Before purchasing an old domain what should I consider?

[edward-may]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to purchase a fairly old domain name in my industry, its 11 years old and expires in 11 months.  I checked the DA through Moz and its 12, my current site that launched 3 months ago is 10.  So I'm wondering why their is only 12 and have been around for some time now

Any ideas?

Cheers

[ofw12387]

You should definetly check:

• Link profile: Be sure that they doesn´t have spammy links

• Use archive.org and check what the older owner did. Avoid if the old owner did spam

• Use mxtoolbox.com to check if the domain is in any blacklist

With that you should be OK

Br

[edward-may]

Thanks Br, what benefits are their over purchasing an older domain name as to purchasing a brand new one?

[ofw12387]

Well, depends, if it´s a GOOD domain there are some very interesting benefits against a new domain:

• Domain age is still a positive SEO factor:-)

• Domain authority, will also help you to rank

• If the domain has domain authority, it probably has some inbound links ( as i said, its important to check if they are good ).

• This practice is may not be so ethical, but it´s possible that looking into the domain past with archive.org, you may find interesting content to use that is not longer indexed in google results.

You also can use an older domain to do a redirect 301 to your new domain and take part of the old domain authority, but as always, just do it when the old domain is completly clean and the topics match!