Buying an expired domain requires a complete awareness of the domain market and the procedures and best practices to apply.
This article guides future domain owners on purchasing expired domains for their business growth.
Expired domains or dropped domains are already registered domains whose original owners neglected to renew them before their expiration date. Buyers do not own domains entirely. It is like renting, where you lose ownership and have to renew the domain name once the term expires.
Registrars grant an extended grace period before an expired domain is offered on the domain market. However, you can still claim your domain during this time by paying the redemption fee.
While buying a new domain may sound like the better option, expired domains are the real deal. With new ones, you are starting from scratch to build your identity and visibility.
However, you don’t have to build from scratch when buying expired domains. They give you a headstart and an edge against your competition.
Purchasing expired domains offers many benefits worth considering. They include:
Existing Traffic: Expired domains may have built high website traffic over the years. If these domains are relevant to your niche, you can convert the existing audience by creating quality content to ensure they become loyal audiences.
Domain Authority: Old domains have built authority and credibility through their good history and backlink profile. This authority drives traffic, enhances visibility, and helps the website rank higher in search engines.
SEO Advantage: Expired domains can help with SEO. Old domains with a great backlink profile, domain authority, and credibility increase visibility and improve search engine optimization.
Good Backlink Profile: An excellent expired domain with great backlinks gives you an advantage in SEO. Backlinks also help build credibility and authority, reducing the time and effort needed to build them.
Faster Indexing: Older domains have established an internet presence. As a result, Google and other search engines have already indexed their pages and information. So, if you buy an expired domain and add new content to it, the search engine will crawl and index it faster because it recognizes the domain authority and history.
Cost-Effective Marketing: Buying an expired domain helps cut down marketing costs. This is due to its SEO advantage, which makes it easier for brands to drive traffic, enhance visibility, and rank high.
The main uses for expired domains are:
Profit Domain investment is one profitable enterprise. To profit, domain investors buy and resell expired domains. They purchase at lower rates and then retain them until their value increases before selling the domain at a higher price. They could also rent the domain name for a specified length.
Private Blog Networks (PBN) are systems of blogs connected to a single site—the money site. They assist the primary site in ranking higher by creating backlinks, which affect search engine results.
PBN is a common SEO strategy, although it is against Google's Webmaster Guidelines. Hence, even if it is rather common, it should be used with care.
If you have a main website, you can also purchase an expired domain and use 301 redirects to redirect traffic to the main site. This enhances SEO and traffic by helping transfer some of the domain's power and backlinks to the main website.
A brand can build a new website in a niche related to that of the expired domain. This allows you to capitalize on the old websites existing authority and SEO advantages to rank high, drive traffic, and grow quickly.
If you find the expired domain’s website content valuable, you can choose to rebuild it instead of starting fresh. This helps you to leverage its high-quality content and strong backlinks to strengthen your brand.
Before buying your desired domain, check if it's worth the price. Here are some things to consider:
Domain Age: Old domains tend to be seen as authoritative, giving older domains their high value. However, there are exceptions. Domains that are too old may be of lesser value. Check the WHOIS database to find the domain age and other information.
Brandability: Ensure you find a unique domain name that aligns with your brand. Random domain names aren't brand-friendly and can't add to your brand's value.
Traffic: One benefit of purchasing expired domains is their existing traffic. So, analyze the domain traffic and its relevance.
Backlink Profile: Check if the domain has a good backlink profile. Domains with high-quality backlinks are linked to reputable and authoritative websites, contributing to search engine optimization.
Bans and Penalties: You should also consider whether the expired domain has any penalties or bans from search engines. Use Google Search Console to check its index status and check for a Google AdSense ban.
Website Quality: Websites with irrelevant backlinks and spammy content are of low quality. Check past content for spam using the Wayback Machine. You can also use tools like Moz and SpamZilla to check the spam score.
Domain Authority and Page Authority: Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are two crucial considerations for deciding domain quality. Moz Open Site Explorer, SEMrush, and Ahrefs tools allow you to examine the domain authority.
Citation Flow and Trust Flow: You must also consider citation and trust flow. Several metrics are used to check trust and citation flow for backlinks. Use Majestic to check a domain's citation and trust flow metric score before buying.
Finding good expired domains is easy when you have the right tools.
