Buying an existing domain Assuming you are impatient to progress (as new webmasters often are) and cannot bear to wait the 6–12 months required for a new domain to rank well, you might want to look at acquiring a privately held or expired domain name. The sites overleaf (all offering similar services) may be a good place to start. Note that many domains are listed with more than one of these sites.

Bear in mind that Google tries to simulate the real world as far as possible. If one business acquires or merges with another, you would expect the PageRank (see page 129) and incoming links of the two businesses to carry across to the new entity. This is indeed what happens, so if you buy an active domain (in a private auction) and use proper redirects (see page 80) you have nothing to fear.

However, if you buy a defunct domain “off the shelf,” there is really no reason you should acquire any of the goodwill that the now deceased business used to enjoy. Google actively discourages the practice of buying up old domains simply to escape the age delay, and many buyers of deleted domains find the PageRank they thought they were getting wiped out soon after their purchase.

I would suggest that if you are interested in a domain that is about to expire, you contact the actual domain name holder and seek to acquire the domain privately by mutual agreement, prior to its expiry. The whole process from domain expiry date to actual domain deletion from the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages domain names) database actually takes up to 75 days, so there should be plenty of time to agree a deal.

However, should you find yourself cutting it close, there is a risk that Google might incorrectly treat your change of ownership as a deleted domain firesale. My advice, in such a situation, is to keep as many of the Whois details the same for at least six months after your acquisition of the domain (using the same domain name registrar and web-hosting provider as the previous owner). Make the change look as much like a going-concern transfer as possible to mitigate the risk.

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