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You’ve come up with a unique brand name and now you’re ready to buy a domain. Great stuff. Here’s how to do a domain name history check to query if a domain’s history is ‘clean’ from spam and penalties before you buy it. Miss this step and you might have problems down the road…
When you buy a domain name for your online business, you can choose between buying one that’s taken but up for sale from the owner (which can be quite expensive) or buying one that’s not owned and is for sale directly from a domain-selling company (the much cheaper option).
Either way, you need to check the domain name’s history to protect yourself. I’ve created a printable to take you through the steps for checking both types of domains within 30 minutes for free. Minutes now that might save you days of hardship later…that sounds like a great deal to me ?
Buy a domain name from a domain-selling company
I’ve always bought open domains directly from Bluehost as I don’t want to pay a lot of money for a domain on sale by an owner. I would only ever buy an owned domain if I was absolutely convinced that it’s the only domain name that truly represents the online business or brand I’m starting.
I usually brainstorm my own business name ideas, then check the history of names I like before buying hosting for a year to get setup. I own several domains and apparently that’s quite common! I enjoy coming up with names and ideas for future sites, then grabbing the domains so long. There are a few exciting projects in store 🙂
Checking the history of domain names
Just because a domain is available doesn’t mean that it’s never been a live website before. Someone could have owned it a few years before and never renewed it. You need to find the domain history to know what’s going on.
And that person might have used it for spam, scams or building dodgy backlinks. A backlink is when one website puts another website’s address in a post or picture. When someone clicks on that link, they are taken straight through to the other website. These are called backlinks because they link back to another website.
Google looks at backlinks and uses them to determine how professional and popular a website is. If you have many backlinks to your website from other good websites, Google thinks you’re a professional and popular site, so Google sends visitors to your site. This has a huge impact on your site’s performance and traffic.
But if the previous domain owner used your domain name to build spammy backlinks to trick Google, then there may be links to your domain from adult-themed sites, online gambling sites, or any other dodgy sites that Google doesn’t like. It may have been penalized or banned by Google. And if you buy the domain name years later with these backlinks, your site will suffer.
You can easily do a query for domain names that are available in this box:
Find a domain starting at $0.88
powered by Namecheap
You can easily check if the domain history is clean in two simple steps outlined in the printable, which is stored in the Tiara Tribe resource library full of valuable free goodies.
Buy a domain name from an owner
As I said earlier, I own several domains. I could sell these at any time, much like buying and selling products online. So you also have the option to buy a domain name from an owner. This is usually done through a hosting company but this is what you need to know: You aren’t necessarily safe with a clean domain when buying from its current owner. and you still need to check and query the domain history.
They might have bought a spammy domain to begin with or used it to create a spammy domain, and now they are trying to sell it.
The good news is that if the site is owned, then you have access to even more data to evaluate the domain name (though it will probably be more expensive than buying a domain from a hosting company). I say use this info! The printable takes you through the extra steps you can take to check domain names for sale by owners, with examples.
Either way, if you’ve done your checks and bought a domain then congratulations! I hope you have something exciting planned to share with the world. If you want to know how to set up your security on your new (or existing) website, then pop over to see how I set up my security in five simple steps.
Get the free printable to check the history before you buy a domain name!
Download my printable on How to check if the domain name history is clean by clicking on the picture below:
