Expired Domains, and getting traffic/links... Options

[Russell]

I came across a website selling expired domains... what are your thoughts on buying them for the traffic they may still generate?

[Randy]

Welcome Russell !

This subject was discussed briefly a little bit ago in this thread. At that time the discussion hinged on whether PR from the expired domain would remain or not. The general thought is that Google will PR0 these expired domains when ownership changes hands.

Will they still have some links pointing to them that could bring you some traffic? Sure, I guess they would. The question is my mind is if the quality of the traffic would be good enough and relevant enough to your site to do any good on the conversion side of things.

I guess it would depend upon how closely related the expired domain's subject is to what you provide. So you would have to look at it on a case-by-case basis.

[Jill]

Welcome Russell! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

As long as the business of the old site is the same as your current one, then it would probably be helpful to you. If it's a different type of business, then you'd be receiving untargeted traffic, and of course, that wouldn't be any good to you.

Jill

[excel30]

What if you bought an expired doman with say 200- 400 google back links on google and a PR7.

Now Ive seen these been bought up and made to rank for a totally different term as a basic 1 page domain that link through to an affiliate.

Just an observation.

[Russell]

Maybe Google deletes the PR, but would that affect the Alexa rank?

Surely buying a PR6 or 7 for the cost of registration can't be all bad... even if you just link it to affiliate programs that match the former website theme.

[OldWelshGuy]

Hi Russell, welcome (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

The Alexa rank is a meaningless tool. It only counts those using the Alexa toolbar. Sadly, a lot of people are using it as a marketing tool. (possibly as it can be manipulated so easily by visiting your client sites).

The crux of the matter here is if the site is being bought to misuse, or as a bargain. Be fair, you would have to be a dummy to go out and buy a domain then pay the registration, only to pay another yahoo etc submission charge, if you could have bought an expired domain that has already paid, and is in the same field as you.

There might well be 300 incoming links, but NO ONE I know of links to domain names, they link to content. The moment that content changes, you should notify the incoming links of the change.

It is obviously personal choice, but we can hardly call ourselves ethical if we are abusing the trust of the people who linked to the site in good faith.

You also have to realise that if you get caught spamming a human edited directory then you go on the bad boy list, and can forget about getting back into it. You MUST tell the directory about a change that places the site in the wrong cat.

At the end of the day though it is a personal choice, like so much in this game.

OWG

[powerofeyes]

Google has brought out filters last year to detect Expiring/expired domains, They remove all the backlinks and give a PR0 with the domain changes hands,

Check this thread ( http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/10036.htm ) for Googleguy's extensive comment on this issue,

Also check here one guy wants to know the rate of a PR7 domain, Googleguy replies it is not even worth 1/10th of the original domains price,
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/22888.htm

[excel30]

HI,

well the google expired domains filter has some big holes in it.

For one term I searched I saw 2 of these expired domains, how do I know they were expired? cause the domain name didnt match the content, i checked the backlinks and sure enough the orginal site must have been on a totally different subject to what is now portrayed.

I searched a related search term and found yet another of these expired domains, as well as one of the previous in google top 10 for fairly competitive search terms.

not only were they expired they were duplicate.


I say if the domain is unrelated to your business then it needs to be extra big on link pop, PR or whatever so you can use that to help get listings like the above people have done,
better would be a domain in your business field which just gives you a headstart on your internet promting