When we approach digital marketing, we often focus on what we already have. We consider adapting our current website, enhancing our social media platforms, and making new connections. However, you don’t always have to start all your digital marketing strategies from scratch.
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One strategy that’s very effective when done right is aged domains. But you need to know how to buy the right one for your business and use them properly. Read on to learn about how a premium aged domain could be just what the SEO experts ordered for your marketing strategy.
The Basics of Aged Domains
People often refer to getting a domain as “buying” a domain. However, there’s really no buying. Users simply rent domains.
Think of domains like an address. A business can claim an address when they set up a shop in a building. However, they may not be in that building forever. They may go out of business or move to a new building. In either case, a new company can move into the building and claim that address.
It’s the same with domains. When a user no longer uses their domain, it goes on the aftermarket. You can purchase that domain from a seller like Odys Global and use it for your own purposes.
The Benefits of Premium Aged Domains
So now that you know domains can be available for sale, you may wonder how this factors into your marketing plan. What power can an aged domain have?
For most, aged domains have great SEO benefits. Not only can you use an aged domain for your site, but you can also use it to boost a different domain. Here are the benefits you get when purchasing a premium aged domain and incorporating it into your marketing strategy.
1. Quickly Rank an Authoritative Website
When you first start a website, you don’t have any authority. Authority is important because it’s what determines your ranking on Google. Someone is searching for the services you offer — but if your competitor is the first result they see, they’re more likely to click on it. This is because users trust that the top results are best suited to what they’re looking for.
There are many steps in getting a top ranking with Google. This includes:
- Age (older sites are viewed more favorably by search engines)
- Publishing consistently
- Avoiding plagiarism
- Using keywords related to your niche
- Using/linking to credible sources on your site
- Have other sites link to your site (backlinking)
All of these take a lot of time and effort. You can’t do everything you need to rank a site in a day. With that said, we know that once you start a website, you’re ready to start seeing results.
When you create a domain from scratch, you’re at the very bottom of any category. Worse yet, you may even be sandboxed for nearly a year (we’ll get into sandboxing more below). Day after day, you’ll need to publish the content users would be looking for, make the connections that would get you backlinks, and avoid the pitfalls of Google’s algorithm.
Rather than start at nothing, you can start with a solid reputation on Google (authority) and have a rank to work up from. By purchasing a premium aged domain that has been doing the steps for years and ageing on Google, you have the foundation to build something great and quickly.
2. Backlink to Your Main Site
Backlinks are an essential part of SEO. It shows that other sites think you have quality content that site owners want to share with their visitors. In Google’s eyes, if other sites think you’re credible, you must have something that their users would want to know.
So the more high-quality backlinks you have, the more credible you’ll appear to search engines. Backlinks aren’t all you need, and you’ll need to also focus on everything that goes into a site (publishing quality, original content with relevant keywords). But backlinks are a crucial building block.
However, backlinks are challenging to get. Google is aware of people purchasing backlinks and punishes these sites severely. Having your own secondary, authoritative sites that link to your main site is a gold mine of backlinking.
Of course, you’ll want to use these backlinks effectively. Having an article about measuring tire pressure that links to a hair salon won’t be what you’re looking for. This speaks to making sure you buy domains within your niche that will make sense for linking your site.
3. Redirect to Your Site
A site with indexed pages will appear as results in a Google search. If these pages are getting lots of clicks, this means that you already have many eyes on something you own. However, this doesn’t mean that people need to stay on the site you have.
Rather than sending these users to the old site attached to the domain, send them to the site you’ve created. Not only have you knocked out a competitor, but you’re also using the traffic that once went to a different site and taking these users in your own site visitors.
Redirecting can be done with a simple HTTP redirecting protocol. Redirecting isn’t only used for this scenario. Imagine creating a new page, but you don’t want someone to end up on the old page and get a “404 – Not Found” error. To avoid this, you could redirect people from the old page to the new.
This is the same concept. However, instead of redirecting visitors from a dead page to a working one, you’re sending them from a ranked page to one of your own.
4. Avoid the Sandbox
When starting a new site, you have to earn trust with Google. Just as new employees may be given a probation period to ensure they’re a good fit for a company, Google gives new sites a probation period of sorts. This is known as the sandbox, to ensure they can trust them to send their users there. When sites are in the sandbox, they won’t get traffic from Google.
This is important as Google maintains its reputation as a top search engine by sending users where they want to go. If users end up on unrelated or even spammy websites, they’ll be frustrated with Google and turn to another search engine.
But as a new site, you want traffic as soon as possible. Waiting out the sandbox period could be detrimental to getting your business up and running. But if you have an aged domain, they have surely waited out the sandbox. So you can get to work with your website right away through an older domain.
Are There Any Risks with Aged Domains?
Not all aged domains are created equal. Each one has a history on the internet. You want a positive history that will give you more SEO power. However, some come with a negative record that could result in penalties.
This means that while there are risks, there are things that you can do to mitigate these risks when purchasing a premium aged domain.
1. Low-Quality Links
We’ve mentioned that a benefit of aged domains is the backlinks profile that it comes with. Backlinking is essential for SEO, so starting with a backlinks profile is a huge boost.
However, it’s all about quality over quantity when it comes to backlinking. Google has become wary of the sketchy tactics for gaining backlinks, so it weighs the quality of a backlink before boosting rankings. A portfolio of poor links could hurt your SEO.
