Bought a domain. How to redirect old pages?

[oddsod]

I've bought a domain (not expired) that had a few hundred pages of content. I have to delete all that content as I didn't acquire the copyright.

The reason I bought this domain was because of its stong backlinks not just to the homepage but to internal pages as well. And the fact that I have another site in the industry I could push visitors to.

This is the plan: Redirect all other pages at this new domain to its homepage. Recreate an index page with on-topic content. Put prominent links on there to the site I already own in this industry.

The main thing I'm interested in is the traffic from all those links. But how would Google treat a whole site with a 301 redirect to the homepage? I'd continue to get direct traffic but would Google devalue all the incoming links because they are now redirected to the homepage?

[tedster]

Google can reset a domain, back to the starting gate, when a change of ownership also brings about a change of the website.

You stand a better chance of retaining the legacy backlink power if those backlined URLs do not redirect to Home, but instead the URL is still resolving with a 200 OK. Since you cannot preserve the exact content in your situation, you would at least need to provide newly created content that is relevant for those backlinking sites.

YMMV, of course.

[internetheaven]

I'd continue to get direct traffic but would Google devalue all the incoming links because they are now redirected to the homepage?

According to the recent 301 thread that appears to be true.

Put prominent links on there to the site I already own in this industry.

That's the only bit I'd be careful about. I've seen people link to 50+ pages on their own site from a dropped high PR/backlinked domain -- I tried it once ... :(

[g1smd]

Redirecting a large number of internal URLs to the root page of a site is usually a very bad idea.

Redirects should be used to redirect to content at a new URL that closely matches whatever was at the old URL.

'Funnelling' a large number of old URLs to one page doesn't factor as a good idea.

[oddsod]

Thanks for your replies, guys.

My existing (old) site is already a market leader in the space and commands a top three spot in SERPS from anywhere in the world for all the main key terms so I don't want to jeopardise that.

At the same time I simply don't have the time to recreate content on hundreds of pages on the new site - it's just not cost effective in this case.

It looks like what I have to do with this new domain is proceed with redirecting all pages to one page and promoting my main site on that page i.e. continue to get the referred traffic to the new site, but be prepared for the site to lose all Google juice what with change of ownership, drastic change in site plus the 301s. Is there any point in even letting Googlebot crawl the new, watered down site?

That's the only bit I'd be careful about. I've seen people link to 50+ pages on their own site from a dropped high PR/backlinked domain -- I tried it once ... sad

I intend to have only one prominent link from the homepage to an internal page of my old site, but am curious as to what your experience was. What happened?

[tedster]

It looks like what I have to do with this new domain is proceed with redirecting all pages to one page

I'm not sure why the decision rests between hundreds of pages and just one. Isn't there some kind of segmentation or siloing of the key pages on the newly purchased site, so that 5 or 10 landing pages could be created to receive the 301 redirects?

Even more, you could just redirect those URLs that have significant backlinks or were major entry pages. I can't help but think that some approach like that would be effective and not too big a resource drain.

...redirecting all pages to one page and promoting my main site on that page i.e. continue to get the referred traffic to the new site

If that page is a new URL and offers a welcoming orientation to visitors from the old site, even just this much is probably a good idea, and quite an imporvement over a 301 to the home page. You might even find that a 301 to the home page doesn't give you troubles - but IMO it does have a greater chance of making a problem.

[oddsod]

Thanks, tedster, I will setup a couple of new pages on the acquired site and 301 everything to those pages. It was a useful idea to examine which of the old URIs had the most IBLs.

On orientation: Yes, I share your views and that's why it's particularly difficult to recreate too many of the old pages. They'll all have to show content similar to what was there before but without infringing on the copyright. Too tricky.