Ankith K Shetty
Regular Member
- Apr 25, 2019
- 476
- 214
I had a question. If I buy a expired domain of good DA, would it be faster to rank compared to a fresh domain which would have a sandbox period of several months?
Does buying expired domain remove sand box waiting??
- Thread starter Ankith K Shetty
- Start date
alexodysglobal
Regular Member
- Aug 13, 2014
- 338
- 712
Knowing how to properly build a website on THE RIGHT aged domain does, for sure.
- Oct 28, 2020
- 10,089
- 11,899
good DA doesn't mean anything for expired domains. You need to check ALL these...
1) whether the domain is still indexed in google, or - in case that it's not indexed - at least check if it has penalty. I don't know how to check if it's got penalties, so don't ask me how to do this cause I don't know. All I know is that if this 1st step fails all other metrics that you are so impressed with are useless because that domain name will never ever EVER be indexed again.... not by newbies anyway. If Amazon buys it and throws billions at google it will get indexed within minutes probably. But for mere mortals like us penalized / deindexed expired domains will stay dead
2) if the domain is not penalized / it's still indexed then you can check these metrics to see how good it is:
2a) RDs (Referring Domains) the more RDs a domain has - and the more powerful they are, obviously - the more authoritative the domain will be, which means the more authority it will give you if you build a website on it, or if you 301 redirect it to your money site
2b) CF / TF metrics... these 2 metrics indicate how powerful and trustworthy a domain is, so if you see an expired domain with 1000s of RDs but with a CF of 8 and TF of 5 (just an example) something's fishy. If CF / TF are at least 20, for example, then it's probably a good domain and you can check the other metrics
2c) traffic... while not always important (especially if the domain has fallen out of index for years), an expired domain that still gets a few visitors from google every now and then is a good sign, even if the DA is low (10-15 for example)
2d) finally, DA.... typically, you will want to acquire domains with DA of 60 or more, but... these domains are usually snatched up by greedy bastards with deep pockets and access to all sorts of tools that identify and register these domains in bulk without ever doing anything with them, or even needing them in the first place. So, for people like us (newbies, new starters, poor SEOers, etc) there are only scraps left, and if you find a scrap that meets all other criteria that I've explained above and which comes with DA of at least 20.... I think that's a good domain.
EDIT: also, I just realized that I didn't answer your actual question facepalm. I apologize, and here is the answer: yes, expired domains do remove the sandbox, it's happened to one of my expired domains a few months ago when I first used it after 2 years of inactivity. Just built a site on it and several days later the 3 main pages had already been indexed without me doing anything about it (well, other than submitting the sitemap to GSC obviously)
1) whether the domain is still indexed in google, or - in case that it's not indexed - at least check if it has penalty. I don't know how to check if it's got penalties, so don't ask me how to do this cause I don't know. All I know is that if this 1st step fails all other metrics that you are so impressed with are useless because that domain name will never ever EVER be indexed again.... not by newbies anyway. If Amazon buys it and throws billions at google it will get indexed within minutes probably. But for mere mortals like us penalized / deindexed expired domains will stay dead
2) if the domain is not penalized / it's still indexed then you can check these metrics to see how good it is:
2a) RDs (Referring Domains) the more RDs a domain has - and the more powerful they are, obviously - the more authoritative the domain will be, which means the more authority it will give you if you build a website on it, or if you 301 redirect it to your money site
2b) CF / TF metrics... these 2 metrics indicate how powerful and trustworthy a domain is, so if you see an expired domain with 1000s of RDs but with a CF of 8 and TF of 5 (just an example) something's fishy. If CF / TF are at least 20, for example, then it's probably a good domain and you can check the other metrics
2c) traffic... while not always important (especially if the domain has fallen out of index for years), an expired domain that still gets a few visitors from google every now and then is a good sign, even if the DA is low (10-15 for example)
2d) finally, DA.... typically, you will want to acquire domains with DA of 60 or more, but... these domains are usually snatched up by greedy bastards with deep pockets and access to all sorts of tools that identify and register these domains in bulk without ever doing anything with them, or even needing them in the first place. So, for people like us (newbies, new starters, poor SEOers, etc) there are only scraps left, and if you find a scrap that meets all other criteria that I've explained above and which comes with DA of at least 20.... I think that's a good domain.
