Expired Domains - A word of caution

[bizcorp]

Recently I purchased a domain name from TDNAM. I was happy with my purchase and had already planned the site which i was going to make using the domain.

However, what I did not know was that the domain has been banned from displaying google adsense. I spent hours wondering why my ads just weren't showing and it turns out it was banned from showing google ads - which really irritated me.

So just a word of caution before buying expired domain. Use various tools to check to see if the domain is banned by google (search engines) and/or google adsense before buying it. A word of caution to everyone.

 

[weblord]

all that matters is if site is banned or not on google do a test like site cache: , link: 2 of those test will appear to have some results.

 

[codemerc]

There's no 100% certain way of testing to see if a domain has been banned by Google.

If a site:mydomain.com comes up with results it hasn't been banned but it doesn't mean it isn't in the 'queue'. I've bought domains with indexed pages that were banned shortly afterwards.

If a site:mydomain.com doesn't give any results then it tells you nothing.

If you knowingly buy an expired domain (as I often do) then you take the risk

The problem is you may buy a domain that you've made-up but it could still have been used in the past, been banned and expired!!

You can of course send a re-inclusiion request to Google from the webmasters console.

 

[maxeaus]

How can a domain be banned from Adsense? Surely it's the account holder that has been banned.

Or the previous website that has been deindexed. Surely if you develop a domain from scratch and have a valid adsense account all should be ok.

Then again, we are talking about Google here, which have very strange rules that they make up themselves! Nothing would surprise me.

 

[intheflow]

Another danger

I also want to mention another potential downside involved with buying expired domains if you plan on selling at sedo. The traffic from these domains might not be exactly what sedo parking is looking for and your account may be instantly closed without warning. We obviously cannot control the traffic that comes to a domain, so be cautious if you plan on parking an expired domain at sedo. They will not just block the domain, they will close your whole account and keep any in it! So you might want to complete any transactions and make sure you are paid, before adding new expired domains to your account. Better safe than sorry.



Buyer beware!

 

[BMJEKing]

how can we know if a domain name is banned from google ads?

 

[krx]

all that matters is if site is banned or not on google do a test like site cache: , link: 2 of those test will appear to have some results.

This is very interesting. Could someone explain what exactly these tests show you?

 

[ssamriga]

you can ask Google to re-add your site, I've heard they do that if the owner has changed...