DomainTools

I want to share a tip with you that can help you drive traffic and improve your search rankings. Keep your eyes on domain names that are related to your business, both in terms of current registrations and dropping/expiring domain names. If something comes available and it’s not a trademark, acquire it and 301 redirect it.

There have been a number of times I’ve bought descriptive domain names for my websites that have either expired and become available for registration or are in a drop auction. Organizations and companies seem to frequently change domain names, forget to renew domain names, or think they have no more use for a particular domain name.

Whatever the case is, they let great names with inbound links drop. These names may be worth something due to traffic levels, or they may be worth more in terms of search engine optimization value. I discussed buying the domain name previously used by an arena after the management confirmed they didn’t want it. Not only does it bring enough traffic to the page on my site that it’s become a top 5 most visited page, but it has great inbound links from sites like Boston.com.

To watch domain names, I use one primary tool, which is the Domain Monitor tool at DomainTools. This is perfect for domain names I know about, and I follow quite a few, even though I don’t anticipate a drop.

What’s probably more helpful for this type of situation is creating filters at Freshdrop which contain specific keywords I want to monitor. This will let me know when any related domain names will drop, which is helpful because there are plenty of names I don’t really even know about. Freshdrop also allows me to see the domain name’s analytics (age, links, PR…etc), helping me decide if its worth pursuing.

If you have developed websites or a business that you care about, I recommend monitoring domain names that may be beneficial.