How To Find Expired Domains – For Free & to Buy

How To Find Expired Domains – For Free & to Buy

Everyone wants a perfect search engine optimised website with relevant content, carefully selected keywords, working backlinks, and non-stop traffic. 

However, working with a brand-new domain can be daunting. 

On top of that, even after investing all your time and money in creating content, your website might remain unnoticed. 

Fortunately, when you buy expiring domains, you can skip most of this process and end up with the perfect domain name and website for your business. 

This post will tell you exactly how a website owner can find expired domains to improve search engine rankings. 

What Is an Expired Domain?

Whenever someone buys a domain, it comes with a contract they must renew before expiration. 

If the time elapses before the owner renews the contract, the domain expires, and the host will render it an expired website. 

Usually, the domain owner will receive a redemption grace period to claim the renewal.

When this period ends, the domain is made available at specific auction sites that sell domain names. 

When it gets to this point, another buyer can purchase the domain, re-register it, and use it however they see fit. 

However, if no one is interested in the expired domain name, the host will either return it to their domain registration, add it to their dropped domains, or delete it.

Why You Should Look for Expired Domains

There are three options you can choose when building a website:

• Use a brand-new website
• Purchase already existing domains
• Register deleted or find expired domains 

Though the first two options are viable, buying expired domains offers advantages that the other two do not. 

The following are a few reasons why you should buy expired domains:

1 – Allows You To Capitalise On The Existing Organic Traffic

Instead of growing your traffic from scratch, you could capitalise on the audience many expired domains already have. 

If the domain’s initial site deals with the same field or niche as yours, you could get the users to convert to your site using a 301 direct. 

Though the setup process depends on your server, a 301 direct is a type of status code or protocol that enables you to highlight a way to the most relevant page (your site) instead of the old one. 

2 – You Can Create A Micro-Site And Add Authority To Your Site

While high-authority sites often rank higher in search results, building up high domain authority takes time and money. 

Fortunately, certain expired domains might have already accrued some authority that you can use to give yourself a head start. 

To add authority to an existing website, you can use an expired domain to create a separate web page or a cluster of pages with relevant content that will work independently within the same website.

This can help you increase your brand awareness and attain high ranks in the Search Engine Result Pages with your brand’s leading web resource. 

3 – You Can Resell Them For A Profit

Though most people who purchase expired domains do so because they want to use them, some buy expired domains to resell them for profit—an act called domain flipping. 

In domain flipping, domain buyers purchase an expired domain, add more SEO value, and then resell it for a price higher than they initially paid. 

Depending on the number of domains you flip each week, this venture could add hundreds, if not thousands, to your monthly income. 

4 – You Can Build a Private Blog Network

You also have the option to find expired domains to build a blog that links back to a monetised website. 

If you do this multiple times with different domains, you can have a private network of sites in one niche. 

Keep posting quality content on every site, and continue monitoring the performance of your network of links. 

Your private blog network can help you grow incoming links and increase your ranking on Google. 

Best Places To Find Expired Domains

You can find expired domains everywhere, from domain registrars to auction sites and domain name marketplaces. 

The following are some of the places you can go to perform an expired domain search when you’re looking to buy one. 

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a well-known domain registrar if you want to look for high-quality expired domains. 

One of the benefits of using the site is that it has filters to refine your search. For instance, you can select: 

• Extensions
• Domain age
• Keywords
• Traffic
• Age

Another benefit of using GoDaddy is that you won’t need to change the registrar after buying an expired domain. Meaning there will be no downtime. 

DropCatch

DropCatch is another service you can use to find expired domains. 

This service's key feature is allowing you to place a domain backorder. 

You can also search expiring domains from a list, which might help you find something worthwhile. 

Spamzilla

This is an excellent solution if you regularly search for expired, high-traffic domains. 

One significant benefit of Spamzilla is that it integrates with other sites, allowing you to filter sites according to language and the number of anchor links that refer to the site. 

Though it is a paid service, it can significantly decrease your time analysing and selecting expired domains. 

