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Want to find expired domains to boost your rankings and authority?
Or maybe you want to become a domain investor and resell expired domains as a side hustle.
Either way, expired domains hold a lot of value. And finding them is easier than you might think.
This post will explore several ways to find expired domain names.
I recently used one of these methods and saw a nice boost in domain authority and traffic.
Keep reading to find out how you can do it, too.
How to Find Expired Domains for Better Rankings and Authority
We’ve listed the most popular ways you can find expired domains below. Some are cheaper than others, whereas some will speed up the process.
1. Aged Domains on ODYS: Fastest Option
If you want to save yourself a ton of time, then ODYS is the best place to find a quality domain name.
These premium domains aren’t expired as such, but aged.
What does that mean?
It means the guys behind ODYS have done the hard work for you. They’ve spent hours looking for expired domain names, vetting them for quality, and setting up a placeholder site.
Activating the domain on a placeholder site essentially keeps the site in Google’s index, which is a big deal.
Domains available at ODYS also have high-quality backlinks, so your site will take off much faster than usual.
Other methods in this post might save you money, but if you’ve got the budget, check out ODYS here.
You can also read our ODYS review for more details.
2. Find expired domains with Spamzilla
Spamzilla is an excellent tool for finding expired domains and can be a lot cheaper than an ODYS domain.
The tool will help you sift through thousands of expired and dropped domains, saving you hours looking for them manually.
You can filter dropped domains, enabling you to purchase them at any domain registrar for the standard price.
Majestic metrics are also integrated into the tool, which allows you to filter for things like Trust Flow and Citation Flow.
Even better, you can connect Spamzilla to your Ahrefs account, enabling you to filter for Ahrefs Domain Rating and other metrics to find domain gems much faster.
Lastly, Spamzilla lets you see the link profile, which is important to consider when choosing an expired domain. More on this later.
Steps for using Spamzilla:
- Sign up for a Spamzilla account here
- Integrate Ahrefs
- Check .com, .net, and .org TLDs
- Set TF to a minimum of 10
- Set Ahref DR to a minimum of 10
- Sort by the number of backlinks
There’s a free Spamzilla plan with limited features, and the premium plan is billed monthly at $37.
3. Find expired domains on ExpiredDomains.net
This next method to find expired domains will usually be the cheapest option.
That’s because ExpiredDomains.net is completely free to use and has thousands of domains in its database.
It’s the method I used to find an expired domain that I 301 redirected to one of my blogs. I saw a little spike in rankings and traffic.
It might not look like much, but this site has around 15 articles, and I’ve not touched it since the expired domain was added.
ExpiredDomains.net has filters for a ton of options to help you narrow down what’s available, including keywords, Majestic Trust Flow score, TLDs, and domains that have been deleted.
This is great news because deleted domains are available for domain registration at their standard rate, which is as low as $10 per year.
The biggest downfall with ExpiredDomains.net is how long it can take to find anything good enough.
However, they do list marketplace domains on platforms such as GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Sedo. These domains are usually a little more expensive but will tend to be better quality.
Steps for using ExpiredDomains.net:
- Sign up for a free account here
- Type your keyword in the search bar for relevance
- Click on filters and use these settings
- Majestic Trust Flow score greater than 10
- Select .com, .net, and .org
- Then, sort by the number of backlinks from the list
4. Find Expired Domains at Auction
Another great place to find expired domains is a GoDaddy Auction. This valuable platform has an extensive library of domain names available to bid on.
GoDaddy expired domains can be found using their advanced search feature and filters.
You can filter by age, traffic, and estimated value. It also tells you how much time is left in the domain auction, amongst other metrics from Majestic, and the total number of backlinks.
Steps for using GoDaddy Auctions:
- Sign up for a GoDaddy account: There is a fee which is charged at only $4.99 per year.
- Use filters: Set the filters you need to narrow down your search
- Check the time left: Make sure you know how long is left in the auction to give yourself enough time to bid
- Use the advanced search: You can set a budget to find domains at the right price
5. From a website marketplace
The last method for finding high-quality domains is to buy an existing site from Flippa or Motion Invest.
Flippa also sells domain names too.
If you’re patient enough, you can find domains with traffic and a decent backlink profile for a good price.
Then, these domains can be used for your next site directly or as a 301 redirect to your main site.
The benefit of finding sites on marketplaces is that they can be undervalued compared to their backlinks.
Another benefit is that the sites are already monetized.
Here’s how to find them:
- Motion Invest lists and vet sites, so you know they’re high-quality assets
- Create an account and join their email list
- Browse through their listings for sale to see if anything stands out
- You can filter by price, age, niche, listing and monetization type, and more
- And each listing tells you the site’s age, traffic, revenue, backlinks, best-performing content, and more.
- You can purchase by placing a deposit of playing upfront, depending on the price.
Reasons to Buy an Expired Domain Name
Now that you know the methods for finding expired domains, let’s look at the why.
Here are some of the benefits expired domains have to offer.
Backlinks
The biggest advantage of buying an expired domain name is its backlink profile.
Building a site that already has high authority links can save you months and even years in website growth.
