What Is An Expired Domain? Should You Be Using It For SEO Benefits?
Do you know the SEO benefits of an expired domain? If you are about to buy a domain and start your blog your this might be interesting to you.
Since the first domain was registered in the year 1985, till now, almost 370.7 million websites are registered. That’s quite a huge number, isn’t it? But that no by means that all the domains are now open or attached to a functioning website.
If you are aware of search engine optimization, you already know that it depends on numerous factors. The better your search engine optimization is, the higher your chances to rank high on search engines. To book the top place of the search engine result page, you need to look after various aspects. Even the domain name of your website plays a role in ranking you higher.
In this article, we will talk about expired domains and their impacts on SEO.
Let’s firstly talk about,
What is an expired domain?
When you buy a domain name for your website, you buy it for a period. Some people buy it for one year, two years, five years, or even more. Choosing a domain name is not as simple as it sounds. It needs some research. You can read: How To Choose A Domain Name – 10 Best Tips to know in detail about domain names. However, there are many domain registrars where we go and buy the name for the selected period. So it is basically a contract that you purchased the name for the selected period. After that, when you do not renew your domain, it gets expired.
Well, the thing does not happen that way; when your domain expiration date is near, the domain registrar informs you about that, but if you still do not take any action, you lose control of your domain name and other credentials. In that case, your domain gets in perk, and people can again buy it. There are several reasons, and domains get expired,
- It may be because the owner of the domain simply forgets to renew and crossed the date.
- Many online websites do not run their website after the domain expiration. That is also a big reason for domain expiration.
And many more.
Now, the question is,
what happens to those expired domains? Are they abandoned forever?
Of course not! After the expiration of a domain, the domain registrar makes available the domain for repurchase. In fact, there are many people who are very interested in purchasing expired domains for various SEO benefits. If you are also considering purchase a domain for your new website, these below mentioned points might be interesting for you.
SEO benefits of expired domains:
There are numerous SEO benefits with
Higher ranking ability:
If you search for anything on Google and see the top results, you will see most of the results coming from the domains registered a couple of years ago. You can use the SEMrush content research tool to get insights into domain ages ranking contents. It is obvious that search engines will prioritize a domain name that is 10 years old over a domain name that is 2. Someone is present for a long time, which means the search engine can trust, the results will be authenticated and last. That’s why with the similar content published on two different sites, there is a high chance the article will rank higher on the website that has an old domain. That is a huge SEO advantage for expired domains.
Higher domain authority:
If you find a domain that was 10 or 15 years old and that has no bad records at all, you can buy it for a great reason, the authority. Most old expired domains have very high DA. For ranking your website, domain authority also plays a major role. If you establish a blog with an expired domain that has a higher
Higher backlink profile:
Backlinks are a big ranking factor for search engines if done by fair practices. Expired domains often have lots of backlinks on them. During the long journey, many websites place links of them to their blog. Search engines find that this site is linked with many websites that means it contains a value. That’s how search engines show if you have more quality backlinks. But that would be hit back also. We are going to talk about it in the next of this article.
In a basic sense, if you find an expired domain that was well maintained and its previous owner had put effort into it, it will make your journey easier. You will start getting its generated backlink benefits and high authority ranking factors. These are genuine points, but the practice may cause losses too if you do not search every aspect properly.
Below we are mentioning precautions that should be taken if you are likely to buy an expired domain.
Spammy backlinks:
There are many types of backlinks on SEO that should be avoided. In many cases, expired domains contain a high amount of toxic backlinks that drastically impact the website’s ranking and reputation. Sometimes spammers link a website to spammy platforms, and the owner then abandons the site and leaves the domain for expiration. So, before buying any expired domain, it is always important to check its backlink profile. You can use tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, and others.
Is it penalized by Google?
For various unfair practices, Google penalized domains. That means these websites will not appear on Google search rankings. Now Google is the biggest search engine, and running a website that is a ban from Google does not make any sense. You can check it by Google Transparency report.
Was the site used for spam practices?
What was the site about in the previous form before expiration? Was it being used for spam practices?
That is very important to know before buying any expired domain. Many websites stay live for several times and do some unfair or spam practices. When it loses its reputation, the site owner left the site, and eventually, the domain expires. However, people still remember the site, and if it gets reports from various platforms and you purchase the domain, then you are likely to see some experience with it. To check the website’s past history integrated with the domain, you need to visit the Web Archive website. Here you just need to enter the URL, and the website will show some screen of its past avatar.
Is it ban from Google AdSense?
If you are about to create a blog or article website and want to monetize with ad networks, you must use Google AdSense on it. It is the most significant content monetization platform for website owners. But many time for practicing unfair things and doing things that violate AdSense policies, it bans URLs. That’s the reason if you are about to use an expired domain, it is very important to check whether it is blocked by AdSense or not. Otherwise, your effort and money might go in vain.
Does it contain trademark issues?
That is also a reason which forces people to leave their domain. Sometimes you buy a domain that is related to a company or indicating to a company. In that scenario, companies often ask to remove the domain name and the website or file legal actions. So, when you are buying any expired domain, make sure it does not have any trademark-related issues on it.
Buying an expired domain is not an unfair practice anyway, but if you skip any of these points, you may face lots of troubles instead of SEO benefits, even more than a new domain.
However, now, if you want to buy an expired domain, where can you get it from?
As there are many domain registrars available, no short of expired domain purchasing also.
GoDaddy Auctions:
GoDaddy is one of the biggest players in the domain and hosting services. Millions of websites use GoDaddy by hosting, domain, and other components for their website. In addition, GoDaddy Auctions is a marketplace for domains where you can buy expired domains.
ExpiredDomains.net:
ExpiredDomains is also excellent to find your best-expired domain. There are many filters available that allow narrowing down your search. Searching for domains here is entirely free.
Spamzilla:
Spamsilla also could be an excellent option for buying expired domains. There are also various filters available to choose the perfect expired domain for you.
Domain Hunter Gathrer:
It is also a good platform to find quality expired domains. You will find lots of filter options to search for the best one for you. Here are both free and premium plans available.
And the list goes on.
Apart from buying an expired domain and using it for your new website domain is a fair thing and search engines do not have any issue if the domain was not in any spammy practices. Many people also do something else with the expired domains. They purchase many dropped domains using 301 direction divert the search engine and audience to another website. By using this method they get all the link juice the previous URLs had created. In any case, even if the domains expired but the backlinks still live by site owners.
But, this practice is not much accepted by search engines. If you buy too many of these types of domains and redirect them, there is a big chance search engine will count it as a spam practice, your website might be affected.
Thanks for reading. We hope this was enjoyable. Read more relevant articles below.
