Value of 301s from dropped domains

[danwhitehouse]

Hi all,
I have a couple of techniques I use to effectively get a handful of links from any site I like. In short, it involves building a DB of external links, checking 404s, cutting those urls down to just the domain, checking links going to that site and then seeing if that domain is available to buy, if it is, buy it and 301 to target page.

I hope that all makes sense! The anchor text is not going to be relevant but the links are pretty good.

Does anyone think there is much value in doing this as the cost of the domain is usually on a couple of quid, but it takes quite a lot of time.

Any thoughts?

[aristotle]

Common opinion is that the Google rankings algorithm puts a lot more value on links that have relevant anchor text and that come from sites with related content.

It's even possible that there coould be some risk in your strategy, because redirected links from high PR pages with unrelated content and anchor text could appear to be purchased links and trigger a manual review of your site by a Google employee.

[g1smd]

Google banned a well known SEO's sites for using this technique or year or two back.

Manipulation for PageRank can get your sites burned.

[Planet13]

Google banned a well known SEO's sites for using this technique or year or two back.

I got to ask; does that SEO have the initials R.F.?

If not, could you give us another clue who it might have been?

[tedster]

I don't think we want to get into specifics on this one, Planet. I know of more than one such case - and Google spokespeople have publicly commented on this practice. It is an attempt at manipulation and they don't like it.

[danwhitehouse]

Thanks for the info. I've been reading more and more about moving away from keyword in anchor over the last few weeks, hence my process outlined above. I'll give it a park for now then.