Buying domains with prior age and or PR

[peigenesis]

Is there any value to buying a domain for its PR or age? Or is it no better than a brand new unregistered domain name?

On the flip side, is there any potential danger of buying domains with PR and age?

[SimonCullum]

Hi Shawn,

Not solely for its PR or age. If you first find a good domain for sale that you'd like to use for a website or blog, then factors such as age, history and current strengths can be taken into account.

If you'd be buying it just to redirect it to another domain, then there will be Zero Pre-existing SEO value if it's dormant (not hosting a site).

Put things like age and PR to one side, think of why you'd like the domain and how you could use it, then bring back factors such as age and history to determine if it's actually a good domain 'for you' and how much you'd be willing to pay based on it's strengths and its value to you.

There are always potential issues to consider when purchasing a domain; check out it's hosting history and who has owned it previously, look out for it being associated with poor quality or poor neighbourhood sites such as porn and evaluate it's own inbound links. Wayback Machine can help as well as registrar history.

There is a useful video for you to view here on SEOmoz, entitled "Age of Site and Old Links - Whiteboard Friday".

Hope that helps, Simon

[RyanKent]

What a fantastic response!

[JamesNorquay]

If you you purchase a domain which has been indexed for 11 years and it has quality links and quality content it will work far better then a brand new domain. I have tested this many many times and it is true to the story as it has trust and age with search engines.

Furthermore watch out on buying domains on the basis of PR it is easy to fake PR, people can get burnt very easily, do a historical PR check from the SEOmoz pr history check, view Moz domain authority and page authority.

As said above Archive.org is a good tool to use, but some sites block it.

[SimonCullum]

Thanks for saying so Ryan, much appreciated

[peigenesis]

Thank you for this answer! Very well said!

[peigenesis]

Thank you for this information. This makes allot of sense. Is there any reason you used the number 11?

Do domains less than 11 years old hold no value no matter what?

[SimonCullum]

You're welcome Shawn, glad to have been able to help