How far of a mismatch can expired domains be topically to keep the link power?

[Assblaster]

If I were to acquire an expired domain in the automotive niche (cars), would it be OK to use it for purely motorcycle content? Would I get the same "ranking power“ when posting motorcycle-related content in comparison to purely automotive (car) content?

 

[JamaicanMoose]

If I were to acquire an expired domain in the automotive niche (cars), would it be OK to use it for purely motorcycle content? Would I get the same "ranking power“ when posting motorcycle-related content in comparison to purely automotive (car) content?

Impossible to say, but It should work. It's certainly something I would do.

 

[Golan]

If I were to acquire an expired domain in the automotive niche (cars), would it be OK to use it for purely motorcycle content? Would I get the same "ranking power“ when posting motorcycle-related content in comparison to purely automotive (car) content?

I assume, you define the niche by the existing backlinks, - how else, right? Then do the following:

- Scrape (ahrefs etc) all urls of the old site that have meaningful backlinks;
- Build relevant to these backlinks pages; if (likely) you can't replicate an old url structure, 301 the dirty old urls to these new pages;
- From these new pages, link internally to important pages of your new site;
- If you feel this auto topic does not fit the moto topic at all and don't want users ever see these pages - you can put them in like "archive" category and not link to it from any visible place, but don't make it totally orphan! some link to it from the homepage, even from not-easy-to-be-seen place, is the must.

Good luck!

 

[Klayne]

If I were to acquire an expired domain in the automotive niche (cars), would it be OK to use it for purely motorcycle content? Would I get the same "ranking power“ when posting motorcycle-related content in comparison to purely automotive (car) content?

Honestly @Assblaster , I have been doing SEO for a while, and we don't fucking know, and is it OK or NOT is not the right question, you don't need our approval.

There are so many factors at play that can affect whether it will work or not. For example, the domain history, backlink history, what has happened with the backlinks since expiring, what content was there before, is it indexed or penalized ...

Intuitively it makse sense that auto content should be better, than moto content, but at the same time it's relevant enough to not be too far off and should work, if other factors are in place.

In the end of the day, choose different and/or more specific questions, or go through with it and see what happens. The SERPS sometimes are completely retarded and don't make sense, while sometimes they make sense fully.