If I buy second hand domain names do I keep the PR?

Hi

If I buy a domain name that has a site with a PR3 and I move it to my server & change the site, same subject just different content, will I still get the PR3 strength or will that go & I have to start with the link building from scratch?

Are there any issues I need to be aware of?

Thanks for your help.

 

that really depend on whether its a dropped domain or just a domain transfer. if it is a dropped domain, then you might lose the PR over time. but if its a transfer, then the PR should be there if you still have same kind of site. your PR is calculated based on backlinks. so if you have a site related to same niche, then people who are linking to you now might keep the backlinks and you will not lose the PR. but if the previous owner had purchased any links to boost PR, then you ned to build your backlinks to maintain or increase the PR

 

the last i checked, if the domain is dropped, then google deletes all of its entries.

 

How did you check this? I have bought hundreds of dropped pagerank domains and the PR has never been reset.

For the original question, if Google changed ownership do you think it would drop to PR0? No of course not,ownership does not effect PR.

 

I have not confirmed this but it seems parked domains quickly lose rank with google. Almost like they heavily penalize parked domains, so I dont currently park anything I buy.

 

Look at the site with this tool:

http://www.online-utility.org/webmaster/backlink_host_ip_analyzer.jsp

if you keep all those backlinks then it should stay the same.

Google can't do anything about the backlinks linking to you - only if you change the niche of the site to something different to the keyword anchor text in the backlinks. plus if the site is dropped or parked like is said above.

 

I bought a second hand domain (not dropped) PR got reset to 0 a few days go.

I registered a dropped domain PR4 - PR got Reset to 0 a few days ago as well.

 

so is there any down side to buying domains that are in use, if not why would anyone buy new domains and not just take over existing ones?

 

You just need to buy better domains, if the backlinks are there to support the Pagerank it will stay.. It can even rise, i even regged a dropped PR4 because i liked the name and it was pointed to a blank page and the next update it went PR5.

 

can you recomend a couple of places to buy second hand domains.

Thanks

 

you can buy them here in the domains section.

or sedo.com is quite popular.

 

Once drop all gone. My answer is no. However it may take the next PR update to clear your PR cache. This is why some rogue seller make use of dropped domain PR to sell text links. After purchasing, buyer will experience a drop in the PR of the page in which his/her links are resided.

 

In my experience if the domain is dropped you domain will keep the pr as long as the theme/niche stays the same and the domain doesn't loose its backlinks.

 

As long as you don't loose the backlinks your pr should stay the same

 

It will depend on your optimization... it could be boost nor worse. Because the robot will definitely see it the changes you've made that's why it will depend on your work.

 

I definitely agree with bogart. PR mostly rely on backlinks and niche of the site IMO. So if it didn't have any changes at all, then your PR won't be dropped.

 

Sorry mate, thats just plain wrong.

Google will drop any links from the index if a domain is dropped, WHEN IT UPDATES / RE-SPIDERS the pages with the links on.

Therefore if a domain has 5 links from high PR sites and is dropped for a month, it will almost certainly lose them, however if it has 100,000 backlinks from PR0 pages, it will almost certainly keep 95% of them, as the lower valued pages are less likely to be spidered in that time.

 

No sorry that's plain wrong, Google will still count the links.

 

I googled it, because I was in the process of purchasing expired domains. I think I may have actually found info on google's webmaster section, too.

This was at least a year ago. Maybe google has changed their policy, or maybe you purchased those domains before google implemented that policy.

 

Well the information isn't true, never has been since the first ever public Pagerank export. If a domain with Pagerank expires, it will still display the same pagerank when you re-register it.

If the domain remains expired during a Pagerank update, it will loose it's PR just like a registered domain would that's just pointing to a page not found. If this is the case and you do re-register it, the backlinks will count if they still exist and contribute towards your new Pagerank value next update provided the domain has a page on it.

Simple as that, i've got domains only 6 months old and PR5 and the only backlinks it has was PR5/6 links from 2003.