Are you missing out on the chance to own your ideal domain name?
When people decide to set up a website for business or personal use, the most common process is to register a new domain name. This typically involves visiting a domain name registrar such as Siteopia and checking whether the desired domain name is available to register.
This can sometimes be a lengthy process, with many users finding that their first, second or even third choices are all already registered. Coming up with variations of the desired name can be time-consuming, and ultimately you may end up with a domain name that doesn’t really suit your business or is overly complicated. An alternative option that not everybody thinks of is to check whether any pre-owned domain names that suit your needs are available to buy.
What is a pre-owned domain name?
A pre-owned domain name is a domain name that somebody was previously using for their website, but is now no longer in need of. Rather than keeping a site live that is never going to be updated or looked at, the owner can decide to sell it on.
Why buy a pre-owned domain name?
There are a number of benefits to taking on an existing domain name. When you register a new domain name, you are starting from scratch. This means that it can take quite a lot of time to build your website up to a point where it is getting regular traffic and ranking highly in the search engines. When you take ownership of a pre-owned domain name, you inherit the backlinks and authority of the website. You are likely to also get traffic because of these links; essentially, you reap the rewards of the previous owner’s efforts.
It’s not guaranteed, however, that you’ll retain this good authority and traction. Google is an intelligent search engine, and once you overhaul the site’s content and make it your own, Google is likely to recognize that it’s a new site and rank it accordingly. This won’t be the case for all search engines though, and sites that have previously linked to the domain – be they directories, bloggers or news sites – are unlikely to notice the change or be bothered enough to remove the link.
Are there any potential negative effects?
While adopting a domain name with a decent reputation and backlink profile can be extremely profitable, it can also be incredibly damaging if you adopt one with a not so clean record. Domains names that have received penalties in the past – for spam, inappropriate content, copyright infringement or a number of other potential issues – could delay the progress of your website significantly. It can take a lot of time and effort to ‘clear your name’, so to speak, which you probably don’t want to be concerned with when trying to launch your online identity. To avoid this happening to you, do some research into the domain to ensure that its history is clean.
Where do you find a pre-owned domain name?
A lot of domain name registrars have a list of pre-owned domain names that are available to buy. If you find that your desired domain name is already registered, then it is worth checking to see whether you can acquire it this way.
