Comments on: Mr Cutts are you sure about that?

By: Vishal Agrahari

Vishal Agrahari — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:32:14 +0000

I have never gone thru such any case. First time i am reading such comment and that too from Matt. Matt Please give one such example where you can show changing the ownership affects link value to zero.

I will raise this comment in SEO forums.

Edit by Tim I removed the comment spamming link, but kept the comment because I thought it was funny

By: My name is not SEO and I will learn to read

My name is not SEO and I will learn to read — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:11:55 +0000

Yes, I’ve noticed that activity before. I bought an expired domain (who hasn’t) and noticed a big drop in it’s PR and the links Google associated with it soon after I got hold of it. So I suspected they must have know the domain was bought and changed ownership.

By: Tina

Tina — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:57:18 +0000

I personally agree Igore. I have seen websites, that had been sold, they ownerships been changed, even the hostings, and there has been no change in the results. Matt is High I guess

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Simple Block segmentation analysis • Tim Nash UK SEO Blog — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:09:00 +0000

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By: Igor The Troll

Igor The Troll — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:27:26 +0000

Tim, you better go see Matt and clarify this. From what I gather there is no consensus to support this claim.

What Matt means is that if you buy a travel related domain and use it for SEO blog or viagra, etc. incoming links will be devalued.

But you never know, need to verify with him! He does talk in riddles! I guess he tries to see how much he can scare Black Hats off and always pushes the envelope.

By: Tim Nash

Tim Nash — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:17:40 +0000

Thanks Greg but I don’t think that is the one Brian means as it does not mention him using phased whois as part of a contract which is what I was after Unless he meant

Good question….I try to change as little of the whois as possible….getting their register login is the ultimate….beyond that, I try to change as little as possible…that’s all I’ll say.

Not quite the same thing at all but I can understand why he said it when he did, though it is related very much with the sandbox which is not something that really exists these days.

By: Greg Johnson

Greg Johnson — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:52:45 +0000

here’s a link to Jim Boykin’s article talking about buying sites
jimboykin.com/screw-the-sandbox-buy-and-old-site/

By: shah

shah — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:13:40 +0000

If this is true, then why do banned domains continue to be banned by Google long after they’ve expired and re-registered by other people?

By: Igor

Igor — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:16:07 +0000

This sounds like more Warmongering and inducing fear on Webmasters.

Matt Cutts give it a break!

The guy who buys your house after you cannot pay your bank note can resale it for a value greater than zero, something around the market going rate!

A property does not become valueless just because it changes ownership!

Google needs to stop playing God!

By: Melanie Prough

Melanie Prough — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:23:28 +0000

The links should stay as in all honesty the belong to the site/domain. If I am to sell a online store, clearly I am going to make it rank and do some pretty significant link building to make it a better offering for purchase. So if the buyer is running related content, or in this case the developed content, why on earth would the site stand to lose its backlinks or rank.

So, Google me this… Yahoo sells to MSN they should lose all authority, rank and inbound links… Right? To hell with any merit a domain may have, I think not.

The links, rank, trust, and authority are exactly why domains do not depreciate in value… Unless you screw one up.

When you 301, backlinks are transferred regardless of the name. It then boils down their worth… Are the considered relative enough or will they be devalued. They will however remain attached to the domain, and transfer over (After a while).