The internet has been abuzz about aged and expired domains for years now, and with good reason. An expired domain is just a type of aged domain that has not been renewed yet, making them cheaper to purchase.
Expired domains can be valuable for a number of reasons. For example, an expired domain may have a history of high traffic or links from other websites, which can be useful for search engine optimization (SEO). In addition, an expired domain may have a strong brand identity or be easy to remember, which can be beneficial for businesses looking to establish an online presence.
How to use Aged Domains
Expired domains can be used for a variety of purposes, including:
- Redirecting traffic: Forward on the traffic and backlinks to a different website
- Establishing an online presence: Kickstart your business with a brandable domain
- Search engine optimization (SEO): Improve an existing website’s rankings
- Domain flipping: Buy and sell expired domains for profit
It’s important to note that using an expired domain can also have potential drawbacks. For example, the domain may have a history of spam or negative reputation, which could negatively impact your business. It’s important to thoroughly research any aged domain before purchasing it to ensure that you are registering a quality expired domain.
Redirecting a domain
If a domain already has traffic or backlinks pointing to it you could redirect these to a different domain. You may want to do this to increase traffic to an existing website.
If you have a high paying offer and know that traffic for a domain is related to that offer you could redirect to that offer and, potentially, earn money through commissions for anyone that signs up through your traffic.
This is one of the cheaper uses for aged domains as most domain registrars support redirecting the domain without the need for hosting, this can save a lot of money when dealing with lots of domains. Be sure to use best practices for reducing footprints when redirecting domains.
Establish a presence with a brandable domain
If the aged domain you are looking at is easy to remember and type it could be a good candidate for building a long term brand / business.
Obviously, you could start a website on any domain and do your best to promote it but it will always be a good idea to go with the most memorable domain name as it will aid in “word of mouth” promotion and could increase likelihood of a visitor returning to your website.
A domain with a related content history, some existing backlink that is easily remembered and typed would be a great base for any website.
Search Engine Optimisation
Everybody wants higher ranking in search engines like Google and Bing so it isn’t surprising that this is possibly the most common use for expired domains, an expired domain’s backlinks and history can be used to create links to your own properties.
Often aged domains will be used to create a network of websites that will each link out to another website to improve it’s search rankings and traffic as a result. These networks are often referred to as a PBN. PBN means Private Blog Network but usually refers to any network of websites that are being used purely for traffic generation or SEO via backlinking.
Having a website or PBN will also give you the ability to sell or rent backlinks to other website owners. While this can be done on an existing website it is very common for PBNs to be built specifically for this purpose.
When building a PBN of your own it is important to only use clean domains and make sure there are as few footprints as possible to make your PBN undetectable, or at least as much as is possible.
Flip domains for profit
Some people purchase expired domains with the intention of reselling them at a profit. This can be a risky venture, as it’s difficult to predict the value of a domain and there is no guarantee that the domain will sell.
As with any type of good, you can buy domains and sell them for a profit. While this puts your money at risk you can start with less than $20 and if you have a good domain you could sell it on for much more, with some expired domains being worth upwards of $100 and in exceptional cases over $1000.
When buying a domain to flip you have 2 main sources:
- Auctions
- Expired Domains
Buying domains at auction will give you access to a large range of value of domain. Domains being auctioned range from a few dollars to tens of thousands so if you have a lot of money to start with you can quickly buy your way into the high end of domain sales.
Domains can be sold through one of the major auction sites such as Sedo, Godaddy or Flippa.
For most people, where money is tight, it may be a better idea to start buying and selling the cheaper domains. As expired domains are purchased for the cost of domain registration you could buy your domains for around $10 (registration fee), then your only costs would be selling fees on a marketplace such as ebay or on one of the dedicated domain auction sites.
How should you use an Expired Domain?
The primary consideration for how you use a domain depends on what you want to accomplish and what type domain you have.
For example, if you already have a website and are looking to improve its rankings in the search engines, you will want to redirect traffic and backlinks from a quality domain to it.
Another example would be if you were looking to make a quick profit by flipping a domain; in this case it would not be advised to spend the resources on a website for backlinking purposes. The main focus should be on either adding value to the domain and promoting it as much as possible.
