Expired Domain

An expired domain is a website that is no longer operated and therefore usually no longer accessible. Expired domains are interesting for search engine optimization, because when the website is reinstated, key figures such as the domain authority, the page rank or even the backlinks are taken over.

Definition

A domain is a website such as backlinked.com – an expired domain is a website that is no longer operated and therefore no longer accessible. However, the term should not be confused with Expiring Domains.

It still exists on the provider’s servers under the name and can be rented again if needed. Because it still exists, features like Domain Authority or the page rank of the site are still present. Backlinks also continue to lead to this page. Thus, this domain has a better standing than a new domain when it is reinstated.

With these three factors, such a domain still has the basis for a good rating by search engines. Therefore, they are interesting for you if you either want to take over a website that already has a basis for a good result in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

Furthermore you can take over a continuously grown backlink structure. Buying an expired domain is one way for you to get quality backlinks. Good link building is a tedious job that you can cut short this way.

Trade with expired domains

Since such domains are a great way to boost your site’s rankings, there are many online markets that exclusively offer expired domains.

Through this trade, a system of supply and demand has developed that determines the price of a free domain.

An expired domain, for example. has a DA (Domain Authority) of 40 and a topic-relevant backlink profile, is traded much higher than a domain that has a DA of 5 and NO more backlinks.

Relevance for SEO

For search engine optimization, expired domains can be used to bring your site to the front of the SERP’s faster, as these domains have already been indexed by search engine crawlers and may have good domain authority and are therefore well established.

Dennis’ tip: You can use this expired domain for example. to a relevant blog article or sales page, and your site will benefit from the authority and link profile of the original expired domain.

BUT beware: In the meantime search engines like Google are able to recognize expired domains and rank them worse. Moreover, Google can interpret this action negatively and punish it with a lower rank in the SERPs. Therefore, you should be prudent with this search engine optimization tool.

Watch out when buying a domain!

If you want to buy an expired domain, you should not act too hastily. A first step is to analyze domain popularity and visibility with tools like Google Analytics or Ahrefs. This way you can check the number and the quality of the backlinks and also check if the page is e.g. is part of a PBN network – with such the link profile may look good but the effect is still missing.

An expired domain whose operators have engaged in link spamming or other black hat SEO measures is worth nothing. Even worse would be a page from a bad neighborhood and definitely a bad investment. Also, if you are offering a German language website, you should not invest in a website in a foreign language. This is located in a different regional search space – a frequent server change is also a clear warning sign.

You can find out who owns the expired domain by making a Whois query at DENIC (Deutsches Network Information Center, the non-profit administrator of the top-level domain .de). With the Wayback Machine you can trace the development of the domain and see what was done with it e.g. years ago.

Another issue is trademark rights. Often there is still copyrighted material on old domains that you are not allowed to use without permission. Therefore, as the new operator, you need to be aware of any potential third party rights.

Conclusion

With an expired domain, you can quickly build your own link structure by drawing on the grown backlinks of a website that is no longer operating. It is important to keep in mind that an expired domain loses value over time and that Google can recognize this and evaluate it negatively.

Therefore, you should be careful when using such a strategy and carefully determine the value of the site.