Expired Domain. Drop in ranking

[RealtorAl]

I acquired an expired domain on 3/10/2014. I started hosting the domain using the provider for my existing domain on 3/16/2014. At that point, I stopped hosting my existing domain and started hosting the new one.

I had checked out the whois history of the domain before acquiring it and also the back-link profile. There was nothing alarming in what I found. I also had personal knowledge of the domain which is in the same business niche as I am. The domain also serves the same general location as my existing domain. The domain ranked in the top 10 for several important keywords in my business prior to my acquiring it up to approximately 3/21/2014. At this point, the site dropped from top 10 to between 50 and 60 for the same keywords. I have done nothing to change the existing back-links to the site. Looking in Google Webmaster Tools, I don't see any indication that the previous owner has removed any of these links. I have started the process of getting back-links to my existing domain to point to the acquired domain.

My question is: what has happened to cause the fall in rankings? Is there a 'sandbox' period when a domain changes ownership or the hosting provider changes? Does Google somehow devalue the existing back-links when a domain changes hands?

[aristotle]

I don't see anything in your post about content. What content did you put on this newly-acquired domain? Is it new and original, or transferred from somewhere, or what?

[LifeinAsia]

I'm confused as well...

I acquired an expired domain

Let's call this example1.com

my existing domain

Let's call this example2.com

I stopped hosting my existing domain and started hosting the new one.

Like aristotle asked, what content are you using for example1.com? Did you buy all of example1.com's content or just the domain name?

And are you saying that people can no longer get to example2.com? What did you do with that content?

[RealtorAl]

I am hosting my existing content with the expired domain name. I simply changed the domain of my existing site. My content is extremely similar to the previous content associated with the expired domain. It's the same business niche serving the same geographical area.

My existing domain name is about 9 months old. The expired one is 9 years old. My existing site was in the 30s for the relevant keywords. As stated the expired one was top 10.

[RealtorAl]

example2.com is no longer reachable.

[aristotle]

I've seen other discussions about this type of situation, and one of the common speculations is as follows:

When a new owner takes over a domain, and changes the content, then Google's algorithm might treat it as if it were a new site, and not give it any credit for the old backlinks.

[Planet13]

+1 aristotle.

i had hear that to... I think even Matt Cutts made a video about that.

And if you changed the content on the old, expired site, PLUS google sees that the owner has changed, you are probably all but certain to have the entire site reevaluated.

~~~~

There is one poster here who used to buy up expired domains, leave the Content the same, and then add just a link or two to his real site. I don't know if that still works any more. People have speculated that once google sees the owner of a site has changed the page rank is basically set to 0.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Google's going to struggle to understand "what was" on example2.com is now on example1.com. The only obvious connection just now is that content between them is very similar. Maybe Google has flagged it as duplicate content?

No past experience on it but my gut says you should 301 your old domain to the new one.

[LifeinAsia]

I simply changed the domain of my existing site.

example2.com is no longer reachable.

In other words, what Google used to see as example2.com/page1.html is now example1.com/page1.html and example2.com/page1.html is unreachable?
Yeah, Google probably sees that as dupe content.

I would strongly recommend you re-activate example2.com and 301 redirect all the pages to example1.com to help Google figure out what's going on. You're currently losing any benefits of inbound links that are pointing to example2.com.

[RealtorAl]

I don't know why but now example1.com is again ranking top 10 for the desired keywords. I guess I'll wait and see what happens. I thank you for your responses. In the interim, after my initial post, I saw some posts, as others have stated, that indicated that an expired domain that was purchased might be treated like a brand new domain by Google.

As I stated, I changed some back links to example2.com to point to example1.com. I would say that the one thing I've learned is to not act hastily. It takes a while for the dust to settle with Google sometimes.

[RealtorAl]

Perhaps now that example2.com is no longer reachable Google doesn't see a duplicate content issue. I don't know.