Expired domains - 301 advice

[Dextron]

Hi all, just after a bit of advice please

About a month ago I bought an expired domain name with existing inbound links which is related to my main site. I've rebuilt the site content and structure using archive.org and the site has been indexed in google and showing PR 1. I want to 301 this to my main site but not sure when it's best to do this, is it better to leave it longer to settle down and gain authority and build some new links to it first or since its now indexed is it ok to 301 to my main domain?

Cheers

Dextron

 

[topcat]

I would suggest leaving it for a while longer. Make sure that you have confirmed ownership in WMT and that the backlinks are showing before 301 redirecting it. Only 301 redirect if it is relevant, if not you are better off leaving it as a separate entity and then pointing a link to your main site.

 

[Murray]

PR1 hmm..

I would be careful If you don't know what you're doing, you don't want to point a penalised site at your own site.

At best it sounds like the site wont help do anything, unless you're chasing a veryyy easy keyword.

 

[Dextron]

Cheers for the advice guys! I've not set up WMT on it so I'll do that now - I'm pretty sure its not been penalised looks like a nice clean link profile from an old insurance broker - nothing spammy showing in majestic, ahrefs or seomoz.

Would you recommend using the same WMT account as the main site that I intend to redirect to or use a separate one?

Thanks

Dex

 

[topcat]

Cheers for the advice guys! I've not set up WMT on it so I'll do that now - I'm pretty sure its not been penalised looks like a nice clean link profile from an old insurance broker - nothing spammy showing in majestic, ahrefs or seomoz.

Would you recommend using the same WMT account as the main site that I intend to redirect to or use a separate one?

Thanks

Dex

Yes if you are going to 301 redirect. No if you are going to host, write content and then link to your main site.

 

[Murray]

What does opensiteexplorer say about it? inbound links, authority etc.

 

[Dextron]

Thanks guys,

opensite explorer gives domain authority of 19, page authority of 33, but only 26 links and 9 root domains whereas majestic shows 48 referring domains, 79 backlinks with citation flow of 26 and trust flow of 30.

Not great figures but hopefully worth using as a solid basis for my main site. The reason I've chosen it is the fact that it was an established insurance site with relevant insurance links on related sites that my main site is targetting.

The main site itself is only a month old but built on an expired domain again related to the product (but originally nothing to do with insurance) and with PR of 4.


I'm pretty new to this expired domain technique but it seems worth a try!

Dex

 

[martin-s]

I'm not sure I believe in all this "site back up and indexed first, then 301 later" stuff. Has anyone done any proper testing on that approach vs an immediate 301?

 

[Dextron]

I'd be interested to know that martin too, I'm pretty impatient and its killing me waiting around but I don't want to rush in and balls the main site up which seems to be doing really nicely in google at the moment!

 

[Blossom]

You won't balls the main site up.

You don't need to list it in GWT.

If your main site is a 4, 301'ing a 1 to it is not really going to make much of an impact...but every little helps.

 

[Dextron]

cheers blossom, the main site is currently on page 4 for the insurance term I'm targetting (with no insurance related anchor texts) and this site is on page 6 for the same term so hopefully it'll help a bit!

 

[MOGmartin]

You're better off 301'ing the URL's on the expired site to similar relevant pages on yours, THEN contacting the webmasters of the sites linking to the old one and asking them to update their links to avoid the redirect.

Dont expect much, but every little helps.

 

[Dextron]

thanks for the input martin its much appreciated and like you say - every little helps!

 

[Murray]

thanks for the input martin its much appreciated and like you say - every little helps!

It wont, I think you will find it will be fruitless.

In the next few months if you manage to get a few nice expired domains with links, you will think to yourself "wow why did I bother with that first one"

But It's all a learning experience.

 

[topcat]

You're better off 301'ing the URL's on the expired site to similar relevant pages on yours, THEN contacting the webmasters of the sites linking to the old one and asking them to update their links to avoid the redirect.

Dont expect much, but every little helps.

This is what I think is the best thing to do too.

 

[Dextron]

Thanks again for the info chaps!

Murray - when you say 'In the next few months if you manage to get a few nice expired domains with links' do you have any suggestions where I can look to get any (obviously without giving any trade secrets away!)

I've tried droplists, auctions and scrapebox with xenu - are these the best methods and I just need to try harder?

Cheers

Dex

 

[topcat]

The best will be in high demand and will go for auction. You could find those that are about to drop to see whether you could get it without the site going to auction.

You can use a monitoring tool like http://www.domaintools.com/monitor/ to monitor those domains that you want.

Use these services: NameJet, Pool, SnapNames and Godaddy Auctions (use a site like http://prdrop.info/index.php to find them on there) to buy them

There are other catchers I think but those are the best.

One way is to use dropday.com to find domains with PR.

Then check if the PR is real.
http://www.rankchecker.com/pagerank-checker/

Check if it has ever been dropped.
http://whois.domaintools.com/

Check if it has been deindexed/penalised by searching Google using these operators:
site: and info:
search for domainname.tld to see what other sites have been saying about it.

Check backlinks to see if it has been spammed/whether PR is likely to drop/what types of links
http://MajesticSEO.com

Check way back machine to see what the site has been used for previously
http://archive.org/web/web.php

That's the basic due diligence you need to do for any domain.

Once you've got it:

Every site in one niche should have its own hosting (shared hosting is very cheap, just a few quid a month).

Use whois protection.

Find the site structure from Wayback machine and attempt to reconstruct it as best as possible. Use similar content to ensure relevancy.

Make sure you've got contact/privacy pages set up.

Finally, links ahoy!

 

[Dextron]

Hey tomcat thanks for taking the time to write such a helpful post - rep added!