An expired domain can be a very valuable tool in order to improve the search engine positioning of a web page.
But what exactly is an expired domain and why is it useful for SEO?
In this article, you will learn everything about expired domains
Go for it!
What is an Expired Domain?
When you purchase a domain, your ownership is limited.
And, therefore, it must be renewed periodically.
An expired or deleted domain is a domain that has not been renewed or has been canceled at the end of the contract.
In this way, if the domain is not renewed within a period of 30 days for .com 10 for .in, it goes up for auction for a week.
The highest bid will be the one that obtains the aforementioned domain.
Why is a Domain not Renewed?
In most cases, a domain is canceled because the project has come to an end.
A company that has ceased its activity, a blog that is no longer profitable, and so on.
However, on other occasions, a domain holder who has received heavy penalties from Google may prefer not to renew it.
Thus, you can modify the domain name to avoid the burden that this implies to your positioning.
Why is an Expired Domain Important for SEO?
The search engine positioning of a web page depends on two different factors:
- The SEO on page (on-site). It is the result of the structure of the web page, the content strategy, and its internal optimization -text work, use of keywords- in order to rank in the top positions.
- Off-page (off-site) SEO. That is the result of the strategies carried out to obtain external links -backlinks- on other websites that point to our page. Of course: as long as these websites have good authority, quality content, and a theme related to that of our page.
When a domain is canceled, it keeps the SEO history of when it was active.
For this reason, many search engine positioning professionals may be interested in acquiring an expired domain to position a new project.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Acquiring an Expired Domain
Next, we are going to see the main pros and cons of acquiring an expired domain.
Let’s start with the kinder face.
These are the main advantages of expired domains:
- If they have good authority, they allow you to make quality links to your website and improve your SEO positioning and increase organic traffic.
- A single expired domain can be used to carry out link-building strategies for one or several web pages. For example, in case you have a private blogging network.
- It allows the launching of a new web page inheriting the authority of the expired domain.
- It is a good strategy to launch an affiliate marketing or advertising project with Google Adsense.
And now that you know the nicer face of this practice, let’s see what disadvantages acquiring an expired domain can have:
- As we have said before, they inherit the SEO history of the active domain. Therefore, obtaining a domain that has previously been penalized by Google can be an obstacle when it comes to improving your positioning.
- It is difficult to easily acquire a domain with good authority at a low cost.
- It is important to have extensive knowledge at the level of SEO positioning in search engines to be able to carry out the aforementioned strategies successfully.
Why Buy an Expired Domain?
There are three reasons why a person might be interested in registering expired domains:
- To launch a website from scratch with authority.
- With the intention of selling it later.
- To carry out link-building strategies.
Let’s see these jobs one by one in detail.
To Launch a Website from Scratch with Authority
The Authority of a web page directly affects its SEO positioning.
It depends, among others, on two different concepts: Domain Authority and Page Authority.
Let’s focus on the Domain Authority.
This is the result of a series of metrics that Google understands to be relevant when measuring the credibility and quality of the hosted content.
To improve the Domain Authority, factors such as the adaptability and usability of the web page, its content strategy, incoming links or avoiding broken links or 404 errors must be taken into account.
As we have said before, an expired domain inherits domain authority.
Therefore, you can consider buying an expired domain that has a good authority and link profile instead of opting for a completely new one when creating your new page.
Of course, as long as it is related to the theme of your website or blog.
With the Intention of Selling it
Once you have bought the expired domain, you can increase its value.
As?
Through different SEO techniques that allow you to increase your authority over time.
For example, by ranking you for certain keywords or improving your link profile.
This way, you can sell it later for a higher value than the price you bought it for.
To Carry Out Link Building Strategies
SEO professionals have Private Blog Networks (PBN).
That is a private network of blogs that they use to generate content and make links to the website they want to position.
If the expired domain has good authority, it is a good option to create a blog or website and generate content through which you can link to your page.
This is a simple and common technique in the world of SEO when it comes to obtaining quality links (backlinks) that improve the organic positioning of a website.
How to Know if a Domain Has Been Used Before?
For this, there are many tools.
In this article, we are going to focus on two of them that are also free.
The first is archive.org, a website that will allow you to see if the domain has been used before.
And, in addition, you can see what the page looked like at a certain moment.
Once you know if this domain has been used before, it is important to know its backlink structure.
For this, there are very complete payment tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, or Majestic.
In the same way, we are going to talk about a free tool that will allow you to know your link structure: Open Link Profiler.
This way, you will be able to see if the incoming links on the page were coming from quality sites.
Or if, on the contrary, these backlinks can be a threat.
How to Choose an Expired Domain that is Worth it?
When it comes to obtaining an expired domain, you must take into account 5 different factors:
- The quality of the links. Evaluate the quality of its backlinks and discard it if all the backlinks it receives seem to be low-quality content or spam.
- Check what the previously hosted website was like. That is, if it was a page with quality content or if it had penalized purposes such as spam.
- Check the domain authority. Do not choose those who have low authority.
- Make sure it’s not penalized by Google.
Where can You Buy an Expired Domain?
GoDaddy has a domain auction service that also has an easy-to-use mobile app.
Through this service, its goal is to offer domain owners a way to earn income from them.
And, at the same time, make available to buyers the opportunity to get a beneficial domain when it comes to improving web positioning.
Thanks for Reading.
