Do any of you regularly use expired domains?
-
I know there has been discussion on using expired domains in the past. This is not so much a question as to how to do it or whether it works, but rather I would love to see how many of you use this in your backlink strategy.
I have a domain in a low to moderately competitive niche that ranks really well, mostly on the power of a couple of expired domains. I bought the domains, created a quick wordpress site and pointed some anchor texted links to the site. It took some time for the expired domains to regain their PR, but when they did, the benefit was great.
I'm considering whether I want to do this with another domain of mine. On one hand, it's a relatively inexpensive way to get some good quality anchor texted links. But, on the other hand, something in it feels "immoral" or "sneaky" to me.
What do you think?
-
I wouldn't call it unethical unless you made a habit of it with loads of sites, all providing no value. It's never worth focusing on micro-sites, but if there's a couple there, might as well use them
-
Yeah I'm totally with you on that, I wouldn't bother buying a bunch of domains to build sites with, all to link in... Google will know anyway, it'll spot a footprint one way or another. I'm just thinking for the sake of not wasting an already owned domain... would hate to think of it sat there doing nothing when it could be doing something, even if that something is tiny lol.
-
Yeah, sorry too. Ethically, I would say it's gray hat on a small scale, and black hat on larger scale. Of course, that's completely subjective. But I say this because, the main purpose of the secondary site's existence would be, in fact, to 'trick' search engines.
Just my opinion. I also can understand Steve's point of view. -
Thanks Donnie...sorry that this convo is getting confusing (as I replied below as well). My question was more about the ethics of using this tactic rather than how to do it.
-
If the site's are relevant for the niche, I may consider 301 redirecting page by page to the primary niche..... or instead, you could just link them over as you're doing. Would it be possible to contact the inbound linking domains, and ask them to link to your primary site instead?
If the niches are all relevant, I would build pages on the primary site to reflect the secondary site's content. Then redirect page by page. Then contact the linking domains and ask them to update their links.
Does this help Dunamis? -
The PR seems to come back after a couple of months. Some are relevant to my niche and some are not. But, as stated in the question, the question was not so much about whether or not this tactic works, but rather, whether Mozzers are using it. I don't want to do anything immoral or unethical.
-
Are they currently existing?
Did the DNS info reset to your contact info after you bought them? If so, the PR may get reset as well.
Are the sites relevant to the primary site's niche? -
The domains that I bought have existing links and PR. It took some time for the PR to come back, but in the ones I have used so far they seem to be helping.
-
Hey Steve, thanks. I see what you mean, and can't disagree with your thinking... I personally would prefer to spend that hour (or so) trying to get a link to the primary site. But I can understand why others would rather just create one.
We're both assuming that someone would use different hosts, right?
I'm also curious to know, where would you 'draw the line' so-to-speak?
I mean, domain names are only about $10 each, so you could 5, 10, 100. etc. At some point, you would be building an 'unnatural' link profile, and begin to raise flags. And me being a skeptic, I tend to lean towards as natural of link profiles as possible. -
I may not have explained myself completely. These are domains that I bought that have incoming links and PR.
They definitely did help my first site really well.
-
Ah yeah I don't believe in micro/satellite sites, etc... but even with zero incoming links, as long as the domain is indexed it still has some value to pass no matter how small.
It's not about building micro-sites though, it's just plopping something on a domain and getting a link off it, I'm not suggesting link wheels, or putting SEO time and effort into the other domains, just using them as you have them.
Existing domain + template site + 10 mins of writing content and slapping a couple of images on, submit a sitemap and wallah... 20 minutes and you've got a link off a homepage of a relevant content site that admittedly is low value and on the same server but it's half an hour, and you never know... the site could grow naturally into being trusted, etc... by itself, including with age.
With the speed you could knock it up, and at no cost, I just think sure why not... it can't pass zero value unless it's not indexed or the link is nofollow. Value will be tiny but could grow with no work based on just age of domain.
I can't watch the vid yet as I'm at work right now.
-
Thanks Steve, you have great point!
However, I don't think they would pass **any **value, due to a lack of inbound links. And, if they began getting inbound links, I believe the efforts spent would have a larger payoff, if the primary site were getting those new links instead.
I'm also kindof a skeptic in SEO... what I mean is, I try not to ever do anything with the primary goal being to deceive search engines. The time invested in building those micro sites, I think would be better spent engaging in building brand recognition (brand queries, natural links, social, etc.)
What do you think Steve? Thanks. -
If you already own it and it's not costing you anything, why not?! Better than having a domain sitting around and doing nothing. As Donnie said, if it's hosted in the same place then the links won't pass much value, but not much is still "some"... and some is better than none
I'd do it, just for the sake of it, it won't hurt as long as there's nothing spammy about it.
