Expired Domains with Fake PR (Page Rank)
- No Traffic
A really nasty trap with buying traffic by recycling expired domains is that the Google PR might have been faked. You need to know this because the name may have no traffic in its own right
- Redirect Script
What the faker does is write a sneaky little script to detect Google-bot and redirect it to some page with massive or higher PR. This then causes the PR of that page to show in the Google tool bar instead of the real PR. This works because the page rank is computed from the actual page referenced; in this case someone else’s high rank page.
- 301 Redirect
Another twist on the same theme is where the whole domain, usually just a single page, is referred using a 301 redirection – again the PR of the final destination page is quoted in the Google tool bar. Today on PRTag.com there is an expired domain with a PR8 rating for sale for $35. It is fake PR, because there is a 301 redirect to a different website. The actual domain name has no PR at all.
- Check that the PR is for real.
So if you are buying an expired or re-used domain, check that the PR is for real. Here are a couple of tools to use to verify that the expired domains don’t have fake PR:
http://www.tracerank.com/
http://checkpagerank.net/index.php?name=opotiki.com&links=1
http://www.domainpagerank.com/
- Check the Google (or MSN) cache
Another quick check is to compare the actual domain with the domain and content in the Google cache. If they don’t match, that might just be the ‘fakin’ reason.
- No Comeback
The kind of nasty that would do this trick is the same kind of nasty that would refuse to give your money back when you complained about them selling you expired domains with fake PR, so do your checking first.
- UPDATE – Page Redirects
Another method is when the cheat uses the REFRESH command to redirect the URL to a page with high PR:
E.G. - < meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.topPRpage.com/" >
They might even include some script to force the address bar to show the original URL to make the deception complete!
[...] A word of caution here – the PR may be faked. Check it out BEFORE you buy. If this idea is new to you, read some more here. [...]
I have found another case. Domain with fake PR but parked. There is no script and no redirect from domain register. How that can be?
Reply to Dereck@Dereck
See the update in the post above – it is done using Page Redirects with the REFRESH command.
The PR is recorded in Google’s Data banks, and will persist, even if the domain is parked, until Google does its next PR update
Reply to RhysOne more problem is any domain that is bought will get updated pr after you build new site. Google knows it is not same site and will make sure it has same content. The high pr could be lost after you transfer site and google redoes page rank.
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Reply to High yeild savingsnice art
Reply to rsi was testing this method and it works
I think you should only buy a domina name if you like the name and terms used in it. Pr can go down anytime if page changes or links to that page do. Sometimes your just better off making own domian name up and working on getting PR for yourself.
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Reply to Best etf funds listYep – I agree, that is often the best way to go, but if you can work fast you can preserve the PR of a new domain and build on it to get a head start!
Reply to RhysWow, how many of these tricks are being used that people don’t know about? I’m concerned about people using hoplinks that don’t belong to them and redirecting to cash in with their own id, and things like that. Is it possible? It’s pretty amazing what is possible, so I wouldn’t doubt it.
Reply to Doug