Expired Domain Redirect

Best practice for an expired domain

[bluntforce]

I bought an expired domain today that was previously based on "widgets for sale in a U.S. state". There are some existing links and there's bound to be some nominal traffic while those links decay.

My first reaction is to set that domain up with a 301 redirect to an existing "widgets for sale in a U.S. state" page I have on a long established site.

The registrar offers a forwarding service but I have no practical knowledge or experience with forwarding, I've read some registrars use a 302 which wouldn't be my first choice.

So, considering I'm trying to keep the "theme" inline with past use, should I 301, use forwarding, or set up a topical mini-site perhaps with some links to the established site?

Thoughts appreciated.

[caran1]

A topical mini site may be better, you will get more traffic in the long term.

[Webwork]

Decay or growth. You choose.

If there are IBLs worth a damn (authority, filtered traffic sending, etc.) then you should revive and improve what was previously there, using your own content (to avoid copyright issues), but maintaining the value of the IBLs by using the same url structure/architecture -> making certain the IBLs continue to link to relevant (to the IBL) content . . . only better/improved content . . .

If the IBLs are junk then perhaps decay is the better path, if all you want is some junk traffic . . that will decay . .

[g1smd]

Many of the "linking factors" may well have been reset with the change of ownership, and certainly will be if the domain merely redirects elsewhere rather than holding content.

[bluntforce]

This domain isn't anything I'd want to write home about, but it was cheap, has some links and was relevant to existing material I have. The niche has been significantly impacted by the recession, so there are continual drops similar to this, the "prime" ones get cherry picked and parked. I don't care about PR or significant traffic flow, I'm looking more at theme.

Typical profile is some general directory links, a slightly greater number of niche directory links and a good number of themed reciprocal links. All the links I've seen go to the main page, many linking sites aren't maintaining so the recips have been holding.

The general consensus seems to be build out some content, allow any juice remnants to start flowing and maybe put a couple in-content links to my preferred target. Sort of like parking on steroids.

I imagine this could be done more than once since each purchased domain would link to a different target page on my preferred site. At what point does it start looking like a link scheme? Or is this
where a person defines the limits of their own FUD?

[Webwork]

The smartest people I know, especially the ones with questions akin to "Will G penalize this?", run tests . . lots and lots of tests. Then, when they find a sweet spot, the abuse the heck out of it until G lowers the hammer.

And they never tell anyone what is working for them since the costs of running lots of tests, with many "fails", are considerable.

[bluntforce]

I'm in the process of parking the site in question. A bit of exploration and reflection on the comments provided here made me think I was possibly trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Expired domains exist with individual profiles, so I'm now thinking the re-use should be determined by the profile, not making it fit a given plan.

I've never parked a site before, so I have no idea what the result should be, I'm calling it a test.