What if you could buy a domain that already had a backlink profile, which would take you months and hundreds of dollars to build? Well, you’re in luck! These exist and are there for you to find and use for your SEO. In this article, we will cover what an expired domain is, how to find them in your industry or niche, how to buy them, and then what to do with them!
There are three main ways of using an expired domain. The first is to build a website. Rather than finding a brand new domain with no links, you can instead find an expired domain that someone has already used, but hasn’t renewed. This domain will have a history and links already pointing to it. These are perfect for building your new website on, as all of that link power and page rank will still exist when you set your website live.
The second way you can use expired domains is for building a PBN. A PBN or private blog network is a group of sites built on old domains that got page rank, rebuilt, and then linked to your main site. These make it look like lots of different people are linking to your resource, which looks great to Google, and you have full control of things like anchor text, and how often links are being sent to your site.
The third way to use expired domains is for 301 redirects. This is when you buy a domain with a good backlink profile, and then redirect it to your main site. All of the links that were going to the expired domain will then be redirected to your site. Google suggests that around 80% of the page rank is passed on when you do this, which is a great way to boost the authority of your site. This is also known as a merger technique, as many companies that acquire another then redirect the bought-out company’s site to theirs. This makes sense, and is a great way to get lots of authority fast. We wouldn’t recommend doing this more than 1-2 times though, as it can begin to look suspicious.
Finally, a bonus method is to take an expired domain and use an SEO backlink checker like SEMRush, AHrefs, or SEO Moz to find the sites that are linking to it. They are now linking to a dead website, as the domain has expired, giving you an opportunity to reach out and ask them to change the link to point to your site instead. If your content is good, this makes sense, as it’s a detriment to the website owner to be linking out to expired websites.
How to Find Them
There are a few places to find expired domain names. One of the best places is expireddomains.net. If you create a profile, you can then get quite a lot of data, such as the number of referring domains and domain popularity. We recommend creating a filter, and then searching for the location or industry you’re in. You can then browse and hunt for domains that are relevant to you.
