Every day, hundreds of domain names reach their expiration date.
A website name is considered to be “expired domain” if the owner did not pay the renewal fee on time.
This could have happened for a number of reasons, like the owner forgetting to renew the domain name, the payment not going through, the company going out of business, or the company wanting to rebrand.
If an expired domain name isn’t renewed within the first 30 days after it has expired, it will go into a hold period, also called the redemption period, for another 30 days.
Even in that case, if the current owner of the domain does not renew it, it will be put up for sale in an auction for other people to purchase.
Related: Why Do Domain Names Expire?
Benefits of Buying an Expired Domain for Your Website
1. Create an authoritative website
If you’re thinking about starting a new website or blog, you might want to consider buying an expired domain name rather than a new one.
You can use an expired domain’s current SEO value to quickly improve your website’s ranking. This is because search engines like Google have already indexed the sites.
Because a new domain is a brand new to search engines, you’ll need to put in a lot of work to establish its authority.
You’ll need to put in a lot of time and work to create new content, generate backlinks, and eventually get domain age authority.
2. It can be used to create backlinks to your website
Backlinks are one of the aspects that determine your SEO Site Score in search engines in the SEO world.
You can create a modest mini-site only to provide links to your current website or blog. The idea is to use a backlink to move “link juice” from the old domain to your main website.
This is a more efficient way to build backlinks than writing as many guest posts as possible, which may or may not be accepted or have a significant influence.
You’ll also have complete control over everything.
3. Use a 301 redirection to your site
If you want to transfer the link juice from an expired domain to your current website without having to build up a mini-site, simply redirect the old name to your website.
A 301 redirect can be used for this.
Because if an expired domain with a high SEO value and a good number of backlinks has been accumulated over time, all of the ranking value will be moved to your current website.
People are more willing to purchase an expired domain because of this.
4. Keywords in the domain name
The value of an expired domain name that contains the keywords that the majority of people look for can skyrocket.
The “domain lookup“, like the keywords, will be what most people search for when they want to buy a domain. In the domain market, keyword domains are still quite popular.
When purchasing an expired domain, keep in mind that there may be domain disputes with trademark registrations.
Before purchasing a domain, you can search the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) database.
5. Make a profit by selling it
Many people will buy expired domain names and then sell them to others. This is also known as Domain Flipping.
An expired domain can be purchased at an auction or through a company that sells expired domains.
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Downsides of Buying Expired Domain
The truth is, buying expired domains has its pros and cons. The following are the downsides of expired domain names.
1. Domain Penalties
If the domain that you want to buy has a bad history, you run the risk of having a de-indexed or blacklisted website.
These domains usually receive low-quality traffic from bots or from a number of other bad reasons, including the following:
- Security breaches
- Spammy backlinks
- Duplicated content
- Keyword stuffing
- Manipulating anchor text
Before you buy a domain name to improve the performance of your website, you should make sure that the previous website owner didn’t use shady SEO techniques. If they did, you could get a penalty.
2. Intense Competition
When you buy an expired domain, you do it with the expectation that it will help you compete with other businesses.
You might want to think about switching to a different domain, though, if there are a number of high-authority websites using the same domain name as yours.
Consider implementing a link-building plan that makes use of keywords with low levels of competition as opposed to focusing on competing for a spot on the first page of Google while using competitive keywords.
These long-tail terms have a reasonable number of monthly searches, and using them makes it much simpler to rank.
3. Auctions
Generally, you should avoid getting involved in a competitive bidding process for an expired domain name.
If you’re looking for a high-performing domain for your website, you can be sure that others will do likewise.
The price will go higher as a result of the increased demand, and you’ll end up paying more money for a domain name that, in all likelihood, will not be worth it in the long run.
Wait until another domain name becomes available, or come up with your own, unless you are certain that the search engine optimization benefits will be worth paying for the expired domain name.
4. Domain History
Even though the mistake might have been made by a previous owner, the marks will still stay with the domain.
Because of this, there is a chance that your website may be blacklisted, which will cause you a significant amount of stress.
Visit the Internet Archive to look into the history of a domain name before you buy it.
5. Comparison: Organic vs Bot Traffic
If you think you’ve found the perfect name for your specialized website, you might be tempted to buy it before doing any more research, especially if the website gets a lot of traffic.
But before you buy, you should look at the visits to make sure that real people are using the site and not just spambots.
In order to get a more in-depth look at the traffic, enter the domain into Google Analytics.
