Buying PR domains
 

Say I buy a domain that has a PR 3 but I'm just buying the domain - when I put up a new site will the PR go back to shit or will it maintain (provided the new pages are optimized well)?

anyone do this before?

Is the content going to be the same?

Same category of content perhaps, but not exactly the same - I was basically thinking of buying sites with good pr and then putting up my own (related but different) site.

Well, since the PR is gained from back links, you will want the content to pretty well match the anchor text from those backlinks. Then it should be okay.

Probably won't increase for a while since it is new content, but should not drop.

Thanks for the tip

the pr should stay the same as long as the backlinks stay

even if they are not relevant?

yeah the PR should stay the same...but it doesnt guarantee google will show you love

wrong again grasshopper

you need to keep adding more baclink... I believe google is increasing the treshold as too many websites now trade links to increase their PR

PR is not based on Back-links alone. And the rest you said is wrong as well.

If you buy a domain and slap a new site on it, your site will be evaluated depending how fast the Bots have indexed the whole site again. So one the key thing to do when you do a stunt like this, is to have a site map up and running.

Many times the bots just visit you for a few pages. IF those pages dont exists, it will be seen as a 404 error and be penalized in the next SE updates. So make sure you have a redirect that takes the user to the Sitemap instead of the 404 page or front-page - that way you will limit your loss of total amount of pages indexed on that domain.

The content don't really matter that much, as long as you have at least the same about of content you should not see any big changes, unless its not accessible for the bots.

Changing host or IP will not affect the PR or position either

backlinks are important but domain age is important too... I saw sites from '97 - '99 with PR5 and they had less then 5 backlinks

It is a shame that google uses domain age as a criteria. New rapidly updated, edited, and modified domains should be more relevant than a site that is just getting bonus pr due to the fact that the domain was bought a long time ago.

Yeh thats very true, by the way how often does google PR update? I heard its live and only what is shown on toolbars and pr checkers etc is updated over time. Anyone know?

General answer is that the Google index(what desides your placement) is updated live, and the PR is on a timer.

There are some exceptions to the rule, but not anything big

Aha, because I've had sites get PR in under 2 months and some that haven't in 4 months (with pretty much the same ammount of backlinks etc)

Just thought I'd add that if you have to redirect pages, make sure you do a 301 redirect & not a meta refresh...I'd recommend doing it through .htaccess. Here's a link if you don't know what I mean.

Also, if the content remains similar (same niche) and the backlinks remain in place, you shouldn't have a problem with losing placement, imo. If anything, you may experience a temporary drop as the site is revised & reindexed by the bots...but nothing permanent, even if you do change it up quite a bit.

I've never bought domains with established PR, but I have completely reconstructed pages without loss of placement in the SERPs. All in all, I'd only do it if I were targeting (quite) similar terms or phrases.

Good luck.

good thread, I also didnt know what happened when you buy PR domains...

What's a good & free tool for building sitemaps? For sites over 500 pages..

I use XML but that means you have to add a bit of code to every page you have, wich can take time.

xml-sitemaps (dot) com .. im to new to be allowed to link yet

Thanks, this is a very helpful tip:thumbsup

i notice alot of domains (mostly mainstream) that hit the droplists with pr5 - pr6 rankings. now say you were to buy one of these domains, how hard would it be to maintain that pr? how quickly would google recognize nd penalize you for changing content type of the page? and exactly how does domain age affect pr?

You probably wouldn't think it is possible to get a pr6 on a page with an image only too.

Why do you say that?

Based on previous posts of yours regarding anything SEO. So you do think it's possible?

Anything is possible.

likely is another story :)

So you don't think it's likely then?

I don't think it is the norm.

Why not?

ummm, because the average webmaster can't get above a PR3.

Forget the average webmaster. I am asking you. Taking what you know of how google works can you tell me if it's possible. If you do think it's possible, how? if you don't... why?

It's a hobby of mine to dispel google myths and SEO myths in general. I'm interested in what you think on this as it appears from your posts that you think you know a lot about SEO and search engines.

Maybe using multi quotes from this thread you'll see what I am getting at?

I'll give you a hint... madawgs isn't wrong. Grasshopper.

There are exceptions to the rule, and to be honest, I don't have to prove jack to you.

Don't you have a bunch of people to mislead?

I disagree. If your content is not consistent with the anchor text leading to it, it is not going to have the same value.

Ergo, your pr will decrease if the content on the new site is not at least in the same ballpark.

Mislead? About what? This should be good :)

My point of opening up this dialog with you was to show you don't know what you are talking about as your replies in this thread demonstrate.

Yes, the guy who gets pages with just IMAGES on them to PR6 is CLEARLY the one who is misleading people about his SEO skills.

:1orglaugh