old sites good for backlinks?

[Chuckmiser]

For links as I understand it for Google it is all about relevance, if the links are relevant to your new site then you should get some link love from them.

I would be concerned if I bought a used URL that they were a bad neighborhood in their past life, as I understand it you can ask to be reconsidered but I would think if that was the case, and it was a bad neighborhood that you would be starting from a hole. But what do I know I live in Cambodia?

[hostelman]

buying an old url is not a bad thing, but don't pay too much for it , unless the url is a premium one and has a lot going for it. about the backlinks some will drop , but you will build new ones right, after all it is business

[bj]

Only buy domains that are relevant to what you want to do. Pointing a music site at an advertising site isn't going to do you much good over the long haul.

[crossland]

Be very careful - the search engines do not like "black hat" SEO techniques.
If you inherit links that were from dubious sources, you could end up being penalised.

Tim
WebSphere Message Broker

[incrediblehelp]

Their is nothing inherently black hat abut purchasing a domain relevant domain name and pointing to your own.

[The Lady]

personally I would be trying to get new back links as you adjust the site, b/c many will not remain linked to the new theme. that's just my thought - perhaps start w/ your own websites that are in a related field.

[jawn_tech]

Not sure if the post was a question or an observation, but as I understand the observation it would be correct. Relevance is key, and should be taken into account when considering the time and investment for an old domain.

And definitely, the domain's "criminal background" if it has one. The relevance would have to be pretty good to justify the effort in rehabilitating the domain from a bad record.

As for living in Cambodia, not relevant as anyone from Cambodia can know as much as anyone else.

[cimmeronstudios]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Their is nothing inherently black hat abut purchasing a domain relevant domain name and pointing to your own.

I thought domain pointing was essentially another redirect-type method that was generally frowned upon?

like buying a ton of keyword laden domains and pointing them all the maindomain.com?

[johnafrankllin]

In my opinion incrediblehelp is right as there is nothing wrong with buying a domain and pointing it out with your own domain.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by cimmeronstudios

I thought domain pointing was essentially another redirect-type method that was generally frowned upon?

like buying a ton of keyword laden domains and pointing them all the maindomain.com?

Sure you can do this, but it wont help for SEO, but it wont hurt you either.

[inertia]

Originally Posted by cimmeronstudios

I thought domain pointing was essentially another redirect-type method that was generally frowned upon?

like buying a ton of keyword laden domains and pointing them all the maindomain.com?

What about companies that register .com, .co.uk, .net etc etc...

There's nothing wrong with these pointing to the same place?

These wont even be picked up by the search engines because they have no pages, content, links...etc

[Chuckmiser]

I think that I read somewhere if Matt C was grilling you under a hot lava lamp would your reason for buying the domain cause him to whip you repeatedly with a licorice whip with his demonic cat in the background purring its approval or would it make perfect sense to him? If you are trying to game the system, you will get caught, it’s not worth it.

I bought a used URL which was the smartest thing that I ever did. The folks that had it before me were just protecting their .org name they never had content on it. The domain was 6 letters, .com, and was a easy to remember word, and was absolutely relevant to the company so much so that I changed all the marketing and branding to the new URL. I did not get any back link's from it that I was aware of. I have looked at other URL since then and just don't trust that they are tainted and stick to virgin names

Unfortunately I can't get those licorice whips here in Cambodia yet!

[Webnauts]

Read this article carefully: » What Matt Cutts Said at Domain RoundTable 2008 - John Andrews - johnon.com
I think you will find the answer to your question there.