Aged domains

[mayhemgod]

Hi all a general question.
I am interested in buying a domain, that is aged since 2002.

It has a page rank of PR1 even though its about to be deleted.

would this be a wise move and does the age of a domain hold (quality) because of the age ?

I know this is a vaugue question but I heard somewhere that the age of a domain is good.
Thanks

[cw1865]

I wouldn't invest any serious money into that particular site, but if you're pulling it off the expired list, and if the name of the domain itself makes sense, then all things being equal I'd rather have the one that is already on the search engine crawl list.

[Fitz]

I think CW1865 has it about right but I would add that you should check that any existing IBLs are from good neighbourhoods, are relevant, and that the content of the site (back in history) was not something dodgy which could affect your new site's reputation etc. You can use Yahoo SiteExplorer (siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com) and the WayBackMachine (archive.org) to do those two respective things.

[jawn_tech]

Although starting out with a PR1 is better than nothing, I'd say.....

... wait, I take that back. A PR1 is pretty much starting out with nothing.

Save your money, imho. Unless it's a premium domain, which is a different story.

With a new domain, you can still get crawled fast and likewise, get a PR1 in about 4-5 months.

[mayhemgod]

thanks,
I recently picked up a dropped domain with a PR3 rank and just redirected it. not sure if this was the way to go.
but at least all the traffic will come to my new site.
just thinking that if I grab it at a PR 1 in the drop stage will it increase dramaticaly when there is actual content on it .

[jawn_tech]

Understandably so. At the end of the day, it just depends on the price for the PR1 domain. A PR1 domain is a good thing, don't get me wrong. Other things considered would be how well the domain has been branded, and if the typical traffic coming to the domain are "targeted" traffic (people wanting to buy what the site is selling).

And welcome to WPW by the way! :)

[scanmonkey]

Maile Ohye of Google gave the following response to a question in a google live chat (http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help/web/q-a-from-the-3rd-live-chat-oct-2008?pli=1)

Q. Does having the domain name for a long period e.g. 5 or 10 years really affects SEO and give high rankings?
A. Maile Ohye: a site's reputation can be a indicator to search engines, but of course, it's not everything. Having a site for a long period of time can establish credibility with users, and as a search engine we also want to reflect this type of credibility.
Of course, newer domains can also gain users and credibility. It seems like running a good site is a bit like running a reputable business.
So yes, if your domain has been credible for years it can help. If you buy an old domain and put all your content on it in hopes of getting instant rankings, that's not the best idea.