[PROOF] - Expired Domains Can Maintain Their PageRank - Here's An Example

There are a lot questions on the forum about whether or not expired domains can maintain their pagerank after ownership of the domain has changed hands and more importantly whether or not a site can maintain that PR over time and through additional Page Rank updates.

Since we just had a PR update at the beginning of the month. I thought it would be worth doing a case study to show that it is indeed possible for a site to retain its PR.

### DISCLAIMER ###

The domain I use in this case study is by no means an impressive domain. I would not reveal any of my higher PR expired domains in public as we know things can umm...happen to them when such things are outed. That said it is a perfect example of how a domain can maintain its PR. Just wanted to put this out there before comments are made about this.

### END DISCLAIMER ###

Ok, so the domain in question is http://www.yoplait-coupons.info/.

It's pretty much a nothing of a domain (ok ok it IS a nothing of a domain). I bought it originally to use for another case study that I never got around to putting together but as it turns out it's still being used for a case study so money well spent


Let's take a walk through the pagerank history of this domain:


*** June 12, 2011: Pagerank: 1 ***

I was able to dig up some pagerank history on this domain through urltrends.com. Here is a screenshot from their last report on this domain on June, 12, 2011:






*** March 23, 2012: Pagerank: 1 ***

Unfortunately I don't have a screenshot to show the PR at the time I bought the domain but is was a pagerank of 1.

Here is a screenshot of the confirmation email from Godaddy showing I had won the auction:




*** August 17, 2012: Pagerank: 1 ***

Five months later, the PR is still the same. Here is a screenshot I took a few minutes ago:





Since this domain was purchased there have been not one but two pagerank updates:


(I got this data from pagerankupdates.com)


So as you can see this domain has not only maintained its pagerank through an ownership change but also through two PR updates.

As for what I have done with the domain:

1) Immediately put an active site up on the domain after winning the auction. It only has one page of content
2) used private whois (have no clue if this really matters but I used it anyway)
3) redirected all other pages that I didn't rebuild back to the homepage (there are wordpress plugins that will handle this for you automatically)
4) threw about 100 or so blog comment links at it (as far as I can tell this neither hurt or helped)


That's all I've done.


Hope you find this post helpful!

There are a lot questions on the forum about whether or not expired domains can maintain their pagerank after ownership of the domain has changed hands and more importantly whether or not a site can maintain that PR over time and through additional Page Rank updates.

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Really?? That's a funny question.

You don't really need to build links to good domains for them to keep their PR, good domains will keep their PR for years without you doing anything to them and it doesn't matter how many owners it had.

really? sure...do a forum search

lablinks said:

Really?? That's a funny question.

You don't really need to build links to good domains for them to keep their PR, good domains will keep their PR for years without you doing anything to them and it doesn't matter how many owners it had.

Click to expand...

True... If it isn't a faked PR, it should last for years as lablinks said.

While it may be common knowledge to some it is clearly not the case for everyone

https://www.google.com/search?q=expired+domains+lost+lose+prevent+PR+site:blackhatworld.com

I have a question about dropped domains.

What exactly is a dropped domain? Is it the same as a domain which has expired?

When buying an expiring domain you have to wait for the domain to expire before you can buy it as far as i remember.

Does anyone know of a tutorial on picking up domains with PR?

Yeah ... bought a PR3 and 2 PR2s from GoDaddy auctions. Never built a single link to any, and after a year, all 3 have kept their PR.

PR1... that isn't much of an example. How about PR5+ ?

How does a domain acquire PageRank? By other sites that link to it passing their PageRank.
It doesn't matter who owns the domain, as long as the backlinks stay in place the domain will not lose PageRank.

The people constantly asking if expired domains keep PR simply don't understand what PR is to begin with.

What's the plugin for URL redirect to homepage?

My guess is that as long as you redirect all the old pages to the homepage you should be able to keep the PR. The linked thread above is a case were someone did a 301 to an existing site. I think it would be much easier to keep page rank if you keep content on the homepage and redirect all pages there.

MarkI said:

What's the plugin for URL redirect to homepage?

Click to expand...

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/link-juice-keeper/

gorang said:

I have a question about dropped domains.

What exactly is a dropped domain? Is it the same as a domain which has expired?

When buying an expiring domain you have to wait for the domain to expire before you can buy it as far as i remember.

Does anyone know of a tutorial on picking up domains with PR?

Click to expand...

Gorang, a dropped domain is a domain that was registered, then expired and then no one acquired it through auction system of the registrar (like Godaddy), thus it became available to be registered at the regular price for any other domain name. A dropped domain name loses it's age.

An expired domain name, however, is a domain that is still in a period in which owner can renew it or someone can buy it from auction/ In this case, the domain will keep it's age.

As for acquiring domains with PR, I suggest you take a look at Expireddomains.net -- Choose Godaddy Expired category and select the metrics you are looking for like minimum PR, minimum number of ref IPs etc.. Or you may visit www.heavydutynames.com to keep an eye on our High PR domain listings on Godaddy TDNAM.

Yes, it mantains the PR.

websoftinc said:

can pr mantain if the domain was dropped?

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Last time I picked up a dropped domain, No PR passed to my domain

A domain with PR is a domain with backlinks.

Why would a domain with backlinks lose its PR? Never heard of it... but nice case study tho, aged PR domains are definitely good for seo.

@jkwilson. This is a year old thread, but I landed on it while checking online on how to retail pg on expired/dropped domains. I bought a pg rank 4, 2 and 1 domain and it has no rank left. I was checking the site you used in your example. It has no rank at the moment. so what happened?

mentallychallenged said:

@jkwilson. This is a year old thread, but I landed on it while checking online on how to retail pg on expired/dropped domains. I bought a pg rank 4, 2 and 1 domain and it has no rank left. I was checking the site you used in your example. It has no rank at the moment. so what happened?

Click to expand...

A dropped domain loses its PR: http://www.seologs.com/dns/domain-check.html says yoplait-coupons.info was created 3 months ago, which means it moved to a new registrar. Sad times for the owner!

never mind, I got it.