Hello all, Relative newbie to this game. Got a few questions, please excuse my lack of knowledge if my questions seem basic! How easy would it be to rank a website with an aged EMD domain? I have came across a few "pending delete" domains of interest which are for sale and hence have some sort of presence already. These keywords are considered "High" competition by AdWords with over 45000 monthly searches. How long would it take to achieve a first page ranking for a website built around that domain? Would there be much more involved than quality articles and backlinking? Would some paid advertising be required to get the ball rolling? Any answers/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately it is not something we can answer without seeing the keyword and the domain. Is it a .com domain pending delete? You have to be extra careful when buying old domains, because they might have been abused by past owners, and this can make it harder for a new owner to rank them. Paid advertising wouldn't really help reach higher search engine rankings. Its all about putting high quality content on the site, and then you will need to make a few "backlinks" (hyperlinks) to your website on other sites (You can do this by submitting to Reddit, Digg, and posting on Twitter and Facebook), and then waiting to see where Google ranks you. But overall, it probably won't help you out a ton. If you can get it cheap, and you are willing to spend a few months working on it, go for it. But don't expect miracles.
Yes the bit about buying a troublesome domain from an old owner is sooo true. I wasted a lot of time and money building amazon sites that someone had abused back in 2011 and 2010, The only people that usually buy random EMDs are marketers and if they got rid of it its probably cause they got penalized from google.
Thanks for the answers, I will be cautious when purchasing any used domains. I haven't purchased the domains as yet. What about using an SEO service provider or freelancer or oDesk to build a profile online?