Hi all, I recently became aware of a name that suits one of the sites I had for couple years better than the original name . The dropped name also has some links to it, including those from nice directories people pay money to get into (no DMOZ though, which sucks). I would really like to switch the names yet, obviouisly, it would not be nice to let old links and ranks disappear and get not more than just a nicer name in return. What do you guys think I should do with the dropped name I've just registered: Make it resolve to the same IP. This would make the old name and new look like two different but identical sites - duplicate issues? 302 the new (re-registered dropped) to the old ('cause the registrar only does 302) - what will happen to the links to the new name? 301 the new to the old by creating a whole web account and just put a .httaccess file in there with 301 redirect. Is this any better option? What about the IP it should resolve to? Can it be the same IP that the old original site is on (as in virtual name hosting)? Anyways, trying to wrap my head around creative ways things can be done to improve the name AND maybe get some benefit from the links to the dropped domain. By the way, the new domain was dropped back in 2006. Is there still ANY benefit from the links to it now? Any suggestion or comment or maybe a success story will be greatly appreciated!
If you put up a website soon after the domain drops, it is better. Just put up a website as soon as you can.
Well, that's just my thing: I already have a site that I would want to put on the new name ASAP (like, tomorrow ). However, the old name also has some links to it and PR2, even though the name itself looks rather ridiculous to me couple years after I registered it (what was I thinking back then? ). And no, unfortunately, the "new" name has been dropped at least a year ago. In itself it does not have a PR already, but I would hope it can quickly get it back (unless banned or something) because the links that are still alive are on some rather decent PR pages on authority sites. So, I'm looking for a most reasonable way to get the best of both names - new and old - including links and maybe even PR.
In my own experience no matter how much effort put on keep pagerank or backlinks, dropped domains will suffer a pagerank adjustment shortly after they expire. You can make work hard to get back its old status, but the impact will hit you somehow in the starting.
Well, I guess I am willing to take the risk if the value of the links to the dropped domain will restore in the future. Or will it? That's a big question for me. It would be silly to loose the PR of the old name and get back to developing the site from scratch if I'm only gaining a nicer name. What's your experience has been with the links to a re-used dropped name. Do they survive the change or they disappear in Google's link: operator?