Should I buy an expired dropped domain or just purchase a new one?

idealmike Level X³

June 29, 2016, 10:54 am

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Should I buy an expired dropped domain or just purchase a new one?

There's a domain I like that has expired now. But before that, it used to be quite a big site and was getting a lot of traffic. But since the domain has expired "dropped", and the site is no longer working. So would it be a good idea to purchase this domain or buy a new one? When a domain has "dropped" that can count negatively to it's SEO score right?

What are the pros and cons to buying expired domains?

Is it better to buy a new domain or can expired domains be worth buying still?

Have you ever purchased an expired/dropped domain and turned it around?

Thanks!

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MusicMoguls

Personally, I think purchasing old domains that people have spent time and money on to get them into the "Spotlight" is better than creating a new one. Why? Because as you already said the traffic is already coming in and you should only have to do minimum work to get it going again. Is a "dropped" Domain negative? Absolutely NOT the only negative affect is because the site is not receiving traffic, other than that once it is back up, the SEO status is almost the same as before and with a little touch up you can get it to the same level or even higher than it was before the drop.

10 years ago

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idealmike

Yeah that's very true jkeyz! That's why buying dropped domains can be very profitable for some people who do it and have done it for years. But for anyone, there are some things to know about the whole dropped domain industry as a whole for a newbie but it's really not rocket science. It all makes sense. There are many many websites that are getting traffic to the but are forgotten about by the owners. Subsequently they drop and the owners don't know about it. And these become available to re-register again in your name using your nameservers and you can then either keep them up or make a new site on them. Sometimes this includes big blogs as well. And you might not own that content too. You could probably restore most of it to near how it was from Google cache or Waybackmachine but without the actual site files or database there could be some work restoring it.

Also you have to know your rights as well. Because while there's nothing illegal about buying dropped domains, it could be illegal to use that websites old content on the site again. Even though that's hard for them to force or do much about and they probably don't care either way. I guess it all depends on the site itself though and what sort of traffic it's getting whether referral targeted or organic or not. If it was organic traffic from the content then you'd want to restore that if you could and if it was from somewhere else and expecting to see something that isn't there anymore you'd need to replace that too or find some other way of monetizing it at least. But yes, with some TLC, you can often bring that site back to its former glory and a better ranking than before. And many people do do that as well. I will put something about this on the FAQ soon. ;)

10 years ago

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Everett

What about domains, with business names that are trademarked and copyrighted? For instance, if Google expired, and someone bought that domain, can they actually own the domain? I do think Google is copyrighted, and trademarked, so let's go with this: Say the domain is expired, and you purchase the domain name before Google realized it was expiring, could they sue you to gain access to the domain based upon trademarks or copyrights that the domain name may have? How is one protected from issues such as the one I mentioned?

10 years ago

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idealmike

Well that sounds like a bit of a gray area to be honest. And domain registrars or even ICANN themselves will probably have a policy in place for that as it sounds like something that would have happened many times in the past and you would think that it would be tough luck and there was nothing you could do about it but Google and other big sites make sure that never happens by buying about 1000 years in advance so you'd have to wait around a long time for it to drop! LOL

10 years ago

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Lynne

Oh that is interesting. So what do you mean by dropped domain? Is that when a website is shut down?

10 years ago

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idealmike

Yeah well it's when the domain registration life expires. If they don't renew it and it expires (drops). It will be available to be registered (purchased) again. Actually, buying dropped domains can be very lucrative. Since sometimes the domain will or could already have a lot of traffic to it but the owner didn't renew it for whatever reason. So you can register it yourself and then pick it up from where it left off so to speak or find a new way to monetize the traffic it's getting. Considering how it's cheap to register a domain from around $9, and the site could be getting 100k+ traffic per day or something, you could probably earn that registration fee back a few times from it to say the least. If not, just flip it.

Also it's known that a dropped domain can sometimes loose value and Search Engines can see this has happened to a domain and how many times its been registered/dropped/registered/dropped/registered etc and use it as a ranking factor. But that is a whole other discussion in and of itself!

Should I buy an expired dropped domain or just purchase a new one?

Actually, that would make a great discussion thread on buying dropped domains and profiting with them. It's really not even that hard to do! All you have to do is find lists of the latest dropped domains. There are many sites that provide daily lists of dropped domains (both free and paid). Then you might see one you like the look of in your niche or something and check what it used to look like using Google cache (if any exists) or using WayBackMachine or something. And yeah, will have to create another discussion on it as there's a few more things you can do to see if it's worth re-registering or not.

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

What are the pros and cons to buying expired domains?

Pros: The pros of purchasing a dropped, or expired, domain is that you could inherit the SEO and Marketing which was already paid for or done by a professional. If the website was ranked for competitive keywords then it won't be difficult to boost it back up to it's glory days, as long as it hasn't been longer than a year. You can purchase the dropped domain and just redirect it to your current website, which hopefully it's in the same niche, and convert that traffic into sales (I've done this and it works well).
Cons: If you purchase this domain and it has had plenty of penalties in the past, you could inherit those penalties on your new website. Buying a dropped domain isn't always the best thing to do because it could have been dropped for a reason. Think of it as a dog with a chemical imbalance and was dropped off at the humane society. The humane society puts it up for adoption, you adopt it, and it eats you. the previous owners are the company that dropped the domain, the dog is the domain, you're the new adopters/owners, and now you've been eaten by the bad penalties

Is it better to buy a new domain or can expired domains be worth buying still?
I usually prefer to purchase new domains and brand them myself. Buying expired domains is still a great thing to do, if you know how to evaluate a domain. Purchase smart and you'll be happy you did in the long run

Have you ever purchased an expired/dropped domain and turned it around?
Sure have

When I do purchase an expired/dropped domain I don't usually put a new website on it, I'll just forward it's traffic to my current website. I can do this because the expired/dropped domain is in the same niche as me and that means the traffic is good enough to send to my site ;)

10 years ago

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EliteWriter

Dropped domain names are very common. The owner may have forgotten to re-register the domain, or it could be that he simply does not need it any longer. Generally such a domain once would have belonged to a business that has had to close down or gone into liquidation. I think it would be more advantageous to opt for the dropped domain rather than a new one. This is because first of all the domain age matters, and some ranking factors are most likely to still be there for you to benefit from. You can also benefit from any existing backlinks as well.

10 years ago

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vinaya

Age of the domains matters. Therefore, you should always buy expired domain or old domains, instead of registering a new one. However, when you are buying expired or aged domain, always make sure that the domain is not black listed. A domain is backlisted when the website associated with the domain engages in illegal activities. Search engines give preference to older domains instead of new ones.

9 years ago

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SEOClerks

Should I buy an expired dropped domain or just purchase a new one?

Should I buy an expired dropped domain or just purchase a new one?

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MusicMoguls

idealmike

Everett

idealmike

Lynne

idealmike

TommyCarey

EliteWriter

vinaya

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