Starting a New Site with Aged Domain vs. New Domain
Quick fact: If I start a new domain it normally takes me anywhere up to 3 months to really start ranking first page on all 3 Search Engines, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. Thats 3 months of link building, writing articles, link bait & working. Thats a lot of time.
If youre just starting out should you really be waiting around for your site to come through Googles filters? OR would your time be better spent hunting down some domains that could rank for you in as little as 2 weeks?
Google treats newer sites with more filters than older ones. Filters are what stops you from ranking. The more trust your website gains the less it becomes filtered & the easier youll find it to rank.
When I say easier I am talking about simply posting a new product on an old site, it may come up on the first page for a long tail keyword the very next day, versus waiting months for it to come up on a new site.
There are 2 basic ways to beat these filters & rank your sites quicker.
Build natural strong links from relevant sites (not too quickly) OR
Buy an aged domain with authority already
Think about it:
Say you have an aged website with PageRank 2 with less than 10 back links. If its PR2 that means that Google has given it a certain degree of trust based on the content it has and it has quality back links. You dont need to be keyword rich to rank for that keyword. Look at Attorneys in Google. First page ranking is a domain by the name of an attorney.
That degree of trust, plus the fact that its already gone through PR0 and PR1, means that it will perform better in the short run.
An aged site will beat a new site anytime. Even if it doesnt have many back links you can build them quicker than the time it takes for google to give your new site any credibility.
Ive bought a lot of aged domains so here are my thoughts:
They rank well with less work from my experience and that is regardless of their PR. Some hold their PR no matter what you do with them and others drop their PR. Its a risk but I still think its worth it.
UNDERSTAND THIS: By buying a domain (pre-2000 is best) you will literally buy tens of thousands of dollars of value as a head start. There is no way you can re-coup this or add it on later once you begin. This is a decision you need to make before you start.
If you are planning on making an eCommerce website then can you really afford to wait up to 3 months for a domain to start ranking? How much in potential revenue is that? Even more, say youre creating a website to promote a particular product, what happens if you get filtered & by the time you end up ranking the competition is too fierce?
Dont get me wrong, it IS possible to rank new sites quickly & it can be done (depending on the keywords) but what if you could buy an aged domain & rank right away & make money right away.
So what do you look for when buying an aged domain?
Age: This for me is the most important factor, the older the better. Pre-2000 is always a winner.
DMOZ Listed: Google today treats DMOZ is an extremely powerful back link. We are talking about a link that is a superman of all links. This link is equivalent to 100 one way links from relevant sources. It takes a while to get on there with their backlogs so by getting a domain on DMOZ you just saved yourself months of waiting.
Yahoo Directory Listed: Get a site already in Yahoo Directory and save $300 just from that. This is an extremely powerful back link which happens to cost $300. You will benefit from having it.
Banned: Check the domain hasnt been banned. Google Ban Checker
Backlinks: Check Yahoo Site Explorer to see how many back links the domain has. (Go to www.yahoo.com and type link:domain.com and link:www.domain.com make sure you check all links except for this domain) The more you have the better SEO ranking you will get
Indexed: Has the domain been indexed before? search engines calculate a domains age from when it was first indexed. If a domain has a good Search History then youre onto a winner. Simply Googling for the domain name will work or type site:domain.com. To check this out enter the url into Way Back Machine.
Price: What price are they asking for? You can pick up a good domain for around $10-100 if you look in the right places, a small price to pay for not having to wait to rank. However some domains range over $1000 as well.
You can try: http://www.domaintools.com/buy/ and find some domains that are about to be dropped on http://www.domaintools.com/buy/dropping-names/ and back order them through Godaddy for $20.
Pagerank: Generally Pagerank isnt an issue for me although many sellers will try to sell the domain based on Pagerank. Im more concerned about age & IBLs. Although if pagerank is an issue please check to see its not fake.
Where to look?
Digitalpoint Domain Forum
Domain Name Forums
Name Pros
Sitepoint Domain Marketplace
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU PURCHASE AN AGED DOMAIN NAME FOR YOUR ECOMMERCE WEBSITE. I KNOW I KNOW YOU LOVE YOUR EXISTING NAME BECAUSE IT WAS NAMED AFTER YOUR COMPANY, YOUR FATHER, YOUR DOG, YOUR FISH, WHATEVER
GET OVER IT YOUR IN BUSINESS AND YOU NEED RESULTS. UNLESS YOU ARE BUILDING THIS WEBSITE FOR BRANDING PURPOSES AND NOT ECOMMERCE, BUY AN AGED DOMAIN IF YOURS IS NOT AND MOVE ON.
I prefer domains at least 5 years old with DMOZ listing. But I will always try hard to find pre-2000 domains, even without DMOZ and I dont care if it doesnt have the keyword I like.
Yes that means if you are selling wheels, and you cant find a domain name with wheels in it, its no big deal.
If you want to start a new eCommerce website withShopping Cart Elite, just let us know your niche market and well hunt down and buy the domain for you. Even if its pricey.