Expired Domains & Backlinks Playbook

This playbook is meant to teach you how to acquire domains to use for link building.

It’s a simple & cheap strategy I use for link building, but is definitely not something I’d rely on completely, as it serves more of a foundational role to your efforts.

Simply put, you’re going to browse domains that are on sale or expired, to find ones that have backlinks from your niche, then buy them and redirect them to your site.

This has a few benefits..

For example, some of the links pointing to that domain, and its associated traffic & influence will be pointed to your domain.

Here’s how I do it..

Table of Contents

• Here’s 3 ways to find Expired Domains with valuabl …

• Why Redirect Domains?

• What do I do with Expired Domains?

  • Redirecting domains from GoDaddy

• Where I find Expired Domains.

  • Deleted Domains

• Marketplace Domains

  • GoDaddy Auctions

  • GoDaddy Clouseouts

  • SquadHelp Expired Domains

  • GoDaddy Expired

• Done For You Domain Alerts

• Pro Domain Alerts

Here’s 3 ways to find Expired Domains with valuable backlinks.

These are some really simple methods and places you can check for domains with backlinks or brand value.

In this quick guide, you’ll learn how to find domains with backlinks or brandable/resale value.

Before we get started with this guide, if you want to receive alerts every time I find domains with backlinks, subscribe to SERP Insider Domain Alerts.

Why Redirect Domains?

Finding domains that are topically relevant to your business can be an awesome source of traffic, authority, and just generally - backlinks.

Acquiring these can be cheaper and just as effective as buying or grinding for backlinks, since some expired domains used to be real businesses that have already done most of the hard work for you.

I gotta say, this isn’t easy, it’s not guaranteed, and it takes a lot of finesse to actually make it worthwhile.

I personally rummage through thousands of domains on a daily basis, and probably find less than 10 per day, and out of those 10, I might win 1 auction.

Just to give you an idea, this is a real example of backlinks I’ve acquired through an expired domain.

These links would have cost me $1-2k to acquire, but I only paid $70.

What do I do with Expired Domains?

It’s very simple.

If you check your domain and find that these backlinks are pointed right to the home page, you can very easily just 301 redirect it to your site.

If the backlinks aren’t pointed to the home page, you’ll have to do some more advanced fuckery (point it to CloudFlare, and create a Page Rule that redirects visitors from that page, to whatever page you want).

Once you do that, you’ve acquired the backlink, and you will receive some authority, and possibly traffic from it.

Redirecting domains from GoDaddy

First, go to GoDaddy and go to All Products, and click Manage on the domain you’re trying to forward.

Click on Add Forwarding and add your domain and click save.

Now you’ve got that domain and its backlinks pointing to yours.

Where I find Expired Domains.

My hub for finding Expired Domains is definitely (drumroll) ExpiredDomains.net!

This platform combines all the domain markets in one place, and provides you with a few great tools to help you get more out of domaining.

Deleted Domains

The first place I look to find CHEAP domains is in the Deleted .com section.

This is NOT where you find gems with Forbes, CNN, etc.

Here you’ll find domains that will sometimes have high DA backlinks, parasites, and rarely top tier backlinks. Use these for tier 2 properties or on your parasites.

This spot is extremely high pressure, since the domains can be bought instantly and for $10, and due to its first come first serve nature, you will rarely find anything if you grind this spot with no strategy.

Personally, I set a timer on how long I’m going to rummage through this, that way you don’t get sucked into days of just looking through garbage bins.

Go to Settings and pick these:

By using “no numbers, no hyphens”, you’re clearing up 90% of the spam domains that will appear.

Only new in last 24 hours prevents you from being shown old domains that likely thousands of domainers have seen and passed on.

Finally, only English (optional) and “only available domains” that way you don’t get shown domains that have already been sold.

Marketplace Domains

Now head over to Marketplace Domains.

Here are the few other places I look at regularly.

The Pending Delete section is pretty much just like the “Expireds” section, so it’s definitely worth taking a look using the same settings that I’ve shown above.

Now let’s get to the juicy bits.

GoDaddy Auctions

GoDaddy Auctions are my favorite place to find domains with insane backlinks, and you can find them here almost daily, but you’ll have to wrestle it out with other domainers.

I regularly find domains with backlinks from Forbes, Times, CNET, huge social media profiles and followings, and so on.

I actually look through these and notify our SERP Insider Pro members with my best finds every few days, if you want that done for you, upgrade to pro.

Bonus: For this one, go to your filters, and add “1 min - 1 max” bid, and it’ll show you domains with just 1 bid on them, for some reason, I find a TON of fire links here.

GoDaddy Clouseouts

These Closeout domains are simply domains that have gone through an auction and were not bought.

They are immediately ready for purchase, and the Closeout process does actually drop the domain prices over a few days.

This spot is kinda like the “expired domains” section I’ve shown earlier, but just a level above, because these domains actually made it to auction, it’s just that no one bought them.

It’s not a great spot to find bangers, but I have more luck here than I do randomly looking through expireds.

This is also a great place to find brandable domains, domains with traffic, and international backlinks.

SquadHelp Expired Domains

This is a relatively new spot you can find some relatively well curated expired domains, and it’s on SquadHelp.

GoDaddy Expired

Same thing here, Expired Domains curated by GoDaddy, which you can still bid on, a lot of these do have fire backlinks but since people can bid, there is that element of not being able to buy them due to competition.

But every now and then, I will strike gold here.

Done For You Domain Alerts

I look through thousands of expired domains, auctions, and other opportunities to find valuable domains almost every day.

I regularly find domains that have:

• Valuable backlinks I can redirect to any website

• History in a niche, can be rebuilt or flipped

• Brandability, names you can build or flip

Pro Domain Alerts

Some have valuable backlinks from sites like NYTimes, Forbes & CNET.

I reserve premium domains for SERP Insider Pro members only, and they are emailed out as regularly as I find them.

These backlinks are insanely powerful, you can redirect them to your site or use them to build niche sites.

These are typically auctions ending within 3-7 days with few/no bids.