How to sell an ancient domain without disclosing? Advice please.

[petertdavis]

I have a domain in my portfolio that has been continuously registered since 1995, not picked up on a drop or anything like that. It would be very appealing to SEO types. However, if I disclose the domain in public, it's possible that the search engine people would put a ban on it, thus removing the biggest reason it's currently very valuable. Well, it is a nice seven letter brandable name, but ancient domains are extremely popular among SEOs right now. Any suggestions on how to get a good sale out of it?

 

[Shaggy]

If you listed it, why would it be banned from se's ?

 

[petertdavis]

Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Better, IMO, to not chance it.

 

[WhoDatDog]

If a tree falls in the woods......

How does one get experience without a job?

 

[petertdavis]

If a tree falls in the woods......

How does one get experience without a job?

huh?

 

[007]

I don't think you have anything to worry about.. But I could be wrong. I don't know why they would ban it though.

 

[petertdavis]

Well, I did hear Matt Cutts say this week on Webmaster Radio that his current pet peeve is people using old domains to do what he considers "blackhat" SEO. I haven't used the domain for anything blackhat at all, but I'd like to avoid having someone like Matt see the domain posted for sale and put it on his hit list.

 

[Rarethings]

I can't see the se's banning your domain just for speaking out. The reason that the domain is valuable is not because it's hidden (google probably spiders it every day, along with alexa, and thousands of other services) but the reason it is valuable is because of its registration date, and no se is going to ban nor blacklist it for that....

 

[BiggieBiggie is verified member.]

if you can let one person "coin" a term, and apply it negatively, with the black prefix,disrupt your business plans.... then you are already "psyched-out"!

what i'm trying to say is....do your thing

 

[DNGeeks]

The exclusive forums aren't spidered by search engines, you could always post it there for appraisal/sale.

 

[petertdavis]

The exclusive forums aren't spidered by search engines, you could always post it there for appraisal/sale.

I know I could do that, but as I stated, that's exactly what I don't want to do.

 

[petertdavis]

Listing it for sale isn't black hat SEO, black hat SEO is doorway pages, hidden text, etc.

A few years ago maybe.

 

[mmkrulz]

A few years ago maybe.

If everything is going to be that generally paranoid, whats the point of buying and selling anymore?

 

[labrocca]

Peter you should know better. Maybe this is a $xx,xxx domain and you're being too cautious. If you are selling it then what do you care what happens once it's sold? The buyer might take it and do blackhat stuff and that's what matt cutt is talking about.

btw...PM me the name I am curious..

 

[tm3500]

I think Peter refers to promoting a domain for sale while extolling its ancient registration date as an inherent benefit as far as SEO is concerned. From the search engines' point of view, that could be similar to selling links on high PR pages, which is frowned upon.

I couldn't find the original warning, but according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank, "Google has publicly warned Webmasters that if they discovered to be selling links for the purpose of conferring PageRank and Reputation, their links will be devalued (ignored in the calculation of other page's PageRank)."

The idea behind that is that selling high PR links cheats Google's supposedly "neutral" system of determining the natural popularity of a site.

If Google discovers that Peter is selling his domain primarily as a way for someone else to get a high search engine ranking (i.e. circumvent the neutral system), they might penalize the domain.

This is only a theory. If you're concerned about this possibility, a potential solution would be to focus on other benefits of the domain and to mention the potential SEO advantges only between the lines. Maybe even put up a website and sell it as a such rather than just as a domain.

 

[petertdavis]

Peter you should know better. Maybe this is a $xx,xxx domain and you're being too cautious. If you are selling it then what do you care what happens once it's sold? The buyer might take it and do blackhat stuff and that's what matt cutt is talking about.

btw...PM me the name I am curious..

I do care about what happens after I sell. I want to make sure the buyer gets the best value. I don't want to behave recklessly.

 

[dodo1]

There is still another possibility most domainers tend to overlook: domains can also be offered for sale offline. Yes, there is also an offline world existing. :wink:

Good luck!