Shaan Chopra

Log something crazy, but intresting.

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Check before buying a domain name

Date: Dec 17, 2022

A domain name is the most important factor when it comes to online presence. Domain names are now digital assets. A good single-letter name can cost you a couple of thousand dollars in the secondary market. There are certain good names that are still available in the market but it's important for you to check them before buying.

There are only two ways to get a domain name either you register them yourself or acquire it from the existing owner also known as the secondary market.

In both cases, you should give a deeper look at the domain name.

Checking the domain before acquiring is important not only for SEO purposes but also for Brand identity and Trust factors.

Every day thousands of domain names are bought, developed and dropped for reason. It is impossible for us to know the reason but we can surely know what it was doing.

I am going to tell you everything you should be doing and what I do before buying a domain name. Before that, you need to have a clear understanding that every domain has a history of course leaving few untouched names. Here are a few steps that you can take and why it is important to do a thorough check of every domain you buy.

Sharing Matt Cutts's video, hoping it will also help in understanding how important it is to do a check before buying a domain name.

#1 Check History

Every domain name has a history a good place to start finding out about the domain name is Google. Do a Google search with the TLD and without the TLD (TLD is the .com, .net, .xyz) and also use site:YourDomainName.com .

If you see sites that have mentioned the domain name then go on to Internet Archive and do a search there, this will show you what your domain name was doing for the past few years.

This is important because you don't want to get stuck with a domain name that was previously a spam site or a porn site or busy doing illegal activities.

Let me put it this way, I registered a new or bought an existing domain. My main goal for that domain name is phishing activity, so I develop that and do a couple of fraud transactions. Later when the domain renewal is due, I will not renew that name. That name will drop and will be available for the public to buy again.

You don't want to be associated with such kind of domain name. Some people might say that it is a newly registered name and it's fine, but in reality, it does not work like that. The Internet is such a place, that domain has left a lot of breadcrumbs on the web. Which will be difficult for anyone to clean.

If you see a bad history I would suggest looking for some other name, but sometimes it is important to get a matching name. I understand that every person has a different requirement in that case you can go ahead with other steps.

#2 Check Backlinks

Backlinks are important from the perspective of SEO but they also reveal a domain name's past baggage. A good place to start checking these is Ahrefs and Neil Patel's backlink checker.

Just to explain this I analyzed yesterday's two-word dropped domain list just the .com. There were 13594 total domains that were available, of which 2466 domains had 1 or more backlinks. Out of which 120 domains had more than 1k backlinks and 65 domains were getting referred by 100+ other domains.

That is 18% of the domains had backlinks, and out of these 4% had more than 1000 backlinks.

If you see that there are just a few links then go on to those referring sites and see what they have written. If you see these sites giving bad reviews then that should raise an alarm.

Backlinks to your site are one of the ranking factors in a search engine. There are two ways to deal with this situation. One is to contact the referring site's webmaster or the owner and ask them to remove the link. If the person is understanding he might remove it if he doesn't it is not in your control. The other is to disavow links in your own search console but this is just half done, the breadcrumb I was referring to still exists.

The situation is such that you have a domain name and you have disavowed the link in your search console. Now if the user searches for reviews of your site he would land on the referring site where he will read the negative view. That is not a good user experience, you will be getting punished for someone else's doing.

Now, if you see a lot of backlinks you might want to hire an expert to do a link audit for you. When there are too many links then you want to dig deeper. You don't want backlinks from porn sites if you are thinking of an educational site that will be just terrible.

On the other hand, if you are thinking of starting a porn site yourself then it's good for you, it is just the opposite side doesn't work.

#3 Check Age, Authority and SPAM Score

When you register a new domain name the age is 0, but if you are buying a domain from the secondary market then checking the age, authority and spam scores are a must.

All three are ranking factors on any search engine.

For age, you can do a simple Whois search, for authority and spam you use Ahref or Moz.

#4 Check Social Account Availability

If you have thought of a domain name and building a brand then you should also consider matching social accounts. Having matching social accounts does bring a positive user experience.

Having matching social accounts is a great way to engage with users on social media channels. A good place to start looking for social account availability is Namecheckr or you can do it manually.

While doing this you may find that an exact matching account is taken, if that account is unused you can request the current user to delete the account or sell it to you. If the current owner is not responding which happens most of the time, you can also contact the social media company if they can help you in acquiring it.

This rarely happens but it's worth trying.

#5 Other Considerations

If you are just starting out then be flexible in choosing a domain name. Try to look for a short memorable name.

TLDs don't matter, if dot com is not available dot net will do, even dot xyz is ok.

You can even go for brandable names.

Having numbers and dashes is also fine it really doesn't matter in terms of SEO. Here do consider that your users should be able to remember the brand or your domain name. Try working backwards let's say Google is down and a person wants to connect to your site and you have numbers and dashes in your domain.

Lastly, always look long-term while choosing a domain name.

Closing Thoughts

Buying a domain is very easy it just takes less than 10 minutes to buy one. It is really hard to build a brand in the digital space. It is so important that we should at least do some backend work while selecting a domain name.

It's not time-consuming or difficult to look at the history and authority score. Most people are just not aware of it. Domains are digital assets and before acquiring any assets we should do our research. I would suggest everyone check what you are buying or hire a domain specialist.

Later once you start generating content and start to market your brand it becomes more difficult to switch domain names. It is possible but then its time consuming and you would end up doubling the effort.