I want to use a domain that has previously been forwarded elsewhere. Any considerations?

[CWBFriedman]

There's a domain name (we will call it A) with no domain authority that is currently forwarded to a domain with 36 DA (we will call this domain B). B has been dormant for about two years. I am getting both domains, but domain A works better for what I will be using it for. So basically, I want to swap things around so B forwards to A, instead of A forwarding to B. Any dangers here or things to consider that I may be overlooking?

[effectdigital]

The main danger will be, which domain holds the majority of your quality backlinks? A link which hits a page directly, usually contributes more to the associated website's SEO authority, than a hyperlink which hits a page through a redirect (even the mighty 301)

Google have at times, stated that 301 redirects do or do not transfer 100% of a page's SEO authority to the destination URL. So which is it!? Do they or don't they!?

What we have found is that the content similarity seems to make a big difference. A 301 redirect can transfer 100% of the SEO equity, or it can transfer as little as 0%. If the content on the page which is sending the redirect was similar to the content on the resultant page (destination URL) then a lot of the authority seems to slide over. If the content is very different then not much does. This includes site-theme similarity (using the same or a similar) logo to some degree, but the impact of those alterations is lower than alterations of the core content

I personally reckon' that Google thematically categorise sites and, that does impact the equity flow of links and redirects. A site which is a dog hotel, could redirect all its pages to a car garage - but guess what? The axiom of relevance along which the SEO authority travels is too tenuous, so one site is thrown away and the gains on the new site are minimal

It's possible that Google sometimes takes things a step further and compares the similarity of the content (included images, text, everything) on their cache of the old page to the content on the new page. This would obviously be done mathematically using something like Boolean string-similarity comparison (or similar)

Some sites even lose a chunk of their SEO authority during redesign-oriented migrations, because the strength of their content similarity is too low. If anything it's best to keep things isolated, move an exact replica of the site to the new domain first - then change the design later. SEO is marketing. Marketing is money. Money comes first

If you are moving one site to another domain, then you are embarking upon a migration project. They can be really complex with many factors to consider. I wish you the best of luck!

[WebMarkets]

Yes, analyze the links pointing to that domain and verify there arent many SPAM links.

Also, a link reclamation campaign will most likely be needed for brand mentions, which can be very time consuming.