Evade Google by buying an established website
If you’re planning to launch a new website I highly recommend investing in an established website and then improving on that site. Although such a purchase will cost a lot more than simply registering a domain name and hosting, there are numerous advantages to buying out an established site that makes it worth the price.
The number one reason why you should buy an older site is for the invaluable SEO benefits. Google applies tons of penalties and filters to new sites, but by purchasing an established site you can evade some of these penalties.
New domains are subject to link aging filters and sandboxes and as a result of these filters SEO doesn’t work well on newer sites. Inbound links don’t improve rankings due to the aging filters. Newer sites also don’t have Pagerank which may make it more difficult to convince people to trade links with you.
When buying an established site make sure:
1. The domain is at least six months old so that the site should at least be out of the google sandbox. Unsurprisingly, older domains are better but more expensive.
2. The site is in google by performing site:domain.com and site:www.domain.com search
If no search results show up the site is either banned or un-indexed. Avoid at all costs.
3. Perform a search for its domain name with the domain extension at the end.
If the site passes the previous test but doesn’t rank for its own domain name it has a penalty and should be avoided.
4. Ask the owner if the site ranks for moderately competitive keywords. if the site ranks then the site is ‘clean’ and devoid of penalties. Unless the site actually ranks you have no way of knowing for sure if you are buying a clean, non-penalized site.
5. DON’T change the theme of the site to save money. If you buy a dog grooming site DON’T convert it into a legal site. Google will notice since it is too obvious. The site will eventually get a penalty and p00f your investment wasted.
6. A grey pagerank toolbar or PR 0 is to be avoided.
7. After you buy the site be prepared to make improvements. Perform more SEO by getting some inbound links, do link exchanges. Add new content, etc.
If you follow these steps you should have a major leg up when starting a new site. however, be prepared to pay up. A good site will cost between $1,000-4,000 but it is worth it.
One Response to “Evade Google by buying an established website”
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Comment from Jack Rack
Time December 22, 2007 at 5:35 am
“A good site will cost between $1,000-4,000 but it is worth it.”
Cheaper to just trademark it and then squash the domain. Most domains aren’t trademarked. Less than 2% of people take advantage of this loophole….