Past google rankings?

past google rankings and pr

[limitup]

I'm looking at purchasing a site and was curious if there is a way to see how a site's ranking for a particular term or phrase now compares to the ranking in the past. And same thing for PR. The site I'm looking at is currently listed #1 for its primary keyword and has a PR of 6 ... I'm trying to figure out if this is something they've been able to do over time, or if they just recently spammed their way to #1 right before they listed the site for sale, etc. Any ideas?

[takagi]

I think it is not possible to find out old information about PR or ranking for a keyword. Unless somebody (e.g. a competitor) has tracked this information for some time.

[heini]

You should look hard at things like:
- backlinks (use ATW)
- duplication issues
- dodgy redirects
- doorway pages
- hidden stuff
In order of importance.

If the site has solid backlinks, preferably unpaid and not time limited, and shows no traces of linkfarming, FFA, extensive crosslinking in closed circle scenarios than the most important point is probably covered.

[limitup]

Thanks for the replies. The odd thing is that according to Google toolbar there are only a few backlinks, and only one of them is actually from another site (but this one is a PR7). But all the main pages of the site are PR6 and it is listed #1 for its main keyword on Google. The Alexa ranking is around 30,000 which is also decent. I don't see any evidence of "spam" tactics going on with the site at all ... it all seems legit and it IS a very relevant site. Is it possible that a site would be PR6 if there is only 1 other site linking to it, just by way of the high quality and relevant content of the site itself?

[takagi]

Google doesn't show links from pages with a low PR4 or below. It is possible that the homepage has a PR6 if it is linked from a high PR7 page with few outbound links. You could get a problem if you buy it for the PR6, and the link from the PR7 is gone. So you better check the links shown on AllTheWeb for this site ("don't put all your eggs in one basket").