If i purchase a domain thats 8 years old with a good keyword in the URL will i have a greater change of ranking higher once SEO is in place? Also, if the URL has only 50 inbound links over an 8 year period and all of a sudden masses of links come flying in... Do you think google will still count the age as a positive?
yes it will ease your seo work if you purchase 8 years old domain with the keyword As far as massive number of inbound links are concerned it should be related and again quality is the key. I think if this two things are taken care off than google will definitely count the age positive