getting our old domains back?

[disgust]

we've moved our site three times- first it was .com, then .net, and now .org.

our current url has 284 links on alltheweb/yahoo, 298 on altavista, 182 on msn.

we had backlinks coming in from when we were on our old (.net and .com) domains.

the combined old domains would have ~100 on alltheweb, 0 on altavista (odd?), 135 on msn.

I was wondering if it'd be wortwhile to try to get our old domains back and then put up 301 redirects to the current url.

I'm also wondering what exactly would be involved in it, I know it can be done if it's a trademark... but what exactly is involved in getting one? we're not a commercial site, so we never needed one. did you need to have one BEFORE they registered the domain? does us having the domain previously help our case at all?

how much money would it cost to get it back, how much trouble would it be, and would it even be possible? if it is, would it be worth it?

we lost one of the domains to a shady SE company (searching.net) that snagged up the domain when it expired. we lost the second domain to our old host (they bought it for us, then we left them).

[digitalpoint]

Contact the new owners and ask what they want for it. You probably don't have any legal right to it, so it would really come down to hoe much they would be willing to sell it for.

[Smyrl]

Only one of my clients owns www.theirsite.com and www.theirsite.net names.

Do most of you encourage your clients to purchase multiple domains to keep down the competition?

Thanks for your advice.

Shannon

[t2dman]

Once you have a domain name/branding etc, the real value of a domain name is the SEO and links attached to it. Having a domain name with the keyword in it, while good, is not essential from an seo perspective. The only other advantage, is for people typing in the alternative, and many people are putting domain names (excluding .com/.net etc) into Google rather than the address bar. If you have optimised correctly, Google will therefore in most cases will be showing your main domain name.

If you have multiple domain names, just make sure that you use a 301 permanent redirect to the main one you decide to use. Otherwise Google will see the duplicate, and often only show one url. It also means that you are splitting the PR between them - some people will link to one, others to the alternate domain name.

I use a multiple domain name to cope with misspellings - Time2Dine / TimetoDine, with the second redirecting to the first.

[misohoni]

Try http://www.deleteddomains.com/

[solomonpeace]

Hello,

If the domain name is incorporated, I think that's the easiest way to get your domain back. But you still need to talk to a lawyer first about it.

Solomonpeace
wulux.com