Client bought a PR7 domain. What do I need to worry about?

perfectly related incoming links, but new owner and site

[Craig_F]

against my advice, he just bought it for something like $3800.

I've checked the links and they are perfectly related and should live for a long time. The site he plans to put up is very similar to the original site.

I've never dealt with this before, what do I need to be concerned about?

[edited by: Craig_F at 10:16 pm (utc) on Mar. 24, 2003]

[Nick_W]

Only thing that would be worring me right now is that it stays up whilst you're swapping it over.

Also, don't forget those incoming links to interior pages...

Nick

[rfgdxm1]

It really would take more specifics here to comment much. What I'd say you should be worrying about is that those inbound links really will live a long time. Since this $3,800 value is totally dependent on the actions of others who link to this site, this is an issue.

[skibum]

Maybe this thread [webmasterworld.com] if it was an expired domain.

[buckworks]

<<value is totally dependent on the actions of others>>

If the PR7 is based on lots of links from lots of sites rather than one lucky PR8 link or something, it will likely be stable and provide a good base for further development.

[Craig_F]

> I'd say you should be worrying about is
> that those inbound links really will
> live a long time.

I'm pretty sure they will. They are all educational/gov't links and I don't think they check their sites very often :) Plus, I think my client has the majority of the site ready, so something will be there very soon.

I'm worried about the expired domian issue. Do I need to worry about that as long as this one never expired? Is there anything else like that I need to be concerned about? Even though I'll be paid, I'd rather not waste my time working on this if it is somehow a lost cause.

[rfgdxm1]

Was this site commercial or non-commercial before? If it is changing to commercial, then I'd say you have to worry about losing those links. The expired domain name issue shouldn't be an issue if the domain never expired.

[Craig_F]

it's a .org, and I don't think the original site was full ecommerce, but I do think they sold / advertised a few things, which is the same as we'll be doing. I'm pretty sure we won't lose the links. I'm more concerned about some kind of penalty or something I might not know of.

[Craig_F]

he bought it through one of those major domain resellers. do I need to worry about anything dealing with them?

[Craig_F]

anyone else have comments on this? I need to get back to him tomorrow and I don't want to be involved if this is somehow going to flop in his face. aside from the fact that he bought it, it seems like it should work out really well, but that's what worries me...

[rfgdxm1]

Since he already bought it, he should go with it. There shouldn't be any Google penalty.

[Craig_F]

rfgdxm1, thanks a lot for your comments on this issue.

Can you think of anything else we should check before we jump in head first? Here's what I've looked at so far:

Who owned it -- Seems like a non profit group
How long has it been off line -- 1yr. (and still PR7)
Type of incoming links -- mostly .edu and .gov.
#of incoming links -- about 1300 (most with keywords)
Alexa data -- none really, offline too long

Did I miss anything?

[rfgdxm1]

Was it truly offline, or was it up with just some kind of holding page? If the latter, than this is OK. If it was no DNS, then Google may quit counting those old inbound links.

[Craig_F]

there's a holding page there now and google shows the back links. I believe something has been there the whole time.

[soapystar]

didnt google bring in a new link algo?...didnt they say any links created before the creation date for the new domain owner will no longer count?

[rfgdxm1]

According to Googleguy, this only applies in the case where a domain name has expired, and someone new then buys it. From what is being said here, there always has been some sort of site up, and what happened is the domain was just sold to a new party.