.... always, always own your domain.

Another wrinkle..

I don't know how it works in the US but in the UK the designer, by default, owns the copyright of the site. So lesson number two is to get the copyright assigned to the domain owner. It's not hard but many people don't think about it.

[Jill]

i don't mind leaving the whois info as long as all the inbound link and page rank is still intact and i will change the contact information in my website to mine.Honestly speaking how many people will whois the domain and email for contact and if it does, the most i will just change the email of the whois information.

Right, but your goal (it seems) is to trick Google so they don't know the domain has changed hands. Therefore, it might be considered spam.

Now, you gotta do what you gotta do since Google has their own way of doing things, but just remember that it is something you're doing to deceive the engines. (I'm not judging you as I might even do the same thing if I were in your situation. I'm just sayin')

[redsuns82]

Right, but your goal (it seems) is to trick Google so they don't know the domain has changed hands. Therefore, it might be considered spam.

Now, you gotta do what you gotta do since Google has their own way of doing things, but just remember that it is something you're doing to deceive the engines. (I'm not judging you as I might even do the same thing if I were in your situation. I'm just sayin')

Thanks Jill and everyone for your advice, really appreciated. HHmmm....so this leads to the legal owning of the domain even i have the access to the registrar to change the whois information?But what i really wanted to do is for example: Purchase a old domain with pr and inbound links (it's is the inbound links and rank in serp that interest me) and redirect it to my primary domain or my website with related information which the old domain was previous build for.Example the old domain serve skin care information or products and now i owned it but i redirect it to my website with almost exact content or related.

Because starting a new domain may take months to be rank and appear in the serp depends on the competition of keywords and inbound link + other factors, thats why I'm thinking alternatives from getting struck in the sandbox and skip the aging process.

[Randy]

In my mind it basically comes down to whether you're in business for the long haul, or quick hit and out.

If you're in it for the long haul you put up with Google's aging delay knowing the site probably isn't going really find it's legs until 18 months out anyway. But you know you're safe on the domain ownership side of things.

On the other hand if it's a quick hit thing that's only going to be there for a few months or a year at most, it might be worth the risk. But if you do make sure you Registrar locks the domain so that others can't transfer it. At the very least I'd want change the registered email address to one you and only you have access to.

[Jill]

Purchase a old domain with pr and inbound links (it's is the inbound links and rank in serp that interest me) and redirect it to my primary domain or my website with related information which the old domain was previous build for.Example the old domain serve skin care information or products and now i owned it but i redirect it to my website with almost exact content or related.

Pretty sure the search engines would consider that spam.

Again, doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but just know that if they somehow found it out, they wouldn't be too thrilled.

There are no shortcuts to real SEO.