-
I doubt you'r adding much value, as those links would have very low (or non existent) domain/ page authority. Plus, if your hosting them all on the same C Block IP Address, they'd likely be discounted even further.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
25% of expired domains came with a Google manual penalty
25% of expired domains purchased came with a Google manual penalty, even when Moz spam score was 0 . Read the whole case study here: http://www.authoritywriters.com/2017/10/google-manual-penalty-on-expired-domains.html
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bluishclouds0 -
Linking from & to in domains and sub-domains
What's the best optimised linking between sub-domains and domains? And every time we'll give website link at top with logo...do we need to link sub-domain also with all it's pages? If example.com is domain and example.com/blog is sub-domain or sub-folder... Do we need to link to example.com from /blog? Do we need to give /blog link in all pages of /blog? Is there any difference in connecting domains with sub-domains and sub-folders?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz0 -
301 redirects cross domains
Hi Moz Community. We have a client that has Website A and Website B. Website A is going to be replaced by Website C, a new website and brand. Some products sold on Website A are going to be split out to Website B & C. i.e. Say Website A sells eight products - then four will go to Website B and four to Website C. OUR QUESTION Technically we know we can 301 redirect the Website A products to the relevant Website B & Website C products. 1. Given this convoluted structure, will there be any negative ramifications for SEO? and; 2. Which website would you redirect the homepage to, B or C?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WCR0 -
Redirect domain or keep separate domains in each country?
Hi all Hoping this might be something that can be answered given the number of variables 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IsaCleanse
My main site is www.isacleanse.com.au (Obviously targeted to Australian Market) and also www.isacleanse.co.nz targeted to NZ. The main Keywords im targeting are 'Isagenix' for both and also Isagenix Australia, Isagenix Perth, Sydney (Australian cities) and Isagenix NZ, Isagenix New Zealand, Isagenix Auckland etc.. for NZ The Australian site gets a lot more traffic and Australian market gets a lot more searches - I also have a section www.isacleanse.com.au/isagenix-new-zealand/ on the Australian site. The question is am I best off redirrecting the .co.nz domain completley to the Australian Domain to give it extra SEO Juice?0 -
Meta-description not used at all times
Hi all We are marketing an e-commerce site and seem to have a weird issue. For some reason the clearly specified meta description is not being used in the SERPs. Had a look in the source but all tags seems to be there. The site can be found here:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Resultify
www.bangerhead.se A sample search in Google that uses the wrong info in the SERP:
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C5CHFA_enSE548SE548&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=bangerhead Any ideas to why this is? Grateful for any inputHave a nice day Fredrik0 -
Domain.com/old-url to domain.com/new-url
HI, I have to change old url`s to new one, for the same domain and all landing pages will be the same: domain.com/old-url I have to change to: domain.com/new-url All together more than 70.000 url. What is best way to do that? should I use 301st redirect? is it possible to do in code or how? what could you please suggest? Thank you, Edgars
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Edzjus3330 -
Domain name with a single digit
I have an existing campervan hire website which is being redesigned, rebranded and renamed (including the domain). The website allows businesses and owners to list campervans for rent to customers. There are a huge amount of campervan hire companies and so not many relevant domain names. Also many are for sale as expensive premium domains. We want something different that will standout. We're thinking of https//:camper7.com as its short and we think it would work. Is it best to avoid using a single digit in a domain if it isnt a 2 or 4 or does it not matter if we think it could work as it would stand out? Any help or advice would be appreciated. thanks James
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Curran1 -
301 many smaller domains to a new, large domain
Hi all, I have a question regarding permanently redirecting many small websites into one, large new one. During the past 9 years I have created many small websites, all focusing on hotel reservations in one specific city. This has served me beautifully in the past, but I have come to the conclusion that it is no longer a sustainable model and therefore I am in the process of creating one large, worldwide hotel reservations website. To not loose any benefit of my hard work the past 9 years, I want to permanently redirect the smaller websites to the correct section of my new website. I know that if it is only a few websites, that this strategy is perfectly acceptable, but since I am talking about 50 to 100 websites, I am not so sure and would like to have your input. Here is what I would like to do: (the domain names are not mine, just an example) Old website: londonhotels.com 301 to newdomain.com/london/ Old website: berlinhotels.com 301 to newdomain.com/berlin/ Old website: amsterdamhotels.com 301 to newdomain.com/amsterdam/ Etc., etc. My plan is to do this for 50 to 100 websites and would like to have your thoughts on if this is an acceptable strategy or not. Just to be clear, I am talking about redirecting only my websites that are in good standing, i.e. none of the websites I am thinking about 301'ing have been penalized. Thanks for your thoughts on this.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tfbpa0