Are there any noteworthy increases in a relatively short period of time? Is there usually a direct referral from which the traffic originates? Is the bounce rate almost 100%?
The answers to all of these questions will provide you with some insight into the quality of the traffic that comes to the expired domain.
You might have an issue if the majority of your site visitors are new, the bounce rate is close to 100 percent, and there is a high number of one-page viewers.
6. Limited Options
Because there are only a certain number of domain names that expire, the options available to new users can be limited.
In addition, the user might have to wait for the domain name to become available for purchase at an auction after they have waited for it to expire.
Although this is a time-consuming process, there is a possibility that it will be useful to the consumer.
7. Risks of Frauds
If no prior background check was done on the domain name, there is a significant risk of scams.
It is possible that the new website will suffer the same consequences as its predecessor if the former website using that domain name was penalized for any reason.
8. Overpriced
Domain names that are sent to an auction house will be sold to the highest bidder.
This could turn out to be a pricey auction if there is a particular bidder who wants to acquire the domain name no matter what it takes.
How to Find Expired Domain Names
Buying a domain that has expired involves specific procedures. Before you place an order, it’s a good idea to learn about the steps you need to take. Check them out:
- Visit expireddomains.net. It is a website that lists all expired and soon-to-expire domains.
- Explore and evaluate the domain names that are worth purchasing. You should look for numerous types of indicators, like the number of backlinks, the Alexa traffic rank, and the expiration date.
- Choose the desired domain name and compare it to the aforementioned indicators. Look for domains with a high number of backlinks, a high Alexa traffic rank, and an expiration date close to the present.
- Contact Exabytes for more information on the expired domain that matches your requirements.
Tips: At ExpiredDomains.net, you can locate suitable Expired Domains that are Pending Delete and available for Backorder.
Depending on the domain extension, you can search through thousands of domains each day before they become available to the general public and select the ones you prefer.
To search for the best results, feel free to make use of various filters to arrange the lists as you see fit, or you can use our Watchlist to monitor Expired Domains after they have dropped.
Currently, ExpiredDomains.net supports 527 TLDs, ranging from traditional gTLDs such as .com, .net, and .org to ccTLDs.
Dropped Domains
In addition to expired domains, you can also find listings of deleted domains for a variety of TLDs.
Deleted Domains or Dropped Domains are available for registration at Exabytes for just a standard fee.
All domains contain the standard SEO-relevant information, like the number of Backlinks, Archive.org’s Birth Date, and more.
6 Things You Should Consider When Buying an Expired Domain
You should conduct some research before purchasing an expired domain. Here are six factors to look for before buying an expired domain.
a. Domain’s Age
Before purchasing an expired domain, make sure to check the age of the domain. This is because the domain authority has a well-established website.
Use DA to compare websites or to monitor a website’s “ranking strength” over time.
b. Backlinks Quality
As previously stated, the significance of high-quality backlinks and a link to your main website can be a motivation for you to purchase an expired domain.
To evaluate the quality of the expired domain’s backlinks, you can use a backlink checker like Ahrefs Backlink Checker.
If all of the backlinks from the expired domain appear to be spam and of low quality, skip it. It will result in the creation of harmful backlinks to your website.
c. Site Integrity
You can use the Wayback Machine to look at the site history of an expired domain to determine its site quality.
You don’t need to buy a domain that has already been used for spamming purposes.
d. Analyze the Moz Rankings
Check the Moz Rankings for the expired domain before purchasing it. Page Authority and Domain Authority are two metrics used to assess the quality of a website.
e. Website Traffic
Keep an eye on the monthly traffic. If there are only a few visits, don’t go for it. You can ask any marketer for guidance, and they will most likely tell you what it takes to attract traffic.
The reason you need a high-traffic domain name is that it might have a high DA or PA score and already have traffic directed to it.
Their present audience recalls the domain name or has already bookmarked the site to some extent.
This means upon domain registration, you will have free traffic. It’s worth noting that traffic will drop after a while when people realize the website has changed.
f. Check out the possible Search Engine Prohibition
By using a Google Banned checker, make sure the domain name isn’t blacklisted by the search engine you wish to rank in.
This is because if Google bans the domain name, it will be of no service to you or your primary website.
Google will erase the “link juice” or “link score” connected with the domain name and will not count it.
Rule of Thumb
Always be very careful to make sure that the expired domain name you buy will bring you the results you want.
After all, if you get the right expired domain name, the SEO benefits will be well worth the time and money.
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