Should I Buy an Expired Domain to 301 a Page to My Page Just for a Few Links?

[Boy]

Silly question I tried posting on /r/seo which was a big mistake.

Ok, wrote a solid ass article this morning. I did do a quick search around the topic when I was nearly finished and found a similar article from '15 that has a few broken links in it, but they're linking to an expired domain. The anchor text is the domain name. More or less, both articles are "how to build a website" and what they're linking to is a project website they started but they let expire.

Would there be any benefit, besides traffic, to buying that domain and redirecting it to my article?

 

[bernard]

Silly question I tried posting on /r/seo which was a big mistake.

Ok, wrote a solid ass article this morning. I did do a quick search around the topic when I was nearly finished and found a similar article from '15 that has a few broken links in it, but they're linking to an expired domain. The anchor text is the domain name. More or less, both articles are "how to build a website" and what they're linking to is a project website they started but they let expire.

Would there be any benefit, besides traffic, to buying that domain and redirecting it to my article?

I actually just bought such a domain, only because it was extremely niche specific, but it only had like 1 or 2 legit links I would have wanted (from some magazines).

The question thus is:

How much of the initial magazine link value gets passed on with a redirect?

I paid 10 bucks for the domain and if I had to purchase that magazine link it would have been 150-200 bucks.

So, going by expected value, you only need 1/10th of the linkjuice to pass to make it worth buying the domain.

 

[Boy]

I actually just bought such a domain, only because it was extremely niche specific, but it only had like 1 or 2 legit links I would have wanted (from some magazines).

The question thus is:

How much of the initial magazine link value gets passed on with a redirect?

I paid 10 bucks for the domain and if I had to purchase that magazine link it would have been 150-200 bucks.

So, going by expected value, you only need 1/10th of the linkjuice to pass to make it worth buying the domain.

Yeah, I just went ahead and did it. $12 and 2 minutes to set up a 301. I doubt I'll get any sort of juice from it, but if anyone is on their guide and follows, they'll be taken to my guide.

 

[bernard]

Yeah, I just went ahead and did it. $12 and 2 minutes to set up a 301. I doubt I'll get any sort of juice from it, but if anyone is on their guide and follows, they'll be taken to my guide.

It's also a question if it is better to let it index with similar content and THEN do the 301. That's what I did.

 

[Ryuzaki]

There's an extremely high chance that the links' power will be discounted since the domain lapsed all the way into "expired" status.

Some people say with enough time (and using the same content on the 301 destination page) that the link power can come back.

If you're doing it just for the traffic, it depends on how much traffic there is. You can gauge that with tools like Ahrefs. Whether it's worth it depends on how hot the traffic is and how you monetize it.

Sounds like a headache to me.

Another approach is to make a much better resource than the old page and then contact the site with the broken links, showing them your improved page as a great replacement.

 

[Boy]

Another approach is to make a much better resource than the old page and then contact the site with the broken links, showing them your improved page as a great replacement.

Oh, I must not have clarified in the original post, but the broken link was to a site the original poster (one man website, not a news organization) started and never maintained. This was not a move for an easy backlink/link juice, but visitors. The handful of visitors per week I'll get from it while my article gets indexed will provide some of that early revenue...theoretically...

 

[bernard]

There's an extremely high chance that the links' power will be discounted since the domain lapsed all the way into "expired" status.

Some people say with enough time (and using the same content on the 301 destination page) that the link power can come back.

If you're doing it just for the traffic, it depends on how much traffic there is. You can gauge that with tools like Ahrefs. Whether it's worth it depends on how hot the traffic is and how you monetize it.

Sounds like a headache to me.

Another approach is to make a much better resource than the old page and then contact the site with the broken links, showing them your improved page as a great replacement.

Ryu, what is your thought on what we discussed above?

A domain being 10 bucks only and so why wouldn't you just grab it and redirect it for the potential that it might be worth something?

Another thing is that this dropped vs deleted thing in the US, isn't the same for all countries. Some countries have different methods and in my experience, as long as the links are in place, the content is similar and it hasn't been spammed/pbn'ed, then those links still give value. A benefit of being a smaller market outside the watchful eye of Google I guess.

 

[tyealia]

There's an extremely high chance that the links' power will be discounted since the domain lapsed all the way into "expired" status.

Some people say with enough time (and using the same content on the 301 destination page) that the link power can come back.

I think this question requires a new thread in its own right...i have seen this debate a ton. The article that solved it for me came from Matt Diggity probably one of the only SEOs I trust since he does some pretty good testing or used to when he owned his pbn service. He says in a testing article

"
Theory #2: A Domain’s Backlink Profile Resets when it Expires
When a domain has expired, goes to backorder, or auction, then perhaps Google resets the backlink profile and thus it’s link juice.

Test Structure

Test 10 domains of each type of domain.

If any pass, then Google has not put a blanket “reset” all backlinks on the domain type.

Note: A requirement of the expired domains for this test was that they were unused for over a year.

Conclusion: False

Some domains passed (with similar rates to the baseline).

"

 

[Andrewkar]

I buy a domain with interesting backlink profile, can be exparied. Then I take old content and post it on a site, can be copied by other sites but for me is important to make sure that my domain was first, or second or third with this content Then I post 20-30 fresh and well optimised posts and I wait. I do some backlinks, internal linking etc. Basic things. After a a two or three months I check whats going on. If its good, I might post a few more posts (mostly related to terms I want to rank for with my main site) and then if all is OK I might redirect, or maybe keep it IF its too good just for redirects. After those two months you should know if backlink juice is still there or maybe is not. To be honest, I dont think you can get a good domain for redirect asap for few cents...

Also, keep in mind that it is possible you buy a "nice" domain with "nice" links and then after redirect you may see some bad results

 

[Ryuzaki]

A domain being 10 bucks only and so why wouldn't you just grab it and redirect it for the potential that it might be worth something?

You can look at it that way for sure. I've done that in the past.

My current philosophy is one of minimalism and simplicity. I've been up to 100+ complete sites, domains, hosting accounts, etc. I'm just not into that much disarray any more. I can't think clearly with too much infrastructure and things to maintain any more.

For instance, if I buy 5 domains for 301 purposes and I need to 301 inner pages to inner pages versus a registrar level redirect, then I need to set up WHM/cPanel accounts for each one so I can have an .htaccess in place to make it work. Later, if I need to move servers I have to keep all of this in mind which drastically increases the headache. I need to keep backups of everything. And I do this with 10 or 15 then all of this extra stuff is compounding. Then I also end up having a ton of domains in my registrar accounts, etc.

Even in the chance you don't have to mess with anything and it can be set up and forgotten, all of that just eats up my brain's RAM. It's probably just a flaw in my make-up. I just need more and more organization these days.

I'm 100% more inclined these days to see a dead link like is being described, thinking about it for a few seconds and going "nah, that's creating an open loop that I can close now but will come open again later. I'll just get a link elsewhere that doesn't require me to maintain anything."

That's my personal preference. Nothing wrong with snatching up a bunch of cheap opportunities, either, if it's compatible with the way you think and work.

 

[bernard]

That makes sense. I've been through a recent bout of this, setting up "auxillary sites" (white hat pbns), and it just creeps up on you as you want to do more and more.