Domain Names and Google Ranking
It can be tempting to get that domain name that you have always wanted. Your current domain might be too long and another shorter .com domain has just surfaces. It has the right keyword(s) and the previous owner has let it expire. You quickly buy it thinking Google will give you better results with a more appropriate domain. But before you set up your 301 redirect from your old domain you should educate yourself about just how bad you could mess up your current rankings.
Domain Age
If this new domain ‘younger’ than your old domain Google will not rank it as high, even if the keywords are better. Google sees the new domain as riskier since it hasn’t been around as long.
Inlinks and Reputation
All those other lovely sites that link to you have your old address and Google cares very much about domain inlink reputation. Also there is evidence that even if you get all your wonderful inlinks to change to the new domain Google will still rank it lower because it has not worked up the reputation that your old domain has.
Blacklists
It’s very possible that the previous owner used blackhat SEO practices or other things that could cause Google to blacklist the domain. Additionally, if the domain was parked for a period of time it could also get blocked. It can take a long time to fix the domains negative reputation which costs you dearly if your business gets a good percentage of it’s traffic from organic search results.
How to Get Value From Your New Domain
First off, keep your old domain and use it as always have. Your new domain can still be very valuable but you shouldn’t immediately set it up to resolve to your website. Instead you should create a brand new website for the domain. It should have unique content (blogs work great) but you don’t need to spend a ton of time on the site other than adding good quality content about the topic of interest.
Keep an eye on the search results for your new site and if you start to see some good rankings you can start thinking about merging the two sites or just keep them both and link to your main website. The point is to be careful to not ruin your existing standing by doing something drastic. And you can still leverage your shiny new domain.
One last note: if the domain is for a brand new website you should focus on getting good quality content built up before worrying about the blacklist. Google tends to still crawl blocked sites to see if they improve their practices. If you remain blacklisted, you can apply for a review from Google to get back in the search results.
