Expired Domains: GoDaddy Has Lots of Them
The web hosting and internet domain registrar GoDaddy is practically an online granddaddy.
Founded in 1997, it’s one of the largest accredited domain registries with more than 40 million registered domain names.
But that doesn’t mean all of those domain names are active. Just as with other registrars, a person’s GoDaddy domain name can expire.
GoDaddy has an intricate process for people to recover expired domains, including GoDaddy auctions of these domains. But for some folks, it’s not worth the hassle or the extra fee to recover their account.
Meanwhile, GoDaddy accumulates hundreds of thousands of expired domains, just waiting for bidders to swoop in at bargain prices.
Somewhere in that gigantic list of domains might be one that could provide content or services similar to those of your business – and with established links that could benefit your SEO and your traffic.
GoDaddy is one of the best place to buy expired domains, but how do you sift through all the noise to find what really works?
That’s where SpamZilla can help. SpamZilla does the research and crawls registry searches for you without any spam or sneaky tactics, uncovering worthwhile expired sites that you can use to your business advantage.
The GoDaddy Expiring Domains List
GoDaddy publicly lists every expired domain it has, but when does a domain name expire?
To understand how the expiring domains that GoDaddy collects have wound up on that list, let's look at GoDaddy's renewal and expiration process.
GoDaddy recommends automatic renewal of domains to avoid any interruptions in service.
This also smooths out some potential complications with country code top-level domains, or ccTLDs, which might have special renewal requirements.
The registry also sends multiple email reminders to every account 30 days ahead of a domain expiration date and 30 days afterwards.
Before the expiration date, a registrant can renew the site manually and take advantage of the standard price.
But the day after the renewal expiration date, the registry counts down toward a domain auction.
This countdown involves several steps:
Within five days of expiration
GoDaddy parks the domain name, which results in the site and any attached email stopping functioning. The registrant can still renew manually for the standard price.
Within 12 days
GoDaddy tries autorenewal once more. The registrant can still manually renew for the standard price through the regular checkout process.
Within 19 days
GoDaddy places the domain on hold, meaning it's inactive but still in the user's account. The registrant can renew for the standard price plus a redemption fee (which at this writing is about $80).
Within 26 days
GoDaddy sends the domain to a domain auction. The original user can still renew manually for the standard price plus redemption fee until another party places a bid. Once there's an active bid, the original user must place their own bid.
Within 30 days
If no one bids on the domain name at that initial auction, the domain remains in the original user's account, but it's expired. Once again, any renewal costs the standard price plus the redemption fee.
Within 36 days
The expired domain goes to a final closeout auction with the same rules as earlier: the original user can manually renew until there's a bid. Then the user must place their own bid to recover the domain.
Within 41 days
If there's no winning bid for the domain, the original registrant has a few more weeks to renew at the standard price plus the redemption fee.
Within 72 days
GoDaddy removes the domain from the original person's account, and they can't renew it any longer.
GoDaddy Auctions: Pluses and Drawbacks
If you want to make a GoDaddy expired domain purchase, the auction process has straightforward steps:
- Visit the GoDaddy Auctions website and create an account, or log in to the GoDaddy Investor App on a mobile device.
- Select "Expiring" from the "Popular Searches" menu.
- Locate the domain name you want.
- Enter the amount in the "Enter Bid/Offer" field.
- Click "Continue to Review."
- Agree to any legal agreements, then "Submit."
The problem is, you don't know anything more about the site beyond the name. There's no information regarding the web traffic, links, or SEO rankings.
We all know that naming a domain intuitively in the online business world is one of the best ways to find customers.
But what if a site had link-rich articles right in your business niche, and the name was so quirky, it attracted visitors anyway? These auctions don't have any of this information about domains, either.
Sure, you can research certain info before you bid -- but do you really have the time to go through every link on a site?
Then repeat those steps for any other site that catches your eye? That's a lot of time you're investing with little potential for a decent payoff.
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