Expired Domain Names: SEO Benefits and How Tos
They say that good things come in small packages, but for SEO enthusiasts, good things come from expired domain names. But why would good things come from something that’s expired? That’s a good question with a good answer, but as a starter, what is an expired domain name? It’s simply what it says it is. Usually the reason why a domain name expired is it was not renewed at the time that it needed to be and this can be a big advantage to search engine optimisers who know what they are doing.
Expired domain names compared to newer ones are what they call “aged”. And if it is of age, then one can safely say that it is an authority domain name. A person that is familiar with even just the basics of SEO cannot underestimate such an expired yet an experienced domain name as this would mean a PageRank and Backlinks. A PageRank translates to online authority and respectability, in the eyes of Google, because of how it evaluates a website. The things that are considered to help a website rank high for a keyword in Google SERPs or Google Search Engine Result Pages would be as to how many links are present to a certain website page (from other website pages) and the quality of the linking website.Search engines like Google implement such an evaluation process. So, an expired domain name may more likely have authority and respectable websites linked to it than a new sites under newly registered domain names.
Backlinks are also a high possibility for expired domain names. Backlinks or Inbound Links would be links directed towards a website. For example, in a photograph with a tagging feature, if a reputable and well-known company tags itself to that particular photograph found in your website, then that can be considered as a good quality backlink. Another example is when someone comments in a forum, mentioning something relevant to the photograph’ s commentary box online, then that is also a quality backlink.
There are now a number of ways to know if a domain name has expired and that is through SEO toolbars. The recommended browser to use with this tool is Firefox. Some other tools that can be used are SEOQuake and Google toolbars, which would in fact, give you details on the PageRank itself. Others may rely on specific websites where the keyword choice are queried and results would return Top Level Domain Names or TLDs, while others would send you outright a listing for your choice keyword and choose from the list. Once a domain name has been confirmed to be expired, the next step is to get one. Again, there are a variety of resources where you can take advantage of buying such expired domain names.
After finding out the SEO benefits that would come from expired domain names, some of the general ways to know and to find such type of domain names, to think that buying it once and for all is the next step. In some cases, yes but usually, when a domain name expires, registrars would still have what is referred to as a grace period. This is to allow the owners of the website to renew their domain names’ registration in consideration of some factors including well, forgetting that the domain name registration needs to be renewed. The grace period would vary from registrar to registrar because some may provide a grace period of only two weeks while others can go as long as a year. Note that a grace period is not the only stage that an expired domain name would actually go through. There is also what is referred to as the redemption period where the owner of the website is given the opportunity to redeem the expired domain name by paying a fee along with a renewal fee.
Similar to the renewal period, this one varies from registrar to registrar as it can last for two weeks up to a maximum of 30 days. If the domain name remains to be neither renewed nor redeemed, then another stage that it goes through would be the auction stage. This is a stage that an SEO enthusiast may take advantage of the domain name by participating and placing a bid on it. The only downside to this is the surprising competition you would get from others, especially if the domain name is proven to be a very lucrative buy. If the expired domain name still is not bought at an auction, then it is returned to the registrar. The registrar would then determine as to when it would be available for release to the public for re-registration. Once this stage is complete, then that is the time one can actually go back to the previous steps discussed here.
There are shortcuts to getting the expired domain name that you want. Although this does not guarantee success, still, it may be worth a try than idling and waiting for the cycle that expired domain names go through.
The first shortcut tip is to contact the registrant. The owner of the website may not be interested in renewing the domain, especially if the name is not actually in use. You may ask a transfer of the name to you. However, the downside to this is the possibility of having it transferred to your name at a cost, if the registrant would get the feel that this is really what you want.
The second tip is to monitor the domain name yourself. There are databases to do this, and monitoring must be done periodically. Once it is suggested that the name has expired, you may attempt to register this yourself. The downsides to this would be its unpredictability, monitoring may take weeks or even months and lastly, if what you are after is an extremely desirable domain name, then your chances of actually getting it for yourself is very slim. The last shortcut tip is to use a notification service to do the monitoring for you, and once it becomes available, you will be notified. Again, while these tips give you a shortcut, sometimes, the easiest route is the long route.