That’s because these backlinks’ authority boosts the expired domain’s authority, boosting traffic and rankings.
Traffic
Speaking of traffic, another benefit of expired domains is they can sometimes get traffic based on the backlinks.
There might also be existing search engine traffic if Google indexes the domains.
This is good news because you will likely retain this traffic when you set up your website on the domain.
Following an effective strategy can boost your rankings quickly if you map out the old domain URLs to new ones that match.
Save time and money
Starting a brand new site or blog on a new domain name is a slow process when it comes to SEO.
That’s because the domain name has no authority and takes much longer to rank in search engines.
Furthermore, the Google sandbox can be unforgiving for some new sites.
However, when you buy an expired domain name, it already has trust, so its growth can be much faster.
301 redirects
If you’re not buying an expiring domain name to build a site on it directly, you can benefit from 301 redirects.
This is what SEO expert Nathan Gotch calls “The Merger Technique” because you’re essentially buying an asset and redirecting it to your existing website.
This sends the link equity from the expired domain’s backlinks to your main site, giving your site a boost in domain authority.
Private blog networks
The last benefit and use for expired domains is to build a private blog network.
This is a black hat SEO strategy of interlinking a network of content sites together that you can use for self-promotion.
Imagine having hundreds of sites under your control that can link to your main site.
Another use case is to set up a PBN for selling links to other bloggers and make money on the side.
Things to Consider When Finding Expired Domains
There are many factors to consider when buying expired domains. Choosing the wrong one can prevent your site from ranking.
Here are some things to look out for when looking for expired domains.
Relevance
A key factor when choosing expired domains is their relevance to your project.
For example, if you want to start a flight booking website, buying a domain name used for a restaurant probably isn’t the best choice.
Whereas a domain used as a travel blog might work well here.
The expired domain doesn’t need to be perfect, just similar enough that the backlink profile would match your current brand.
For example, that restaurant domain could work well for a food blog or even a review blog for kitchen accessories.
The main thing to look out for isn’t the name but the backlinks and history of the website.
Website history
This leads us to the next criteria to check when buying expired domains. You must check the website history.
This involves seeing what the previous domain name was used for, revealing a few things.
The first thing it reveals is its relevance to your current brand. If the domain doesn’t reveal this, check the site on Archive.org, which will clarify things.
It might not be a good fit if the site or niche is too different.
Another thing to check is whether the site was used for spam or SEO purposes. These might include link farms, PBNs, or sites with extremely poor content.
Checking Archive.org will reveal the intention of the previous domain owner.
Lastly, you’ll also be able to see the domain age. An aged domain will be a bonus if the domain is in good standing with other factors.
Backlink profile
The next step to validate an expired domain is to check its backlink profile. This is essential.
What you’re looking for is natural editorial links from high-authority sites that are relevant to your brand.
Even better if they’re from big publishers such as The New York Times or CNN.
What you want to avoid are backlinks from only directory sites. Worse if the backlinks are spammy or used to manipulate Google rankings.
There are a few ways to check the existing backlink profile of an expired domain.
The first way is to use a tool like Spamzilla. This provides metrics from Majestic and is cheaper than using them directly.
A free option that will give you some basic backlink metrics is Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker. Just type the domain name in the search:
However, the best way to analyze the backlinks of an expiring domain you’re interested in is to use an Ahrefs premium plan or Semrush.
This will provide the most accuracy and save you time in the vetting process.
You can use filters such as do follow links and sort by DR to see the best links at the top.
Page and domain rating
Page and domain metrics are other things to consider when finding expiring domains.
These indicate the site’s authority based on its backlinks and will retain its standing when it’s registered for a new site.
The types of metrics to look out for are found across different SEO tools:
- Trust Flow (TF) and Citation Flow (CF): Defined by Majestic
- Domain Rating (DR) and Page Rating (PR): Defined by Ahrefs
- Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA): Defined by Moz
Each tool’s metrics work differently depending on various factors, but the higher, the better.
Depending on the competition of the site you’re building, and your budget, the quality of the domain required will usually be determined.
Rankings keywords
Next up isn’t as critical as the others, but it comes with added benefits if your domain has them.
That is organic rankings.
Sometimes, a dropped domain will retain its rankings in Google. That means it’ll be easier and faster to rank your new site in Google once it’s set up.
Check if the domain is indexed in Google by typing site:domainname.com in Google.
If it retains some rankings, the pages will appear in the results. You can also use a tool like Ahrefs for this.
However, if the domain you’re interested in ticks all the other boxes, zero search rankings shouldn’t be a dealbreaker.
Just ensure the domain passes the other criteria, as zero Google rankings could mean a manual penalty in the past.
Finding Expired Domains in Conclusion
To find expired domains for your next site idea isn’t as difficult as it sounds. There are just many parts to consider.
Following this guide will certainly help make the process smoother and quicker.
To recap, use ODYS for premium-aged domains. This will be the quickest solution.
The next best solution, which could save you a ton of money, is Spamzilla. This tool offers the most comprehensive features for sifting through thousands of expired domain names.
If you want to try auctions, be sure to read our post on GoDaddy expired domains next.