Hi, I have bought an expired (dropped 48 hrs ago I think) domain today. I just like it so I registered it for my new website. The domain is InfoNick dot com. But now I have a lot of confusions about it. First of all its whois history shows that it has been dropped 3 times in total. Then it has a pr of N/A. And I think there was no site on it for a few years back and even it was not pointing to any nameservers for a lot of time. From archive.org I have found that the last page on this domain existed in 2006. And the domain is not indexed in Google today! So, I am having a lot of irritation about all this. Is my site banned by Google or Google Adsense? Can I survive with it? Is it worthwhile to create a website (start business) on this domain? Please help me..Thanks a lot in advance! Momi
Before buying an expired domain it is always a good idea to view it in the internet archive to see what types of content have been on it previously. This can help you identify if there has ever been any questionable material on it and if it could be penalized. You can also use the site and link command in Google to determine if it has any pages indexed and/or if it has any backlinks pointing to it. site:[sitename].com link:[sitename].com http://www.archive.org/ If there are no results for the site and link command then there is a good possibility the domain could be banned or penalized.
I agree with Ravium. Further, if you still have doubt then there is no harm in setting up a couple pages using the default WP theme and see if Google indexes your pages. To my knowing you wouldn't have a problem but its better to be safe.
Actually I checked it with archive.org and the last found record was of mid 2006. It was an article directory then. Since then I think there is no site on it.
You should use other Google, yahoo and bing to find out how this website was linked in past and what keywords and how it was linked by various websites
Hi, Thanks to all for your replies. My site has been indexed in Google in just two days, even it has only index page which shows that the site is under construction! So it is not banned by Google! Thanks again! Momi
Well, I didn't know how to solve this problem. So, I posted it here to find help to solve it. If I already knew the solution to it, I may have done exactly what you said. I just 1. created a homepage for the site 2. added the site to Google Webmasters Tools 3. added a sitemap (containing just one link) 4. made a few posts in another famous webmaster forum with signature link to it 5. and just waited for two days Today I checked Google and it is indexed in it. Actually this domain has 0 backlinks and I think the last existed site on it was in 2006. This is why I was so afraid!
You may bought the domain if it really help. You may submit your domain name with new site again to let Google Analyse it again . Since it been drop for so many years mean it may not high demand. But with new Google Algorithm , i believe that you able to back the domain survive back. Best of luck to you.