Do Expired Domains Work for SEO?

If you’re a digital marketer, you’ve probably heard about using expired domains. But what are they, and how can you use them for SEO? Let’s find out!

What Is an Expired Domain?

An expired domain is a domain name that was previously registered by someone but is no longer active. When a domain expires, it becomes available for anyone to register.

There are two types of expired domains—dropped and undropped. Dropped domains are fully expired domains that can be purchased from any domain registrar. On the other hand, undropped domains are expired domains that have been retained by the domain registrar. These domains are more valuable than dropped domains in terms of SEO.

Keep in mind that expired domains are different from aged domains. You can read more about them in our recent post on buying aged domains with backlinks.

Why Do People Let Their Domains Expire?

One of the most common types of expired domains are those abandoned by small businesses, but there are many reasons people let their domains expire. Maybe they’ve lost interest in the project they were using the domain for, maybe they can’t afford the renewal fees, or maybe they’ve simply forgotten to renew it.

Whatever the reason, there are several benefits of buying expired domains. Let’s discuss how you can use them to promote your (or your clients’) websites.

How Can Expired Domains Be Used for SEO?

There are three major ways you can use an expired domain for SEO. These are building a private blog network (PBN), using a 301 redirect, and broken link building.

Building a PBN

A PBN is a network of websites used to build links to your money site. The key to ranking higher on Google is to get high-quality backlinks from websites that are relevant to your niche. However, it can be challenging to get such links–that’s where a PBN comes in.

A PBN consists of websites that you own, putting you in control of the content and links on these websites. This allows you to easily add links to your money site from your PBN websites. However, building and maintaining a PBN can be time-consuming and expensive. You’ll need to buy expired domains, set up websites on these domains, and publish content on a regular basis. Furthermore, you have to ensure that the expired domains you buy are relevant to your niche. Otherwise, your website could face a penalty by Google.

In order to avoid these difficulties, it’s better to work with a dedicated PBN hosting company that offers a footprint free PBN. You’ll not only save time and energy, but you’ll get a PBN that’s difficult for Google to detect and penalize.

Using a 301 Redirect

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of setting up a PBN, you can use a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another.

For example, let’s say you buy and register expired domain www.example.com, and you want to redirect it to your money site, www.mysite.com. You can do this by adding a 301 redirect from www.example.com to www.mysite.com.

When someone types www.example.com in their browser, they’ll be taken to www.mysite.com automatically. Plus, the ranking benefits of www.example.com will be passed on to www.mysite.com, helping both sites.

Keep in mind that applying a 301 redirect is a technical matter, and even the slightest mistake can mess up your website. Therefore, it’s best to seek technical assistance when using this strategy.

Broken Link Building

The third way you can use expired domains for SEO is broken link building. This is where you study the backlinks that your expired domain has and contact the website owners. You can then offer them a replacement link, which should ideally be a link to your website. If they accept your offer, you’ll get a high-quality backlink from a website that’s relevant to your niche.

This strategy can be time-consuming, but it’s worth the effort as it can help you get high-quality backlinks from websites that are relevant to your field.