Somebody contacted me through my myspace profile and asked me why buying old web sites are better than starting out with a fresh site and domain. There are probably hundreds of reasons, however there are two SEO scenarios where the value is, at least for me obvious.

First we got the “sandbox”, the sandbox effect could be compared to a holding cell. Google will keep you in the cell, safely away from the main population until they think they can trust you, or in this case your website. It is in my opinion a great way to fight spam, if you don’t mind heavy collateral damage. Old web sites are most of the time not “sandboxed”, they might never have been sand boxed. If you don’t want to start with a old domain, then it would be smart to start your web site a year before you start your business.

The second reason is when you are making a final push to the top. The competition for many English search phrases are next to ridiculous, and even with a highly relevent site with thousands of back links you might still be on the third result page or worse. Buying some web site that ranks low for the same search maybe around in the 200th spot, and optimizing it should be enough to push your main site higher, while at the same time get additional business through leads from the support sites.

[tags]old web sites, sandbox, sandbox effect, Google[/tags]