Contents
- What is a drop domain?
- Why do companies buy drop domains?
- Risks associated with drop domains
- How to check drop domains
What is a drop domain?
A drop domain is a domain whose registration has expired, making it unavailable for use in its previous form. Each company rents a domain name from a registrar for a specific period, usually for one year. After this period, it is necessary to renew the registration. In most cases, webmasters activate automatic renewal to avoid losing the address. However, if a webmaster forgets to renew the domain, leaves, or the company ceases to exist, the registrar provides a grace period for renewal, which typically lasts from 30 to 70 days. If the domain is not renewed within this time, it returns to the registrar and loses its previous value, becoming a drop.
Why do companies buy drop domains?
Many companies actively search for abandoned or expired domains for acquisition. The main reasons for purchasing drops include:
- To acquire a beautiful name: Webmasters strive to obtain catchy and short addresses that perfectly reflect the company's name. If the desired domain has become a drop, companies are ready to quickly seize it.
- To promote the main site: If a drop has a good reputation and a diverse backlink profile, it can be used as a donor for links. This positively affects the ranking of the main site.
- To sell links: Similar to the previous point, but in this case, webmasters place backlinks to various sites for money. It is important to choose only verified resources to avoid losing the drop's ranking.
- To create PBN networks: Drops are often used to create Private Blog Networks, which serve solely to promote the main resource through numerous links.
- To attach to the main domain: Redirecting from a drop to a new site can significantly improve its ranking, provided that the theme of the drop matches the niche of the main site.
Risks associated with drop domains
When using drops, companies must be cautious, as drops can carry additional risks. If a drop has a bad reputation, placing backlinks on the main resource can lead to a decrease in its ranking. Therefore, it is important to conduct thorough checks before purchasing a drop domain.
How to check drop domains
Before making a decision to purchase a drop domain, it is necessary to check it against several criteria:
- Search visibility: Ensure that the domain appears in all search engines to avoid being blacklisted.
- Backlink profile: Use services like Majestic to check the Citation Flow (CF) and Trust Flow (TF) indicators. The ratio of these metrics should aim for 1.
- Link quality: Choose domains that are linked to by high-ranking sites. Use Moz Open Search Explorer to check the links.
- Cleanliness: Ensure that the site is free of malware. This can be checked using Norton Safe Web.
- Traffic: Ideally, the drop should have stable and growing traffic, which will facilitate its promotion.
- Content: Look at the Wayback Machine to see what content was hosted on the site in the past. It is important that the drop's theme matches your site and does not contain prohibited materials.
Working with drops and checking them is a meticulous process; however, with the right approach, a good drop domain can significantly improve the ranking of the main site in search engines.