Domain Name Buying Guide

I came across a some clients seeking my SEO Services for their newly bought used domain name. But the problem is some of them were penalized by search engines and some PPC Ad Networks. It really sucks then.

Its the basic thing that one should do some tests to look for the quality of the domain before buying it. Its pretty hard to get a domain back in the track after its penalized. The SEO gets to be harder and a lot of time and resources get wasted.

Here are some of the basic steps you should follow before buying a Expired or Used domain name.

Check for the PR:
If you are buying the domain only for PR, you need to check if the PR is original or fake. I know people who got scammed on buying a domain with fake PR and its very easy to manipulate.
There are many online tools available to check the PR, such as Domain PageRank. But the easiest and surefire way in the Google’s info operator. Search for the “info:domain” command in Google Search Box. If the site info that is returned doesn’t match the site that you searched for, then it’s probably faked. Otherwise, it’s most likely genuine.

Check for the Penalization:
You must check if the domain is penalized in Search Engines. If the domain is penalized, it should have no or less indexed pages in the respective search engine. The operator which checks the indexed pages in most of the search engines is “site”. Search for “site:domain” in the search box and see the results. There are also some online tools available like iWebTool.

Check for Backlinks:
You should also check for the indexed backlinks in search engines. The less it is, the higher the chance of being penalized. The operator for Google and Yahoo is “link”, otherwise, its “inlink”. Search for “link:domain” to check for the backlinks indexed. Yahoo normally shows higher backlinks than Google.

Cache Date:
It also help you to check if the domain is banned. the operator for checking this is “cache”. Check if the domain is cached recently, if the cache date is too old, then there is something fishy.

Whois:
You MUST check it before making any decision. It shows you who is the current owner and registrar of the domain. It also shows you the creation date, registry modification date and the expiry date of the domain. The popular tool is Domain Tools Whois.

Other Things:
Those were the main things you should check, but, apart from them, you can also check the Alexa Rank, Wayback Machine (Domain History) and Adsense Banned Check.

Remember, its better to spend some time rather than get scammed.