Expired Domain Search Tools and Checkers: There are domain search tools and checkers to help you search for available expired domain names. You can find information about the domain status using WHOIS lookup.
Domain Name Auctions and Marketplaces: Domains are posted for bidding at public sales, while markets feature domains for sale. You can use search filters to help you focus your search on your expired domain from the list.
Now that you've discovered an expired domain, you should buy it. These are the steps to follow:
Domain Valuation: Find out any domain's expected value before buying it. This can help you create your budget to avoid buying at an inflated price or overpaying.
The length, memorability, brand-ability, and top-level domain will all help define its worth. You can also use automated domain valuation tools like the GoDaddy Valuation Tool.
Make a Purchase: Plan your purchase, keeping your budget in mind. Once you and the seller agree, make payment. You should also use an escrow service to protect yourself during the transaction.
The domain expiration process spans for approximately 70 days but will differ depending on the domain registrar. Within this period, your domain is parked and undergoes several stages before the registry finally deletes it and sends it back into the list for re-registration. The process includes:
After the domain expires, it enters a 29-day grace period. The registrar makes several attempts to auto-renew it, but you can manually renew it at no extra cost.
The next phase is the redemption period. Here, you can still manually renew the domain at an extra cost, called the redemption fee. You get your domain back once you pay the standard price and redemption fee.
If you fail to renew it, the registrar could also auction or sell the domain. This period lasts for 30 days or more.
After the redemption period, it enters the pending delete period, which lasts 5 days. Once deleted, expired domains return to the registry and will be available for purchase as new domain names.
If you find a domain you want, you must secure it. There are several ways to do so, depending on how it was listed. You can secure expired or expiring domains using auctions, a backorder service, or ‘Buy it now.’
Backorders are specifically for domains that are about to expire. To secure such domains, you place a backorder, and the backorder service will help you place an order for it immediately when it expires.
Backordering is also known as drop catch and for a reason. Typically, back-ordering services try to catch the domain immediately after it drops. So, whoever gets it first wins the domain.
While it increases your chances of winning the domain, there is no guarantee that it will still go to auction. If there is a conflict, that is, if more than one back ordering service lands the backorder, it will be placed on auction.
Auction houses list expired domains for auction. Usually, these domains are past their grace period and nearing the deletion stage. Before this happens, deleted domains go to registrars who put them up for auction so buyers can bid on expired domains.
When listed and there is an active bid, buyers bid for the domain, and the highest bidder can claim the domain once it closes. Some auction platforms set maximum bids or support proxy bids.
You can find domains through auction sites and domain marketplaces. These platforms list domains before they get deleted. If you can snatch it up, you become the new owner.
GoDaddy Auctions is among the leading domain auctions. It offers a large selection of lapsed domains, including premium domains, so you can choose the perfect domain name.
GoDaddy also provides tools to calculate the value of a lapsed domain. The GoDaddy Domain Valuation and Appraisals tool makes it easy for users to examine the value and evaluate a domain for free. Like an appraisal tool, it searches for related domains and compares sales data to project the value.
This tool evaluates similar domains with similar second-level domain (SLD) and top-level domain (TLD) names. It also checks domain age, backlinks, domain length, and keyword relevancy.
Visit GoDaddy Auctions: Visit GoDaddy Auctions to hunt for domains from the list. If you already have one in mind, check if it is on the list.
Buy it Now or Place a Bid: Certain domains are also featured under the "Buy it Now" option, whereby you pay a set fee to buy the domain. Should this alternative prove unavailable and the domain goes into auction, you will have to bid. If you are the highest bidder, you win the domain name.
Register the Domain: Once you have secured the domain name, it will be transferred to you by email after payment.
Some of the best practices for buying a lapsed domain name include the following:
● Review the historical data to check for spam and other penalties.
● Check domain value using valuation tools.
● Buy from a reputable domain registrar.
● Create a watchlist for domains that interest you and are about to lapse. You can watch them as early as 60 days before expiration.
● Use an escrow service to complete transactions.
Buying expired domain names might not be for the faint-hearted. Now that you have the experience of purchasing lapsed domains, you can leverage them to foster business growth. Use search tools to help you find lapsed or soon-to-be domains. Then, head to the domain marketplace and find the perfect domain for your business to harness the benefits of these premium domains.
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