Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I am buying an old website that has great rankings in Google, I am wondering if after I buy and get everything in my company name will the rankings change?
I will be keeping the same host and won't be making any changes to the content for the time being that being said will google still see that the website is old and continue with its good ranking?
RJ
I will be keeping the same host and won't be making any changes to the content...
In my past experience, that combination has preserved the rankings. It's common for one business to buy out another and continue operations as normal. Google does not force the new owner to start with a "blank slate" in such a situation.
One site I'm involved with went through two such sales within the past year - and rankings stayed steady.
leave the domain whois info about the same to make sure
That's insane.
Will the old owner delete the links to this domain once it is sold? Will he or she pull the plug on paid links, if any?
That is the big worry. You need to check the backlinks to make sure that the site being linked to is yours and not one of these 301 redirect Pagerank-bumping scams.
Get something in writing about the provision of paid links, yearly paid directory subscriptions etc. etc.
I've bought and sold many domains/sites and, although a couple saw a drop for 3-4 days after the whois change, rankings always went back to normal.
As Ted mentioned - the biggest item is whether the theme or content stays intact after the sale. Websites that significantly shift or change their website theme after the sale are the ones that are more at risk for losing pagerank, and by nature, rankings.
