Creating Your Domain Name - Does it Have a History?

You may find yourself buying a domain name that someone else already owns, if it happens to be perfect for your business. That can be easier in some ways, but you may need to take some extra precautionary steps. After all, you will probably be paying more than you would for a brand-new domain name, so you want to make sure you'll be getting your money's worth.

Obviously you'll start by going to whois and finding out who owns the domain you want. And you'll probably go to the web site to see what it is right now. But what did it USED to be? For that information you'll have to go to archive.org. You might be horrified to learn that it used to host tons of doorway pages or spam or even worse things. If the URL's history is checkered enough, you might want to come up with a different domain name. As it is, you may have to send Google a reinclusion request if there are any particularly egregious offenses in its past.

Slegg advises that you do this for domain names that you purchase brand new as well. It's possible that the “brand new” domain name you just bought was owned previously, but the owner let it expire.

There are other things you should check for domains you're purchasing from someone else. Do they infringe any trademarks? You can search the US trademark database for any issues; presumably at least some other countries have similar databases. Keep in mind that one reason the current owner of the URL may be willing to sell is that his domain name has legal issues that he or she doesn't want to deal with any longer.

On a more positive note, a domain name with a history may actually be indexed in the search engines, and for things that would help your purposes. For example, if Shepler's didn't already own westernwear.com, you can bet that someone else wanting to build something related to cowboy-inspired clothing would. As a related note, you should check your potential domain name's back links. You might find some good ones – or you might find causes for concern. Slegg notes that incoming spam links or hate links could make you think that there might be cause for concern about the domain, but those aren't the only types of links that might make you worry, so be thorough in your investigation.

Domains with a history do have one advantage over brand-new ones: Google seems to give them a small edge in the search engine results pages. Apparently anything that's been around for at least a year registers as a bit more trustworthy than something brand new, and assuming you do everything else right, that trustworthiness goes up slowly with the age of your domain.

Here is one last bit of advice for you, when you're trying to create a memorable domain name, whether you're trying to buy one that's already out there or come up with one on your own. It comes from Emilia Johansson, director of an affiliate marketing site, and it's a great way to try before buying. “To test if your chosen domain name is creative enough to be remembered, simply mention it casually to  a few friends and check back with them after a day or so. If they still remember the domain name – it's for sure a keeper.” Good luck!