Redirect or create a separate website

Hey,

So I've recently got my hands on a domain name which used to belong to a sports betting operator. The bookie existed for about a year and then closed, so it has some decent links, but not an awful lot of them.

I was initially thinking of doing a 301 to my main website. But since there's not that many really good links, probably 4-5 that I could consider to be actually "good" and relevant, I thought of potentially setting it up as a blog king of thing and posting content with links to my stuff there.

Was wondering if anyone had ever done the long-term comparison of what might be a better choice.

I suspect you won't get any really helpful answers to this. Even if someone had done it and offered that information, (although it would be valuable to know) there are so many variables potentially involved that it wouldn't really help make the 'right' decision either way.

This is one of those that whatever you do, you're unlikely to ever know what the 'right' decision was.

Some considerations:

If you acquired the domain for a reasonable price, the simplest option would be to 301. Also, that might save additional cost (in real money terms and time). Look at it as link juice you bought. One risk might be that the linking sites realize what they were linking to is no longer in the same form and they remove the links - but by that time you may already have squeezed enough value.

If you develop it, sure you get direct links that you have complete control over. But however you cut it, it's only ever one referring-domain link (although you may get some value still with relevant links from individual pages to individual pages on one (or more) of your sites. I think it'll be hard to ever gauge the true value of those links. And, ofc, you then have the added overhead of keeping an extra site updated, hosted, etc etc.


My instinct says the development option has the greatest potential. But the unknown is how much effort you need to put into that development to realize the full potential (alongside the fact you never really know how much juice links are passing anyway). Maybe this is a good candidate example for where (good) AI content might play a positive part.

Or, for the time being while you consider the site to build or not, drop an index page that send visitors direct to a bookie with your aff tag.

Make sure all traffic to domain is redirected even if it comes in on custom url etc, "easily done with an index page that uses the header(location tag "

If in fact the operator had an affiliate program up for any length of time it might get the odd click thru from old affiliate sites.

I agree that long term developing a site is probably best.

Rick
Universal4

Issue with running this as a site is you likely don't own the actual brand name and the copyright for it. Not a problem for now but if someone was to buy the rights to that name they could then make you give the domain up. If you've done a 301 then that is no big loss but if you've created an entire site out of it it could be worse.

As Mattbar mentioned, check if the previous owner has any active copyright/trademark registrations on the brand name. If not, I'd be more inclined to set up the site on the domain, if it's a good brand.

If you decide to redirect, I'd suggest to not just do a straight redirect without building out a small site on the domain, 15-20 posts, getting them indexed and then redirecting them over to the other domain.

I've done this a couple of times, pm me if you want to ask any questions.

Many years ago I also bought an expiring domain of an bookie. At that time I was thinking I can use that traffic, so I have created an entire new website. I didnt have a big success, but about 5 years ago I got a very offer and sold that domain. Now it seems the website is down and maybe after couple of years I can buy back that domain :D

Is the name generic or a specific brand? Eg: Is it more like "Betfred" or "BetOnline". If it's a brand with a previous trademark I probably wouldn't build on it and just 301, unless you're just talking about a throwaway PBN type site.

Might also come down to how good the links are. Are we talking BBC, NYT, ESPN and Bleacher Report, or just a handful from aff sites?

Either way I'd perhaps test the domain first. Stick up a holding page and see if it gets indexed (and how quickly). Does it rank for the name? Always wise to test a domain isn't toxic before you redirect it in to your main site.

It is a brand name, but tbh it's somewhere between "Betfred" and "BetOnline" :)
It doesn't have links like ESPN and others you mentioned, but it does have a number of links from some reputable regional sports media sites.
I'll probably start with a one pager and will see how it goes.

As was mentioned above, If you plan to sell this domain in future you should build a new site.
Maybe even make a simple/clipped clone of your main.

And how did these trials end? Is there success?

I ended up setting up a new website with that domain name. It gets some traffic from G by branded search queries but in essence this is now a regular sportsbook affiliate website / blog.

If that betting site still exists and they are using that name, you can be sure that you'll receive plenty of inquiries. There's no point in being difficult. Sell it back to those to whom it belongs. You won't be able to cash in on it yourself anyway