Peter van der Graaf wrote an article today on Search Engine Watch that deals with domaining for links. Van der Graaf writes that even though this is old school it is still a method that works for acquiring link value.
From the article:
What Domains Do You Buy?
Domains with link value become available once the current owner has little use for it anymore. This happens in various occasions, which all have their unique signal for Google to pick up and act on when they suspect unnatural behavior.
- Expired domains are of no use to their previous owner and come fairly cheap. It is however the easiest signal for Google to detect. Julie Joyce wrote about this in “How to Build Links Using Expired Domains“.
- Domains for sale and parked domains are another group of opportunities that spread their own signals. In many cases the domain placeholder itself is a signal for Google, but with every domain acquisition the combination of a simultaneous ownership-, hosting- and content-change offers the clearest signal. So make sure you spread these over a longer period and try to resurrect the original content first.
- Insolvencies or bankruptcies also make the domain become available again. Contacting the curator can often get you a lucrative deal on a lot of link value. Especially when the company name isn’t continued by anyone, nobody knows that there is value in the acquired links. With the right approach Google has little characteristics to detect SEO intent.
- Outdated conferences and events are often accompanied by a domain with a year in it. These are kept as archive, but after about 2 years they receive no visitors anymore. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.
- Any sign of outdatedness can be used to find opportunities. Use Google queries or your personal scraping script to look for old copyright footers or a news section without any recent updates. This is a strong indicator that the current owner has lost his interest in the domain and that it might be for sale for an affordable price.
Read the full article on Search Engine Watch
