Are additional domains beneficial for SEO?

[PaulEchere]

Hi!

Tried to look for some information around this, however still couldn't find any definitive answer, so thought I'd raise this as a new thread.
Here's an example: You purchase an expired domain with decent DR and some relevant backlinks and 301 redirect it to your main site. Is this going to positively impact your SEO?
Some blogposts and articles I read suggested that this isn't going to do much, however at the same time I remember reading some threads here where people mentioned this being quite useful. So I was wondering whether anyone can share their opinion on this.

Thanks,

[artrust99]

Got top1 spot with only 301 redirects. It is working at the moment. Not sure about future, but while it lasts I will use it as much as possible

[gil.langelaan]

Yes, it works.
It's a bit difficult but we have positive movements in ranking and traffic.

[petimi]

It probably depends how you use these domains and what their backlink profile is like.

I would suggest not overdoing it. Although if you find a niche relevant expired domain that has valuable backlinks it's worth picking it up.

Some things I always check:
- inspect full backlink profile and avoid domains with artificial toxic links
- look up historical pages in archives.org and make sure there was no PBN like sites built on the domain previously
- don't only look DF/DA, I think high Trust Flow (20+) and Citation Flow are better indicators of a good quality site (if it's combined with high DA that's even better)

Is there a tool you use to look for domains?

[PaulEchere]

Got top1 spot with only 301 redirects. It is working at the moment. Not sure about future, but while it lasts I will use it as much as possible

Do you also move the additional ones over via Google Search Console?

[PaulEchere]

It probably depends how you use these domains and what their backlink profile is like.

I would suggest not overdoing it. Although if you find a niche relevant expired domain that has valuable backlinks it's worth picking it up.

Some things I always check:
- inspect full backlink profile and avoid domains with artificial toxic links
- look up historical pages in archives.org and make sure there was no PBN like sites built on the domain previously
- don't only look DF/DA, I think high Trust Flow (20+) and Citation Flow are better indicators of a good quality site (if it's combined with high DA that's even better)

Is there a tool you use to look for domains?

I look for them on expireddomains.net and then check the interesting ones using different tools.

[artrust99]

Do you also move the additional ones over via Google Search Console?

Same topic/theme - via GSC
Non-themed but with good trust/DA and backlinks - through cloudflare without any GSC

[DunderMannen]

Got top1 spot with only 301 redirects. It is working at the moment. Not sure about future, but while it lasts I will use it as much as possible

That's sick! How many domains did you need? Ofc it depends on the keywords and stuff, but still.

I have an idea of doing the same with about 10-20 domains, I'm targeting a non-english country and the competition is surprisingly low for the keywords I'm targeting...

[chaumi]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere recently that Google are getting wise to this (or more to the point already knew and either didn't know how to stop it or chose to ignore) and at some point will stop it by dropping everything off a domain when they see change of ownership. If true it makes sense but obviously penalizes people legitimately buying existing online businesses.

It may never happen, or it might be years away, but anyone considering buying lots of domains just for SEO juice reasons should at least recognize that risk.

[DunderMannen]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere recently that Google are getting wise to this (or more to the point already knew and either didn't know how to stop it or chose to ignore) and at some point will stop it by dropping everything off a domain when they see change of ownership. If true it makes sense but obviously penalizes people legitimately buying existing online businesses.

It may never happen, or it might be years away, but anyone considering buying lots of domains just for SEO juice reasons should at least recognize that risk.

Google would do anything that benefits them. You can clearly see they're working hard towards making people not leave google.com (snippets, embeds etc.) in about 5 years time I think we'll see a completely different Google to what it is now.

And it wouldn't surprise me if they penalize buying domains and online businesses, after all it doesn't benefit them to let people do it.

[artrust99]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere recently that Google are getting wise to this (or more to the point already knew and either didn't know how to stop it or chose to ignore) and at some point will stop it by dropping everything off a domain when they see change of ownership. If true it makes sense but obviously penalizes people legitimately buying existing online businesses.

It may never happen, or it might be years away, but anyone considering buying lots of domains just for SEO juice reasons should at least recognize that risk.

I have mentioned several times (in other topics) that Google will penalize it in future, but as for now - this strategy works perfectly. The idea behind this is to get as much as possible revenue, before the Google's move.

2 DunderMannen, in total I made 36 domains, so consider 36 websites with the same thematic, same keywords. And linked them wisely.

[Former Member 7]

It works but you need a balance of quite a few other things too - just make sure you redirect relevant domains that could have possibly been related to this website in the past, this way you don't get penalties (or are much less likely to).

AdWords is very good as well, use some 301's then spend a few grand on Ads - you'll notice they're biased and your site will rank up for that.

All takes time though, unless you hit gold on an easy high volume keyword.