What You Can Do
Before you purchase, use a backlinks checker. You’ll need this anyway for checking your own backlinking as you work to improve your SEO. If there are many high-quality links (links from trustworthy sites, used in a context relevant to your niche), this is a good sign.
If all you see are links from spammy sites or those used entirely out of context from the domain’s site, then you’d be paying for low-quality links—time to move on to a different domain option. Odys Global is always keen to source domains with a strong backlink profile, leaving websites with spammy, out-of-context backlinks behind.
2. Google Penalties
Good SEO boosts your ranking, while poor SEO will lower it. However, there are consequences even more severe than a dropped ranking or stagnation. Google can actively penalize sites for bad behaviour online. This could include spam, plagiarism, or websites used as a PBN (private blog network).
What You Can Do
Purchasing an aged domain that is actively penalized by Google is a complete waste of money. Here are some signs to look out for to avoid buying a penalized domain, so you can go in search of premium aged domains. Don’t purchase any site with these red flags:
1. The organic traffic has dropped to the point of no organic traffic at all. This means Google abruptly stopped sending users their way.
2. You see signs it was used for spam. Make sure that a domain doesn’t have poor outbound or inbound links.
Odys Global monitors and vets domains for Google Penalties ensuring its inventory of domains hasn’t been applied manual penalties to in the past, or that they have been permanently cleared of them.
3. Google Updates
Google is constantly updating its rules, algorithm, and enforcement levels to create a high-quality search engine for its users. While this is reassuring as a searcher, it can be confusing for those trying to navigate the system for their business.
As of now, Google acknowledges the buying and selling of aged domains. However, it doesn’t seem interested in punishing users who buy aged domains with good intentions. But for those using aged domains to abuse the system and buy up aged domains completely unrelated to their business, a Google update could mean an end to their business.
What You Can Do
Don’t abuse the system. If you’re buying domains within your niche to continue publishing relevant content, redirect to your related site, or provide a few backlinks that make sense, a Google update is highly unlikely to ever come for your site.
Top Tips for Finding the Best Aged Domain
If you’re putting down thousands of dollars on a premium aged domain, you want to make sure you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck.
Our top tip for getting the best domains is to buy from a trusted, reputable seller like Odys Global. So you go on to the marketplace and see a domain you like. Do you just buy it? No — there’s a bit more research you’ll want to do first. Here are the factors you should consider before buying.
1. Look for Authoritative Links and Sources
Of course, you want to avoid any sites that were a part of being or promoting spam. This means that you’ll want to check on the links that the domain currently has, both outbound and inbound. Spam links are taken seriously by Google and could lead to penalties, harming your investment.
However, not only do you want to look for the absence of spam, you want to look for credible links. For example, does it have a blog making all sorts of claims, but no facts, figures, or sources to link to? Just as you want to be an authority link, you want a site to use authority links to support its claims.
2. Stick to Your Niche
When buying a premium aged domain, you want to stick to your niche. It doesn’t do you much good to buy a mother’s blog and have it redirect to a hair loss removal site. Google has associated certain keywords with a domain. Making a sudden flip will not be viewed favourably. Similarly, it will view completely unrelated links as spam.
Look for domains where you feel confident that you can maintain consistency. Continue posting about relevant information, good keywords, and link to sites that make sense for the niche.
3. Avoid Trademark Infringement
For sellers like Odys Global with a carefully curated selection, you don’t have to worry as much about this step. But it’s always best to check to be sure. If the domain or published content is currently trademarked, taking this as your own is trademark infringement. When in doubt, check the site name against the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.
Buying Premium Aged Domains — An Odys Global Review
When you’re investing in premium aged domains, you want to make sure you get them from a reliable source. Odys Global is a market-leading platform for buying domains online. They are dedicated to providing domains that will boost SEO without infringing on any of Google’s rules and regulations. They adhere to ethical domaining practices for curating their selected products.
Have questions about Odys Global? We have answers. Check out the most frequently asked questions we get about the platform, and we’ll share our experience with you.
Is Odys Global Affordable?
On Odys Global, the prices entirely depend on the value of the domain. While there are high-priced premium aged domains available, you can also find good quality at less than $1,000. This way, you can find the price point that works for you.
Does Odys Global Have Good Customer Service?
Customer service is offered through their online site. You can submit any questions to the support team, and an agent will quickly get back to you and answer all your questions.
Is Odys Global Easy-To-Use?
There are many considerations that go into finding the perfect aged domain to purchase for your online SEO. Odys Global’s interface makes it easy to narrow down the search and find the type and quality of domain that you need.
When searching Odys Global, you can filter your search by limiting:
- Niche
- Site’s language
- Top-level domain (the three letters at the end of your domain such as “.com”)
- Traffic levels
- Name length by characters
- SEO potential
- Price
This makes the search much easier and faster on your end, so you can get to boost your SEO and spend less time combing through the names of available aged domains.
What Kind of Domains Does Odys Global Offer?
Sticking to your niche is an important part of getting a good return on investment. Thankfully, Odys Global has domains covering just about every niche online that you can imagine. So no matter what you’re looking for, you’re likely to find it from Odys Global.
Boost Your Digital Marketing Strategy with Premium Aged Domains
If keywords and content are getting your business where it needs to be, it’s time to get creative. And premium aged domains could be exactly the help you’re looking for. And when you buy high-quality domains from trustworthy marketplaces like Odys Global, you can rest assured that all the due diligence is done for you.