Anyone else noticing that their expired domains have lost PR?
-
A while back I experimented with buying some expired domains that had some PR. I built a small website on each and created content with anchor text that linked back to my main site.
For one of my sites I noticed a significant drop in rankings this week. At first I thought it was because of the latest Panda update. But, the drop was slow, not sudden like most Panda hits have been.
Then, I noticed that some of my previously purchased domains that had held their PR for quite a while are now PR N/A. I'm guessing that the latest algorithm change caught on to what I was doing.
Probably what I was doing was grey hat. I honestly think that every SEO goes through a period where they try out some grey or even black tactics. This makes me even more desiring to be completely White hat now....and build links that are going to last.
I was just wondering if any of you guys have experienced anything like this this week? Would love to hear your thoughts.
EDIT: A second question - What would you guys do with these domains? They're still in the Google index so they're not penalized, likely just stripped of PR. Would you scrap them completely? Remove the links back to my sites? Do nothing?
-
There's also a problem that's happened in the last couple of days for third-party reporting of toolbar pagerank that might be affecting what you're seeing. Check out the post at http://mz.cm/rjPAwc.
-
Marie, feel free to send me an email if you want to bounce any ideas off of me about YouMoz, I'm currently the primary person reviewing submissions and can give you some pointers about what tends to do well on the blog. keri at seomoz dot org.
-
I've noticed that my two domains that have lost PR had links in a blogroll in the sidebar. I have some expired domains that are still working for me. These simply had links in context.
Perhaps the newest Panda Update looks for sites with PR that have recently changed hands that have blogroll links?
-
Thanks Ryan. Your video reminded me of this animated gif that Rand tweeted the other day. (See image below):
-
Thank you for a thoughtful reply. I'm thinking of creating a YouMoz post about my struggles of learning to rank with only White Hat Tactics. You're right, it's crummy to look at your competitors and see that they rank with ridiculous directory links.
-
** This makes me even more desiring to be completely White hat now....and build links that are going to last.**
Thumbs up for both the question and the sentiment.
Google is far from perfect, but given the size of their work and the determination of webmasters, programmers, SEOs and everyone with an iPad to usurp their process, I applaud them for continuing to take steps to improve results.
To address your question and Robert's concern:** Anyone else noticing that their expired domains have lost PR?**
I would put my logic hat on and think the right thing for Google to impact (i.e. reset PR) would be expired domains which changed owners AND content. That's what I would do if I worked for Google. It explains the results you and Robert shared.
Otherwise I wholeheartedly echo Robert's sentiments. Panda 2.5 hit last week. The only thing I feel bad about is those poor people at Panda's international who depend on people's donation to save this species which is almost extinct (around 1000 left in the world). You are trying to save a species on the bring of extinction and the world's largest marketing company names their spam and manipulation killing algorithm change after the species you are trying to save....big ouch!
-
I found your post interesting, but I have had a different experience this week in that several sites that we have been nurturing moved up a significant amount page 4 to page 2, several moved up over a dozen positions. Hope that means we have been doing a good job and not that Google knocked some others around.
I was pondering your very issue re older domains and expiring domains over the last couple of days. I have not seen an expiring domain lose ranking before. (Hopefully, we never will as that is the last thing I need. A registrar with one more reason to send me another expiration notice - you ignored our last 300 emails that started two years before your domain expired.....do you really want to lose DA???? Contact us NOW!)
But, the question regarding what to do with a domain that is "unused" is interesting. We typically buy most extensions for any TLD and those are built around several keyword groups as we begin to develop a campaign. So, assuming we are building a group of sites around a new dental paint that never has to be whitened...... Dental-paint.com, .net, .org, .info, etc. along with Never-whiten-with-dental-paint.org, .com, .net, .info, etc.
From these, our clients will typically use 3 or 4 so there are a group that are left. Maybe, never used before. I will sometimes let an intern build a site as a project for their degree, etc. Rarely do they end up with any real DA.
As to the white/grey/black hat issues, for me it always seems to be around expediency. Personally, I have always wanted what I want, when I want it and I always want it now or yesterday!!! So, I can either opt for the expedient and hope my client doesn't pay the price or endeavor to take the high road. My personal opinion is that one person saying something is wrong does not make it so. So, I try to measure my actions against how I feel when I see others doing something similar.
I hate it when I see so many sites with links, for example for urologists that com from caps-or us, honkytonkyjonky, expotexto, monkeymania, etc. I read about Google penalizing people but then see that the vast majority of links used on professional practice sites are so bogus that ....well they are.
What's an SEO marketer to do. For me, I just don't have time to deal with the junk directories and I have learned that some of them will get to me anyway. I watch as big directories of national companies take money from their clients then put nofollow links to the sites. (Can't wait until there is some sort of exclusion for a site that is simply a lawyer, doctor, dentist, carpenter, etc. directory - when I want a dentist for an implant I do not want to be served up Yahoo.local.dentist from some other place or specialty. )
So, I am submitting to the better directories then pushing clients to go to vendors, etc. for links and we do all that we can to blog, PR Web, etc.
Personally, there is satisfaction at the end of the day in knowing we "Out-optimized the other guy and we did it on the up and up with quality site metrics, quality links, thought out keyword and link strategies, and a commitment to look at it every day in order to keep the client on top or moving toward the top."
And one last thing. We stayed on top of our game because we are connected to such a great group of marketing pros through SEOmoz. Sorry for the sentimentality, but I never cease to be amazed at the willingness to help one another get better and better and better.
Thanks for a thought provoking question,
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
To buy or not to buy? Domains with history..
