Exercising Caution When Purchasing Links

When buying links it's up to the buyer to be sure they're getting what they pay for. More and more link sales here at DP are not what they appear to be or as advertised.

I see members buying expired or dropped domains with existing PR, upload a directory, wait for the cache to regenerate and then advertise links for sale on a PRx directory, blog, whatever.

What these members fail to disclose its that the blog, directory, etc. is on an expired/dropped/purchased domain with existing foolbar PageRank or the PR is the result of a previous temporary redirect.

I seriously doubt that they have any intent to properly promote the domain in a manner that will maintain the existing PR and provide any ROI. I see no attempt to further promote these domains, so it's wise to exercise caution.

What can you do?

* Check the cached version of the page. If the PR is the result of a previous redirect, the cache will likely not match. Use a PR verification tool if you're not comfortable with the cached version of the page or if it appears that there are insufficient links to support the displayed PageRank.

* Check the Whois. I like using whois.domaintools.com as under the Registrar History they list the Whois History and you can easily see the how far back the records go. Many times the creation date is recent, yet there are records from a number of years ago. Red flag.

whois.domaintools.com also displays a thumbnail image which may not be updated and you can see what the site looked like previously, even if the link seller waits for Google to update their cached version.

* You can also check Archive.org and see if there is any history there.

* Look at the domain name for the "directory" or "blog" - many times it's totally unrelated and enough of an indication that you should look a bit closer before purchasing a link.

* Check your favorite search engine for the domain name and the phrase "for sale" or do a site:domain.com search and see what pages are still indexed that don't match the current site.

Don't get blinded by the cheap prices for the PR or you may find yourself disappointed when the PR drops after the next foolbar update.

 

As in whois.domaintools.com to check the history of the domain?

 

Thanks for the heads up CReed. This is so true of many link sales on the DP forum and it's really important for people to do some due diligence before purchasing any links.

 

Yes.

Domain Tools offers some history info that could be helpful. If the domain name has a recent registration date but shows a history of 4 years, you know that you should look a bit closer.

 

CReed very good post.
But problem starts when a person need lot of links quick and have to give time to other things also. So most of the member trust and check credibility thru iTrader rating.

 

iTrader can be misleading.

It's not uncommon for unsuspectng buyers to submit positive iTrader when they are unaware of the quality of the cheap links they bought - all they cared about was the foolbar PageRank and the quick placement of the link.

 

Interesting post

 

Lot of common sense there!
Yes, be darn careful of link sellers who right off the bat tell you the pr of the directory then in the next breath tell you it is a new directory.

See the age of the directory, ask the seller for proof of age.
Good indication it may be a new or fairly new directory?
Number of links in the directory, or if it is using a default template.

 

Good one Creed

 

good thinking

 

Good all round advice - and good comments on "foolbar" values.

 

another one to look out for is sites where the homepage has PR but no other sub pages. this can be due to an expired domain being purchased of which the 'homepage'/root will have PR so appears to be an established site.

One of the reasons i steer clear of one page PR7 sites..you know who you are...

 

Good information to DP webmasters.
Thanks

 

A good post over all however, it is possible to retain the PR from expired domains with persistent link building. It's an added advantage IMO, as expired domains already have good backlinks pointing to them which is what gave them their pr in the first place. It depends on the intentions of the person however Whether they are out to make a quick buck, or actually promote the domain & retain and or increase the PR.

 

Great post CReed! If I may add one tiny advice:
When you are suspicious about the PR you can also check PR across different data centers (you can search google for free web apps that do that). It's still a bit better then relying only on your foolbar and you might spot a banned site. Do it more often when you know the PR update is near. (I also have to note that yesterday I've noticed a site which shows PR0 on most data centers and PR8 on a couple of them. I was surprised).

 

Good post CReed.
I'm adding now whois.domaintools.com to my list of steps to check before a purchase.
One thing I'm currently checking, is the link list pointing to that site sorted by PR using this tool: http://www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/domain-popularity.html
You can check if those links are from related or unrelated sites, ...

 

Nice to see more and more people are looking a bit closer at the offerings to see which ones are legit. Hopefully, fewer members will end up on the bad side of a link sale .

 

I think this is important information so I will post to allow more people to see it. That put back on top for new member of DP.

 

Nice post, I have noticed many cloud word type sites with wierd url's stating pr4-5 and they seem to be selling links like crazy on this site. But when you google it the only backlinks are whoi.is and expired domain site lists.
Beware...

 

You mean urls like this one? Enough of a red flag for me.