Buying An Existing Domain Name – Get Traffic Faster

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When buying a domain name I recommend always trying to get a .com name. People naturally see the .com website as the authority and if they are typing in your web address they will often type .com out of habit.  You can still be very successful buying a .net or .org domain name, I just recommend getting a .com.

There are 3 reasons you should consider buying an existing domain name. I don’t mean going to a domain registrar like Actnowdomains.com and registering a new never before registered domain. This is something you should and will do most of the time. I mean buying a domain name that someone else has registered but they are selling the name.

First, if your heart is set on a certain name and you don’t think that you can do business with any other name then you should try to buy the domain name from whoever owns it.

The second reason to buy an existing domain name is to take advantage of any previous link popularity the domain has. Many domains that are up for sale used to be active websites that were promoted by their webmasters. Many of these old websites obtained many links pointing to their site and although the site has since shut down the links remain. That leaves the opportunity for you to build a new website and take advantage of the old links pointing to that domain. Keep in mind that you need to put up a new site that is similar in nature to the previous website or the links will hold little to no value to you.

Use the Yahoo link feature I explained in step 9 of the Buying A Website Part 1 to check if a domain has links pointing to it.

Thirdly, one of the quirks in the Google algorithm is that if someone searches for exactly what your domain name is, you have a very good chance of ranking for that term with out doing a lot of SEO for it.

For example, if you do a Google search for “buy domains” the website buydomains.com is the first listed site. Google makes the assumption that when you search a key phrase and there is a website who’s domain name matches the exact phrase you searched, they assume you were searching for that specific company. So you can buy domain names that are highly searched key phrases and get ranked fairly easily for those phrases. This is a great way to get traffic to your website quickly.

Keep in mind that Google at anytime can change their algorithm and this could no longer be an effective technique so there is risk involved if you are spending a lot of money for a domain. Having said that I recently spent $800 on a domain because it is a good search term that would bring very targeted visitors for what I am offering. After a month or so I am now #4 on Google for the name and the site is getting good traffic.

You can Google’s key phrase search tool and find some commonly searched terms. Then go see if any of the domains that match those key phrases are available for sale.

Many times you will actually have to just go to a browser and type in www.keyphrase.com to see if there is a site up or not. If there isn’t you can go to www.whois.net and find out the owners contact information and then contact them directly about buying the domain.

Sometimes you will type in a domain name into a browser and then see a live website but in reality it is just a parked page and there actually will be a link on the page that says “This Domain Might Be For Sale”. You can click on that link and then make an offer on the domain. You may or may not get a response but this is how I purchased my last domain.

Here is a list of some good websites to buy or sell domain names.

http://www.buydomains.com has hundreds of prime domains for sale.

http://www.afternic.com another good list of domains for sale

http://www.sedo.com has a big selection of domains as well.

http://www.tdnam.com is a good place to find a very large selection of domain names for sale at a cheap price.

8 thoughts on “Buying An Existing Domain Name – Get Traffic Faster”

  1. Davy

    “Google makes the assumption…you were searching for that specific company.”

    This rule always irritated me. I work so hard at building my websites SERP, and then some knucklehead buys a domain with the search term built in their URL and dominates!

    Oh well, I guess it’s time to shell out some money for a new domain.

  2. James Christian

    This makes perfect sense and provides some insight I certainly hadn’t thought of.

    Now I would explore some more if “your heart is set on a certain name”. Sometimes it is human nature to get attached to a name that may have nothing more than sentimental value. I would recommend thinking through the true value (SEO, name recognition, etc.) of this name your heart is set on before one puts money on the table.

    I 100% agree with the “.com” name mandate. In fact, those who have been surfing a lot are very familiar with the CTRL+Enter trick; that is type for example “amazon” in your address bar and then hold the CTRL key and press the Enter key. The browser will automatically add in the http, www, and .COM. Even more reason to have the .COM in your possession. However, I would amend this by adding that if you feel you should use a “.net” or “.org” for your site because of the nature of the site and content then I would still make sure you obtain the “.com” and forward/redirect it with your domain registrar to your target. So when someone types in “truefatherhood.com” they are immediately redirected to “www.truefatherhood.org”.

    Just my two cents and shameless plugs.

  3. Jeff Millett

    Adam, how much weight do you put on owning the same url as one of your keywords?

    Anytime I am doing keyword research its only rarely that the highest ranking website has the keyword built into the url.

    After using all other SEO tactics is it really that important?

  4. jeff millett

    6 MONTHS LATER – It is true and I am sorry I even questioned you!

    Why?

    I took your advice and bought a .com with a keyword url in a niche I was not exactly prepared to dive into but never the less i felt i might as well build a quick site and add one quick article with my key word set as an H1 tag and then put the key word scattered through-out the text (well written text, not just blah). I thought -Why not?- at least the site will start to age and when I am ready I will start link building and all the other stuff to get it to take off.

    Well…

    No more than 2 weeks later I started to notice some traffic consistancy and went to check it out. My url/key term gets an average of 450 searches a month and with practically no effort at all – I was #1.

    You were RIGHT.

  6. Crosby

    This is actually a nice handy piece of details. I am happy that you just shared this very helpful info with us. Be sure to keep informed in this way. Appreciate your sharing.

  7. olympic games

    Nowadays to find a similar Efficient and Effective SEO Automation software at one Time payment of US 99-00 is a rarity\

  8. Norbert Paoli

    Speaking of the top level domain name since this plays a large role in picking the right domain name for domain name registration; many experts have noted that before you go for a domain name registration, you should identify your top level domain. The .com is the most common top level domain that is used today, for it stands for commercial domains. Of course there are other types and each has its own uses and functions.:.

    See ya later

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