EDIT: also, I just realized that I didn't answer your actual question facepalm. I apologize, and here is the answer: yes, expired domains do remove the sandbox, it's happened to one of my expired domains a few months ago when I first used it after 2 years of inactivity. Just built a site on it and several days later the 3 main pages had already been indexed without me doing anything about it (well, other than submitting the sitemap to GSC obviously)
Ruvez
Junior Member
- Apr 24, 2016
- 115
- 43
It's a lottery. I have experience in buying a high DA expired domain. There used to be a niche-related forum on it. I built a website on it and began working on backlinks. But it wasn't showing anywhere for a year or so.
It's better to buy domains on auction and check them for penalties.
It's better to buy domains on auction and check them for penalties.
chameleon domains
Regular Member
- Dec 23, 2019
- 237
- 380
Hard to say for sure, there are debates if sandbox is real or not at all.
But if the domain has some indexed pages (not godaddy parking page), it would definitely be an advantage in terms of time.
But if the domain has some indexed pages (not godaddy parking page), it would definitely be an advantage in terms of time.
- Dec 13, 2020
- 424
- 249
Of course is real!!
Not to be rude but have you ever tried building websites other than selling them? Sanbox is like 200% a real thing
M4DM4X
Elite Member
- Jan 21, 2015
- 2,511
- 1,464
If you are talking about indexing then I noticed expired domains get indexed very fast.
If you mean rankings, it's very random according to my experience. But it depends on too many factors, niche, domain power, competition, etc so that's hard to tell for sure.
If you mean rankings, it's very random according to my experience. But it depends on too many factors, niche, domain power, competition, etc so that's hard to tell for sure.
chameleon domains
Regular Member
- Dec 23, 2019
- 237
- 380
Hi, no problem. Yes, I have and pretty successfully on both new and auction domains.
I couldn't find the exact sandbox period or logic behind it - some websites can rank right away, some require time.
My point is that sandbox (google never confirmed that it exists as I know) is a pretty vague term in terms of time, point when you can consider that the website is out of sandbox etc.
- Nov 29, 2008
- 9,157
- 4,773
It depends on the value of the expired domain.
If that domain used to be a mover and shaker in its niche and used to contain hundreds, if not thousands, of articles that drew a lot of backlinks from some high-authority sites, then I would say that it’s a safe bet you would get out of the sandbox sooner rather than later.
But instead of relying on some sort of “magic bullet” solution like domain age or domain quality, why not just focus on laying the foundations for a solid website?
What I mean by that is truly deliver on the kind of experience users are looking for.
People enter one keyword instead of another keyword for a reason.
Discover that reason, understand it, and make sure to incorporate it in the content of your site.
If you're able to do this and you target keywords that your competitors are not focusing on because they think these keywords get very little traffic, you'd be surprised as to how quickly you'd get out of the sandbox because you are targeting less competitive keywords and delivering solid value.
I know from firsthand experience that certain keywords may have low search volume according to SEO tools, but it turns out that they pack quite a bit of a punch when it comes to user visits.
At the end of the day, it really just boils down to how much value you plan to bring to the table as far as your content and user experience go.
If that domain used to be a mover and shaker in its niche and used to contain hundreds, if not thousands, of articles that drew a lot of backlinks from some high-authority sites, then I would say that it’s a safe bet you would get out of the sandbox sooner rather than later.
But instead of relying on some sort of “magic bullet” solution like domain age or domain quality, why not just focus on laying the foundations for a solid website?
What I mean by that is truly deliver on the kind of experience users are looking for.
People enter one keyword instead of another keyword for a reason.
Discover that reason, understand it, and make sure to incorporate it in the content of your site.
If you're able to do this and you target keywords that your competitors are not focusing on because they think these keywords get very little traffic, you'd be surprised as to how quickly you'd get out of the sandbox because you are targeting less competitive keywords and delivering solid value.
I know from firsthand experience that certain keywords may have low search volume according to SEO tools, but it turns out that they pack quite a bit of a punch when it comes to user visits.
At the end of the day, it really just boils down to how much value you plan to bring to the table as far as your content and user experience go.