Spamzilla also gives you a list of expired domains grouped in various sections, including:

• Anchors
• Ranking keywords
• Language history
• Redirects

SEO.Domains

SEO.Domains is a marketplace for high authority expired domains. With a free account, you can access over 20,000 names from all over the world. 

They cover 150+ gTLDs and ccTLDs and an abundance of niche topics.

The best thing is that the domains are already spam-checked and evaluated, so you don’t have to do this yourself. And also:

• You can sort the expired domains by price, different metrics (DA, DR, TF, CF), Google index, monthly traffic, topic, and TLD.
• The prices are fixed and not dependent on auctions. Plus, they cover a wide range suitable for any budget.
• Domain transfers are fast, convenient, and safe.

Alpha Investors

Alpha Investors offers a unique service of premium vetted domains in lucrative niches that come with a complete website build-out.

All the domains listed on Alpha Investors contain a thorough analysis, including all SEO metrics, history, backlinks, detailed business analysis, and recommendations from their experienced analysts.

Every domain on their site comes with a complete content site build-out that includes custom design and premium plugins, 100,000 words of well-researched and optimised content, in-depth keyword research files, and a plan to grow the site; 12 months of free WPX hosting, and more. It’s a hands-free service that gives you the highest chance of success.

How To Find Good Expired Domains

Considering the high number of expired domains, how can you know whether a specific domain is good? 

You could look at the following factors when looking at expired domain lists. 

Zone Availability

Everyone would like to use specific domain name extensions like .net or .com for their site. 

However, not every expired domain you buy will be available for your desired extension. 

This is why you should always ensure that the domain you want to buy is available in your preferred extension. 

If not, you might be forced to use an obscure extension that might be challenging for users to remember. 

Quality Backlinks

Quality domains have valid, high-authority backlinks from other authority sites within your field or niche. 

As such, always opt for domains with a natural-looking backlink profile because they will likely offer maximum search engine results page visibility. 

High Traffic

Always check the domain’s traffic numbers to determine how well it performed. 

Specific sites can help you determine this, with many of them ranking domains according to criteria like “search” keywords. 

Content

If an expired domain has content unrelated to your field, it will not help you attract your desired target. 

This can increase your site’s bounce rate, which you don’t want. 

To view an expired domain’s previous content, enter its name into the Wayback Machine, the internet’s archive that saves content from sites dating back to 1996. 

Age

Domain age is not the same thing as website age. The age of a domain is determined by the date it was first registered. 

While older domains usually boast more SEO value than new ones, it depends on how clean their history is. 

Page and Domain Authority Scores

The expired domain should have high authority. Search engines should recognise it as a source of original, high-quality content. 

Page authority (PA) and domain authority (DA) are the metrics that will help determine the expired domain’s authority. 

Getting an expired domain with a perfect DA and PA score will be challenging, so focus on getting one whose scores are higher than those of your competitors’ domains. 

Ideally, it would be best to look for expired domains with a minimum DA score of 25. 

Google Index

Google plays an essential role in the value of a domain because it will only show indexed pages. 

Ensure you check the domain’s index status by using the Google Console tool to see the site's appearance the last time the search engine crawled it. 

If your search reveals that Google never indexed the site, consider going for a different option because non-indexed domains take a long time to reinstate or appear in search engine results pages. 

No Spam History

Speaking of the Google index, if the expired domain has a history of spam, it will be a useless purchase because search engines ban such domains from their indexes.

In Conclusion

Every day, a domain owner will fail to renew their domain contract. 

While some might prefer building their site with a clean slate, many expired domains have targeted traffic and firm backlink profiles that give you an edge against competitors. 

You can even capitalise on the site’s previous SEO power and ranking and develop the domain’s existing authority based on existing content. 

You also have the option of flipping the domain for profit. 

However, the first step to capitalising on expired domains’ many opportunities is finding and purchasing a powerful domain. 

And while certain aspects will depend on your needs and preferences, certain qualities are non-negotiable. 

Hopefully, the information above has given you a great idea of where to start and how to find expired domains.