Monitor Domain Names Related to Your Websites and Business

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.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

7 COMMENTS

  1. What if you not only redirect it, but setup a catch all for the email ?? In conjuction with a spam filter and an auto reply service.

    I grabbed some old domains a few months ago. Setup a catch all email for them and let the emails come in.

    Alot of junk even though i used spam filter but also alot of real emails. The auto reponse with the message “this domain name is under new management your email is no longer read” did wonders.

    2 companies got reports from old customers they got an email that the domain name was under new management.

    Amazing how fast they wanted the domain names back. Didn’t even have to throw in a sales pitch šŸ™‚

    I guess this tactic is not used alot. But instead of parking i redirect to a sales page and throw in a catch all email into the DNS records.. Amazing stuff you can catch.

    Sorta off topic but your post about monitoring made think of this tactic.

  2. @ theo

    I don’t know if there are any legal issues with doing what you are doing. I guess it would be like returning misdirected mail back to the sender with a notice on it, but I don’t know if there are privacy issues you should look into. There may be federal regulations, depending on the country in which you live.

  3. Get Verisign’s domain name zone alerts for the TLD’s they manage. Better to get it from the source than anywhere else, in my opinion..

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

7
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...

Price Testing

1
In 2022, my wife and I decided our kids were ready for some big mountain skiing and we planned a trip to the Rocky...

GoDaddy Making You Sign in to See What You Renewed (Updated)

3
This morning, I noticed something different in a domain name renewal email from GoDaddy. Instead of telling me exactly what domain names I renewed...