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Google discusses using expired domains for backlinks and SEO

by — Expired Domains 5 Comments

The company doesn’t want people to game the system but doesn’t want to wrongly penalize a domain, either.

The word "SEO" in red, blue and green on blackboard next to magnifying glass with arrows pointing toward it.

When you see an expired domain auction for a crappy domain reaching stratospheric levels, you can be that people are bidding on it because it used to have an active website. They acquire the domain name to take advantage of the existing search engine rankings and backlinks pointing to the domain.

What does Google do about this? John Mueller, the public SEO face of Google’s search team, answered the question in a recent video.

Mueller said that Google does a decent job of figuring out if someone is trying to game the system, but it needs to be cautious. After all, domain names change ownership all of the time, and this doesn’t mean that the domain should start from zero in a search engine’s eyes.

He admitted that Google doesn’t always get it right.

It’s certainly a complicated issue for Google. I recall Vint Cerf bemoaning the practice of auctioning off domains before they expire at Domain Roundtable in 2006; it made it more difficult for Google to figure out if a domain expired and was picked up by someone else or was merely transferred to another owner.

This video is queued up to his answer:

Sav’s no-fee domain backorder service comes out of beta

by — Expired Domains 5 Comments

Domain name registrar only charges customers the registration cost for dropping domains.

Picture of clock with words "expired domains"

Domain name registrar Sav has taken the beta label off of its domain name backordering service.

Sav doesn’t charge anything to place backorders and doesn’t charge an extra fee when domains are caught. Customers pay only the typical registration fee, assuming they are the only person that backordered the domain. That’s currently $6.95 for .com domain names.

Sav founder Anthos Chrysanthou told Domain Name Wire that the company is catching thousands of .com domains every month, but that its biggest successes are for .co and .io domain names. Recent catches include Luxury.co, Queen.co, Instructor.io and SmartHome.io. As I write this, there’s a heated battle for Noon.co.

Domains with multiple backorders go to a ten-day public auction in which anyone can bid.

The system does not publicize which domains have backorders, so there is no issue with “tipping off” other domain investors about which domains you’re backordering.

You can still pick up Pinyin domains from the drops

by — Expired Domains 2 Comments

Good quality Pinyin domains drop every day.

Graphic that says 'pinyin' in yellow type on purple background

I thought most meaningful Pinyin are already owned by Chinese investors because there are over 900 million internet citizens and a large pool of investors in China. These Chinese domain investors even triggered the global domain boom in 2015/2016.

Therefore, it amazes me to see Pinyin domains dropping regularly in the last few months. For example, the following 10 Pinyin domains are now available for registration as of this writing.

Domain Pinyin Chinese Meaning
Haidiou.com Hai Di Ou 海地鸥 Gull of sea and land
Hongshuli.com Hong Shu Li 红薯里 Sweet potato neighborhood
Longyishun.com Long Yi Shun 龙一瞬 Dragon, in the twinkle of an eye
Jinxingchang.com Jin Xing Chang 尽心尝 Try wholeheartedly
Wogeke.com Wo Ge Ke 握个客 To grasp individual customer
Aidatan.com Ai Da Tan 爱打探 Love to scout out
Fengmidi.com Feng Mi Di 蜂蜜帝 Emperor of honey
Gushutang.com Gu Shu Tang 古书堂 Hall of ancient books
Jingfuxin.com Jing Fu Xin 静福心 A heart with tranquility and happiness
Kailanna.com Kai Lan Na 凯蓝娜 Triumphant, blue, elegant

As you can see, many of these Pinyin domains are quite short –- fewer than 10 characters. Imagine investing just $10 to acquire a domain such as Fengmidi.com to develop it into a business empire supplying honey to 1.4 billion consumers in China. The opportunity is unmeasurable!

The interesting thing is that I do not deliberately look for Pinyin domains. In fact, I mainly invest in English-based domains but somehow Pinyin names just come across my desk as I scan domains provided by ExpiredDomains.net every day.

Uniregistry expired domains are coming to GoDaddy Auctions

by — Expired Domains 3 Comments

Auctions should start popping up later this week.

Picture of GoDaddy and Uniregistry Logos

GoDaddy acquired domain name registrar Uniregistry this year, so it was only a matter of time before Uniregistry expired domains would transition to GoDaddy Auctions.

That should start happening sometime this week, Domain Name Wire has confirmed.

Previously, Uniregistry expired domain names were auctioned at Dynadot.

Dynadot auctions expiring domains that are currently registered at its registrar but, like most expired domain marketplaces, also has agreements with other registrars to auction their domains. Dynadot’s other notable expiry stream partner is PorkBun.

Auctions at Dynadot are not always as competitive as at GoDaddy, so there are sometimes opportunities to get domains that don’t attract as many bidders.

Picking up short Pinyin domains

by — Expired Domains 4 Comments

They have a limited market unless they are more generic.

Graphic that says 'pinyin' in yellow type on purple background

Regular readers know that I don’t invest in Pinyin domains. This is because I want to sell my domains to the entire world but Pinyin names are often limited to the China market. Interestingly, I’m seeing Pinyin domains dropped regularly that can be registered for mere $10 a pop.

For example, the following two Pinyin domains were deleted on August and therefore were available for registration.

Geleshi.com was first recorded by Wayback Machine in 2016 but the site had no contents. In 2017, it was owned by the big seller HugeDomains.com. Geleshi is 3-pin and has 7 characters. Ge Le Shi may have multiple Chinese meanings, such as 歌乐视 (suggesting a music video channel) and 格乐事 (suggesting matters related to happy things).

Rongjixi.com was first recorded by Wayback Machine in 2018 but the site had no contents. Rongjixi is 3-pin and has 8 characters. Rong Ji Xi may have multiple Chinese meanings, such as 融计息 (related to finance) and 荣基喜 (a thriving foundation of happiness).

Having said that I don’t invest in Pinyin domains, I actually own a few of them – although not intentionally. Here are two for illustration.

Hemola(dot)com is 3-pin and has only 6 characters. He Mo La may have multiple Chinese meanings such as 鹤默拉 (associated with crane, silence, and pull). Because the name is very generic, it can be used in almost any business field.

Bibale(dot)com is 3-pin and has only 6 characters. It was first recorded by Wayback Machine in 2008 but I don’t see any site development over the years. Bi Ba Le may have multiple Chinese meanings such as 币霸乐 (associated with money, master, and fun), which can be used in money-related fields.

As you can see, my favorite Pinyin domains are very short and also pronounceable. They can be used both inside and outside China. How did I find them? I use ExpiredDomains.net, choose the Deleted Domains category, and specify 2-word English domains. (It’s still a mystery to me. I intend to see English-based domains but the search result does include Pinyin domains.)

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