Road to 100K: Buying an Existing Domain Name

The “Road to 100K” project aims to show you step-by-step how to create a high-performing website capable of reaching 100,000 unique visitors per month. In this first article, we will see how to properly start this project by buying an existing domain name.

Launching a new website can be complex, especially if your goal is to quickly reach high traffic. Fortunately, there are tricks to boost your startup and gain visibility more easily. One of them involves repurchasing an existing domain name instead of creating a new one. Let’s see why and how.

Why Buy An Existing Domain Name

Buying an existing domain name has 3 main advantages.

1. Avoid Google’s “sandbox”

When a new site is launched, Google places it in a “sandbox”. This means that the site will first be evaluated for a period before potentially appearing in search results. With an existing domain, this step is avoided.

2. Benefit from existing presence and backlinks

An existing domain already has a presence on the web, with potentially backlinks from other sites. This saves you time on SEO.

3. Rank faster in search engines

Thanks to backlinks, your site will be able to rank much faster in Google search results. Precious time saved!

How To Find And Choose Your Domain

There are sites like ExpiredDomains.net that list expired or about-to-expire domain names, and therefore available for sale.

ExpiredDomains.net

ExpiredDomains.net is a very useful platform for identifying quality existing domain names. The site automatically analyzes and ranks expired domains based on different key indicators:

• Expiration date: you can filter to see only domain names expiring in the next 24 hours for example.
• Number of backlinks: indicates the popularity of the domain.
• Estimated traffic: gives an idea of the existing audience of the domain.
• Wayback Machine archive: number of snapshots of the existing website.
• Alexa Rank: Alexa ranking of the website.

By exploring this data and filters, it is possible to find interesting opportunities for expiring domain names, already with a good presence and backlinks.

To refine the selection, each preselected domain on ExpiredDomains must be analyzed manually with additional tools, based on a few key criteria.

Ranking and rating with Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an essential tool to thoroughly analyze a domain and assess its quality before a potential purchase. We used it to examine several indicators.

Unlike Expireddomains.net, Moz and Majestic SEO, Ahrefs is paid software. It can be replaced by the Semrush solution which offers a free version.

Ahrefs rating

The domain’s rating on Ahrefs reflects its overall popularity. The lower it is, the more the domain is referenced and visited across the web. The goal is to find a domain ranked in the top 2,000,000.

Ahrefs rank

The rank constitutes a quality index based on the quantity and authority of backlinks pointing to the domain. We are aiming for a minimum rank of 20.

Incoming backlinks

Via Ahrefs, it is possible to manually inspect the list of websites linking back to the domain, to check the quality of existing backlinks. Links from authoritative sources are a very good signal.

Low Moz spam score

Moz provides a spam score between 0 and 100 to assess the proportion of backlinks considered spam out of all incoming backlinks. The lower this score, the better the quality of the incoming links.

Before purchasing an existing domain name, it is necessary to closely examine the backlink profile. The goal is to ensure that the links mostly come from sources with very little or no backlinks identified as spam.

In-depth analysis of trust flow and citation flow with Majestic

The Majestic SEO tool allows an in-depth analysis of the quality of backlinks pointing to the domain.

Majestic provides two key indicators: Trust Flow and Citation Flow.

Trust Flow

The Trust Flow is a score out of 100 that assesses the quality and reliability of websites linking backlinks to the analyzed domain. The higher the Trust Flow, the more the source sites of the backlinks are considered trustworthy by Majestic.

When buying a domain name, a minimum Trust Flow of 20 is preferable. This means that the source sites of the incoming backlinks are rather reliable.

Citation Flow

The Citation Flow measures the quantity and authority of incoming backlinks. The higher it is, the more backlinks the analyzed domain has from sites themselves having high authority.

We consider that the minimum Citation Flow must be 10. This score guarantees a sufficient quantity of backlinks and sources with good authority.

Purchase of the “baobabteam.com” domain name

In our case, we identified the baobabteam.com domain meeting our criteria, for only 17.95€.

An Ahrefs rank that meets the main criteria

The Ahrefs rank of the baobabteam.com domain was 40, with a rating at 1,617,017, which perfectly matched our criteria.

More precisely, the domain had 209 incoming backlinks, mainly from high quality websites.

Backlink profile analysis on Moz

In our case, the baobabteam.com domain had a Moz spam score of 55%, which is relatively high.

Yet, after analysis, we only identified one site as spam. All the other links being of good quality. We therefore considered that the Moz spam score was not representative.

Trust Flow and Citation Flow analysis

Thanks to the Trust Flow Matrix, available in Majestic, we were able to accurately visualize the distribution of backlinks by Trust Flow and Citation Flow levels.

This analysis allowed us to verify that the domain met our criteria:

• A Trust Flow of 22, guaranteeing reliable sources for backlinks
• A Citation Flow of 13, validating both the volume and authority of the source sites of the backlinks

The domain was therefore also validated at the Majestic backlink profile level.

The “baobateam.com” domain is therefore ideal to start our project!

Conclusion

Buying an existing domain name is an effective strategy to boost the launch of a new website. By capitalizing on an already established presence, with existing backlinks, this approach saves precious time on SEO and brand awareness.

We have seen in this article how to identify and select a good expired domain to take over, using dedicated analysis tools and strict criteria on the authority of the domain. The concrete example of the baobabteam.com purchase illustrates the approach, step by step.

Once the domain is purchased, the next phase will be to work on branding to perfectly match the desired positioning.

This first article lays the foundations for the “Road to 100K” project. The next articles will detail all the actions to implement to develop, animate and promote your website, with the goal of reaching 100,000 unique visitors per month. The journey is just beginning!

More about marketing:
Baobabteam’s Social Media Blast-Off, click here
Coca-Cola’s 360-Degree Marketing Mastery, click here
Unlock Success: The Strategic Keyword Formula, click here
The Strategy Behind Our International Blog Launch, click here
A Case Study on Nike’s Effective Branding Strategies, click here
Zara’s Comprehensive Approach to Online Marketing, click here
AI-Generated Articles Transform Our BaobabTeam Site, click here
Opting for the Colormag Pro Theme in Our Marketing Blog, click here
The Aesthetic Inspired by the Baobab in the Road to 100k Project, click here