Buying Expired Domains
-
Recently i was looking to buy some good quality Expired Domains.
But while performing site and links query on such domains in google, none of the domains are showing any links or pages indexed in Google but the same domains are showing hundreds of links in opensiteexplorer for that domains.
So does Google has started devaluing expired domains or will expired domains recover all their rankings after re registration by us.
-
You need to be careful when purchasing a dropped domain that appears to be too good (short name, no hyphens, competitive keyword phrase)
a) take a look at what the site used to be in archive.org (the wayback machine) and take a look at if anything shady was going on
b) if you are buying it as a regular domain and not paying a premium price, set up a dummy site and get it indexed then see if it ranks for it's domain name and also using the site command site:domainname.com. If it's not ranking it's penalized, if it's not getting indexed it's banned.
c) If a site has been hit by Google it's done, at least until someone unwinds the penalty. Just dropping it and picking it up doesn't change the fact that it was penalized, otherwise everyone would be doing that to get out of penalties. So just be aware of that if planning on buying a premium domain so you don't get burnt.
If links are pointing to a expired domain it's like they are 404'ing but once the site goes live again those links are passing PR to that site.
-
This depends on the domain and the aftermarket process, can be hit and miss, the question should always be is this investment going to get me a return on my time and money. I often ask if I am doing this why is nobody else after this domain and if there is not keyword, cpc and other data to justify a purchase I'll back away. Keyword related expiring domains would be a better bet than just expiring domains with links.
-
Hi Amit,
I have owned a ecommerce domain since 2004 at times due to financial issues I had turned the site off (redirected everything to a maintenance page), for 6 months to even a year and half once. Oddly enough after the year and half time, I turned off the maintenance page and within 24 hours I already had customers buying from me again.
That isn't the same as expired since I always renewed my domain, but I was surprised on how quickly customers returned after such a long time being down. Hope that helps a little.
-
It's not a good practice, so be careful and only pick relevant ones.
Whether or not they loose their ranking depends, but if they aren't indexed anymore, then their rating is probably gone.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Are Expires Headers Detrimental to SEO Health?
My dev was looking into Expires Headers to increase speed, but she don't know the ramifications behind them for SEO. What I found online is really old: https://moz.com/blog/expires-headers-for-seo-why-you-should-think-twice-before-using-them What do SEOs think? Thanks in advance! ~Dana
Technical SEO | | dklarse0 -
Domain Change
What is the average organic traffic loss one can expect after switching to a new domain? We went from .com to .org and are seeing 50% decline in organic traffic and 25% in Google news traffic. 301s were implemented from site.com/some-page to site.org/some-page and change site was completed in WMT. This traffic drop seems excessive...
Technical SEO | | SoulSurfer80 -
I have a blog on a sub domain, would you move it to the rood domain in a directory?
I have a blog that preforms fairly well on a sub domain, but after reading a post that Rand made to the Q & A I am thinking about moving it to the main domain in a sub directory. What are your thoughts on this? Here are some stats on it. The blog currently gets about 5 x the traffic of the main domain. The domain is older, 2008 creation date. They pretty much register for the same keywords.
Technical SEO | | LesleyPaone0 -
Effect of temporary subdomains on the root domain
Hi all, A client of ours tends to have a number of offers and competitions during the year and would like to host these competitions on separate sub-domains. Once a competition is over (generally these last for approximately a month) the sub-domain gets deleted and pointed back to the main site. I was wondering whether this would have any effects on the root domain. Can I get your opinion please?
Technical SEO | | ICON_Malta0 -
Domain taken. Which is better? Using hypens or longer domain.
I am wanting to set up an e commerce site and the domain name that I want is taken. I am considering using a domain that has the main keyword I want to rank for as the domain. I have heard chatter of google penalizing these types of sites and it seems that it hasn't come about. This is something that I would like to test out. So if "electricscooters.com" is taken, should I use "electric-scooters.com" or "electricscooters4less.com" Just wondering if the hyphenated or the longer domain will rank higher. The site won't be spammy at all, I will carry a few different companies that offer similar products. So for this case, I would only sell scooters from a few different manufacturers. Feedback would be appreciated!
Technical SEO | | Dave_Whitty0 -
Domain redirect seo
Hello, my domain www.pacomarca.com and when i start the new campaing i get this pronblem: We have detected that the domain www.pacomarca.com and the domain pacomarca.com both respond to web requests and do not redirect. Having two "twin" domains that both resolve forces them to battle for SERP positions, making your SEO efforts less effective. We suggest redirecting one, then entering the other here. my domain is in networksolutions.com. how can i resolve it? many thanks Gonzalo
Technical SEO | | Kuna0 -
Domain tld question
Hi all, I have a question regarding the ranking of exact match tld which is co.uk Currently I have a .com domain with PR of 3 and the problem is that it have one word in front of my desired keyword, so it's not exact match. I have managed to buy an exact match but it's co.uk The questions are: Will a co.uk rank better for UK than .com domain I am reading at SEOMOZ that exact match domain value is getting lower, so is it worth to redirect my current .com domain to co.uk just to get rid of that one word and start all over again with exact match. Thanks
Technical SEO | | VasilTasev0 -
301 redirect from domain to home.aspx
We have been asked to look at a website and have found a 301 redirect from the domain www.domain.com to www.domain.com/home.aspx. Why would someone do this, this way round? We can't think of a good reason and are wondering if we have overlooked something? Thanks for your help.
Technical SEO | | travelinnovations0