I'm looking to buy a website, but the domain name is horrible, no keywords, no meaning, just numbers and characters. The owner said he bought it 4 years ago because it had a PR6, but now it is PR1. Although it does have many backlinks to it.

If I register my own domain and 301 redirect this current domain with all the backlinks, will I lose SEO and or referral traffic? And what is the best way to go about redirecting a domain so that my new domain keeps all the old backlinks redirecting to the new domain/directory?

Thanks a bunch!

Yes you will have all traffic from that domain name on your web site. If that is traffic from SE you need to know from which keywords. If they are not related to your niche the scheme could be useless.

I think this will hurt SE traffic

I read a blog post relating to the topic this morning:-

http://www.dailybloggr.com/2010/03/h...ic-case-study/

Originally Posted by loverboy420

I think this will hurt SE traffic

Why? You may have some examples which can prove your theory?

We suggest you to register your new domain and redirect it to the old one.