I am involved in setting up a new business which as of yet is to decide on a brand name.. As the availability of domain name in local tld (and ideally .com) is of so much importance, the brand naming process is inextricably linked to this. Therefore, upon finding a suggested name was available to register (without premium) there was a degree of satisfaction. However on looking at archive.org it was discovered that the .co.uk had been a sex/marital aid store back in 2004 and more recently in 2014 a travel blog / affiliate. Q is; Is the past history of what is a site with possible black hat links a reason to avoid registration? Or, does time cure all? And, is there a way in which domain health can be reliably confirmed? Thanks in advance for your input..
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | seanmccauley0 -
301 redirects for 3 top level domains using WP SEO Yoast
Hey Guys I have a custom built website - and a wp blog attached to this - problem is there are 3 top level domains: zenory.co.nz, zenory.com and zenory.com.au **The issue is when I enter the domain to 301 redirect I only have to enter one domain usually i enter redirect from zenory.com/blog/oldpage to zenory.com.newpage ** For eg: I have just move Phone Psychic Readings from the blog - over to the main site. However there seems to be an issue that I'm still having and trying to clean up. I'm finding backlinks there are linking to each other of my 3 domains that end up backlinking across domains, which I was told this can look as spammy to google. For eg: co.nz links many pages to com.au. I'm currently trying to clean this up at the moment - however while im in the process of this - I find myself question when I'm creating the 301 redirects from the blog - but lets say I'm on the blog for zenoy.co.nz/blog/oldblogpost and when I click on a blog post - it redirects me to zenory.com/newarticlepost - because I have redirected it to .com - how can I redirect and make sure is going back to the right domain name to save myself from having to show this cross backlinks? Would gratefully appreciate any assistance on this tricky situation. Cheers Just
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | edward-may0 -
Acquire domains to boost yours, how to redirect an acquired domain
What is the best way to redirect for best SEO benefits? Examples: glaspunt.nl -> glas.nl fietstassen.eu -> loodgieter.nl Any technical information how to (root) redirect for best SEO practices?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | remkoallertz0 -
Help needed i have lost huge rankings
help needed guys, i run a website http://www.happyhop.co.za they sell jumping castles, and thats it, i have worked on this site for the last 3 years and its been preforming very well, after the 2.0 penguin update I lost huge rankings was 1 in google for jumping castles now on page 10... I went onto webmaster tools reviewed Manual Actions got this (No manual webspam actions found.) then reviewed my links, ran them through http://www.penguinanalysis.com and my score came back at 125% which is high, but then ran a competitor who is ranking number 1 and they are at 145%... i have now disavowed a few bad links, and have removed alt tags on my blog http://www.happyhop.co.za/News-and-Articles .... the articles I write are not bloggy and are informative. I then sent Google a manual reconsideration request, but havent heard back from them? Still nothing has changed and its been over 3 weeks. Can anyone help me.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | nick_pageone0 -
Will cleaning up old pr articles help serps?
For a few years we published articles with anchor text backlinks to about 10 different article submission sites. Each article was modified to create similar different articles. We have about 50 completely unique articles. This worked really well for our serps until google panda & penguin updates. I am looking for advice on whether I should have a major clean up of the published articles and if so should I be deleting them, removing or renaming anchor text backlinks? Any advice on what strategy would work best would be appreciated as I don't want to start deleting backlinks and making it worse. We used to enjoy position 1 but are now at 12-15 so have least most of our traffic.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | devoted2vintage0 -
Adding Domain Names
Hi all, I am pretty new to SEO but i wanted to check out an idea with you guys, I have a business that is called Totaldriveways and the URL is www.totaldrivewaysne.co.uk Although Driveways is a big part of what we do, we are also heavily involved in other services to do with landscaping. The idea ive got is to brand each service with the "Total" for eample Total Driveways is a reconisgened name in my area and i would like to expand that into Total Patios Total Artificial Grass Total Driveway cleaning so each page and service come under a similar brand, my question is is it worth buying these domains also and directing them at the specific pages that they are relevant to, these domains are obviously keyword rich and am guessing will create extra traffic, but will i be penalised at all by google etc. I know this is probably simple stuff to alot of you's but i have no idea Thanks John
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | totaldriveways0 -
"Unnatural Linking" Warning/Penalty - Anyone's company help with overcoming this?
I have a few sites where I didn't manage the quality of my vendors and now am staring at some GWT warnings for unnatural linking. I'm assuming a penalty is coming down the pipe and unfortunately these aren't my sites so looking to get on the ball with unwinding anything we can as soon as possible. Does anyone's company have experience or could pass along a reference to another company who successfully dealt with these issues? A few items coming to mind include solid and speedy processes to removing offending links, and properly dealing with the resubmission request?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | b2bmarketer0 -
Purchased an expiring domain, Now the pagerank has gone.
A few days ago I had asked a question regarding purchasing an expiring domain to redirect to a new related site. The post can be found here >>> http://www.seomoz.org/q/purchasing-an-expiring-domain-with-quality-related-links The domain has some great links with several being from PR5 pages on nih.gov aswell as several keyword rich domains. This made my day and I ended up paying $309 for it. So today I have the domain with the registrar network solutions who I believe are owned by Google, not sure if that is the truth or not as I can't find any info on that. now my domain is no longer indexed in Google and the toolbar's pagerank has dropped from a 4 to a 0. It was not my choice to use network solutions but namejet only use them or ENOM. I have now installed a wordpress site on the domain to see if any pagerank exist, if it does then the site will shortly be indexed in Google without me building any links to it. Just 2 days ago the site was in Google, had the correct info:domainname.com command and now the info: command shows nothing. the site is either banned or all of the actual pagerank has been removed by Google. I am a little bit dissapointed in this even though it was initially an experiment to see if I could purchase good links through expiring domains. The thing is I am seeing people purchase domains with good links in excess of $3000. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | umtmedia0