Google deletes PR of expired domains

expired domains page rank in google

[mrbrad]

Google has recently started reseting the PR of domains [webmasterworld.com] that have expired and changed ownership. You can no longer snatch up an expired domain name with a high link popularity in hopes to soar in the rankings at Google.
After a domain has expired its link popularity starts from scratch all over again.
What does this tell us?
Does this mean that Google is checking domain registration/ownership status when they crawl/index?
This also must mean that Google records the date a link was created to your domain.

-mrbrad

[bkk344]

Welcome to last month!

[Clark]

googleguy warned the WW community about it last month.

I don't know if they checked the records retroactively or it is only for new domains. Had it been retroactive this would have resulted in a major shift in the PR of an awful lot of domains.

[kaz]

mrbrad, here is where it was discussed last month. Actually GoogleGuy stated that this is something that they will be rolling out over the next few months - so the full effect of the changes may not be visible yet

[webmasterworld.com...]

[mrbrad]

Thanks Clark and Kaz.
Based on my observations I think the PR deletion had affected domains that had expired and reowned as long as 6 months ago. Some of my major competators had been using expired domains for several months and have just recently fallen off the map.

[jon80]

Expired domains which have been taken over and had the subject matter completely changed are still to be found in DMOZ under incorrect categories.
I wonder how Google sorts that out?

[rfgdxm1]

>Expired domains which have been taken over and had the subject matter completely changed are still to be found in DMOZ under incorrect categories.
I wonder how Google sorts that out?

From what GG wrote, if it has a new owner then the link should be ignored. The problem case would seem to be where the new owner puts up a site on the same subject matter, and thus the ODP listing makes sense.

[sctsai]

hey I was wondering what happens if you transferr your domain do it loose PR then too?

[rfgdxm1]

Presumably sctsai transferring a domain shouldn't be a problem, or selling an active domain to someone else. If Google is doing this right, it should only apply where the domain expires, and someone else buys it.

[annej]

Do you mean transfer your domain to a new server? That won't hurt PR. Some people have found it takes a while for Google to switch to the new server but I've moved two in the last year with no problems at all.

Anne

[Marcia]

I think we're looking at transferring a live domain to another owner.

[AAnnAArchy]

<<The problem case would seem to be where the new owner puts up a site on the same subject matter, and thus the ODP listing makes sense.>>

Yup. I got screwed because I bought domain names to fit my content and some of them happened to have been owned before. So, for example, I bought BlueWidgets.com because I had blue widgets to sell. I got my own backlinks, yet I was still screwed. A stupid shortsighted decision on Google's part that punished innocent webmasters.

[julinho]

Expired domains which have been taken over and had the subject matter completely changed are still to be found in DMOZ under incorrect categories.
I wonder how Google sorts that out?

Google has nothing to do with this.
Contact the dmoz editor of the cat under which the site is listed (or any meta editor), and the site should be deleted promptly.

[jon80]

By sort it out, I meant how does Google avoid giving undeserved pagerank to a repurchased domain which is incorrectly listed in a high pagerank DMOZ category?

[rfgdxm1]

>Yup. I got screwed because I bought domain names to fit my content and some of them happened to have been owned before. So, for example, I bought BlueWidgets.com because I had blue widgets to sell. I got my own backlinks, yet I was still screwed. A stupid shortsighted decision on Google's part that punished innocent webmasters.

New backlinks should be counted. Where the problem comes up is with the ODP, if you sell blue widgets at BlueWidgets.com, and the former domain name owner was in the ODP blue widgets cat, then that is the right cat for your new site. Thus, your ODP link will never count for all time.

[AAnnAArchy]

<<New backlinks should be counted.>>

They aren't. I had four expired domains that were PR4 or PR5. The PR4s are all PR0. The PR5 is a PR1. They all had legitimate new backlinks of PR4 and above. One domain was a company name, selling that company's products. It's now a PR0.

Clearly the algorithm that went into place to punish the ODP squatters (we know who they are), cast too wide a net.