Change of owner for a domain = Drop in Google ?

[krooga]

Hello guys,

I am about to acquire a large site which is ranked #1 for a very competitive keyword. My question is, if I buy this domain and change the owner in the whois, will this reflect the position of the site in the search engine results ?

Do let me know your experiences,

Thanks,

Sam

[greeneagle]

krooga,

I wouldn't expect an ownership change to effect traffic on it's on at all.

There are other issues:
How well established?
How old is the domain?
Have you done "Wayback Machine" searches making sure site traffic has been genuine for a comfortable duration of time?
Do you know how it has been being marketed, so that you can carry on?

Ken

[krooga]

krooga,

I wouldn't expect an ownership change to effect traffic on it's on at all.

There are other issues:
How well established?
How old is the domain?
Have you done "Wayback Machine" searches making sure site traffic has been genuine for a comfortable duration of time?
Do you know how it has been being marketed, so that you can carry on?

Ken

Hey Ken,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Thank you for reassuring me in regards that the domain ownership change will not affect the SR.

In answer to your question the site has been established for a few years now and is run by an amateur and has been up since 2000. The site contains no ads whatsover but articles etc.. that have remained unchanged for a few years now (Has the old days look ;-)). The keyword for which it is ranked averages 50 000 queries on Overture...

Your insight would be much appreciated,

Sam

[greeneagle]

krooga,
I am going to pull in more help here so we can all discuss this here.

Ken

[incrediblehelp]

Has this domain gone through a domain whois change or ownership change before? If so where there traffic/ranking fluxuations?

Through my experience I have seen some website greatly effected when the whois/ownership is changed and sometimes nothing happens.

I think on smaller level you could expect to see some fluxuations. Of course if nothing changes on the website itself (content, design, etc.) it may be more stable. Domain buys are very common now-a-days and you cant expect the search engines to "demote" or hurt rankings because of a whois change.

Maybe it is only when the content or design itself is changed?

[incrediblehelp]

OK, maybe we should really start being serious about the age domain factor, but lets be clear from the start. IT IS NOT THE AGE OF THE DOMAIN. Other factors are really considered. Sure the age of domain is great, but it is actually the age of the website within the domain and if one company/person has owned it the whole time. The age factor is reset when a domain is sold. I don't have proof of this other than from my own selling and buying of domains.

Domains that I bought or sold have never really captured the same success of the old stature of I redeveloped the website, changed content, change whois, etc.

[crankydave]

Maybe it is only when the content or design itself is changed?

This would be my thinking as well, at least in part.

It's not the domain itself that has the value, but the content, structure, and external influences (ie links) that have the value.

Dave

[scanmonkey]

Incredibel. You are right on. Webnauts posted this link to http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic...=312561#312561

Two things that are considered in the age of a domain name are:

The age of the website
The length of time a domain has been registered

[greeneagle]

Let's don't wander too far off on the "age" thing only.

Let's face it, there are a number of ways to artificially pump up traffic before a sale.

Ken

[scanmonkey]

I sold a site about six months ago and their was no loss of rankings in either yahoo or google. The content of the site stayed the same.