The Complete Guide to Spam Checking Domains in 2014
8 votes, 3.13 avg. tacos (63% full)

This guide shows exactly how I spam-check the domains for my networks, as well as the domains that are for sale. 

 

Tools used in this video:

Netpeak Checker

Ahrefs

OpenSiteExplorer

Archive.org

 

Cliff’s Notes Version

Start with a list.  Maybe it’s from Scrapebox or maybe it’s a droplist from expireddomains.net.  In this example I’m just using a droplist.

 

On that list, go and use netpeak to grab  DA/PA maybe DMT and # of Links if you’ve got a large list and want to weed it out.

 

Now put the results in a spreadsheet.   In this case it’s a droplist so we don’t have to worry about availability.  If you do have to check though, I recommend dynadot to check 1000 domains at a time (name.com allows for more but is less reliable).

 

Once there let’s make a little formula that you can re-use just to make researching our domains a little easier.  Ahrefs, Top Pages, WWW OSE links, Archive.

Respectively (assuming A2 is just the domain name without http:// and without www.):

=HYPERLINK(“https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/overview/subdomains/”&A2)

=HYPERLINK(“https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/pages/subdomains/”&A2&”/sort-refdomains-desc”)

=HYPERLINK(“http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?page=1&site=www.”&A2&”&sort=page_authority&filter=&source=external&target=domain&group=1”)

 

Let’s filter the table for only DA>25 and DMT >4 to start.  Maybe total number of links <100.

 

Why DA?   Because lots of links also come in to inner pages, and after you 301 redirect those pages your PA should end up around 10 points higher than your DA.

 

DMT (higher the better) and # of links (lower the better) are just used to control spam.  You will be throwing the baby out with the bathwater in some cases – this is just to save you time and is especially appropriate for LARGE lists.

 

Now comes the spam-checking part.  What I’m really looking for are domains that have no artificial links.  Ideally I want domains that show no sign of being owned by a marketer.  Why?  Because if they were owned by a marketer and they expired, there’s a possibility the marketer let them expire because they were damaged.

 

Now you could still pick up a domain if you think it expired out of neglect.  What I do recommend however is launching the domain with a default WP launch, pinging the existing backlinks and seeing if the site gets indexed.  If it does, you’re in the clear, and you can continue building it out.

 

Now first thing I’ll check is the Ahrefs Overview page.  Scroll down to the anchor cloud and check for spammy keywords, foreign anchors, or unnatural percentages (anything above 70% is quite unnatural).  After that, check the top pages.

 

Under top pages, your looking for obvious spam (through subdomain spam subpage spamming), but also looking for inner pages with genuine backlinks.

 

Next check the OpenSiteExplorer metrics of the www subdomain homepage, and the PA of any highly linked pages found above.  This is mainly to define where to launch WP.  Also check out the links here, as occasionally they will have different results from Ahrefs and you’ll encounter spam that Ahrefs did not see.

 

In terms of the actual backlinks, here’s what I find ACCEPTABLE:

 

Comments/forum links – only acceptable if they are on relevant blogs and are clearly well thought out, human generated comments.

 

Directory links/links pages – only acceptable if they are relevant.

 

Foreign links – only acceptable if relevant.  A quick translate should show this.

 

Blogroll/webring/mirror links – basically these are pages with hundreds of links on them.  I draw the line if a page has more than 50 or so outbound links – and I’d check if multiple pages that share the same outbound links are uniquely indexed in Google.

 

Mostly you want to see links within content of actual blog posts or websites.

 

Finally,  check archive.org.  Here’s what ok and what’s not ok in my book.  It’s fine if there are drops.  It’s fine if it used to redirect to another domain (as long as not Porn/Poker/Pills/Other spammy niches).  It’s fine if it was taken and there was an incomplete WP install.

 

It’s not fine if:

It was recreated as PPP

It was recreated as part of someones blog network.

 

Remember your list is the #1 most important thing.  Things like Closeouts/Reg Fee lists only return an ROI when you have an automated system to prioritize spam-checking or eliminate spam (as they’ve already been mined when they were expiring).

 

Questions?  Anything to add?  Feel free to leave a comment!

 

 

The Complete Guide to Spam Checking Domains in 2014
8 votes, 3.13 avg. tacos (63% full)
  1. Hayden – love your work, always learn a lot:

    One thing always troubles me about Moz metrics: You can have an expired domain, blast it with 250,000 spammy (irrelevant) links and a week later the Moz numbers are huge. I’ve tested this carefully.

    I know you’ve said you ignore the PR of inbound links when assessing expired domains. However, you can have huge Moz metrics on an expired domain with no PR links flowing in, just a mass volume of Spam. Ok, so you said you then check the links manually.

    Do you honestly feel that just because the inbound links to your expired domains are relevant (even though they are PR? comments, forums, directories etc) – they really result in the same link juice when built into a PBN site, compared to an expired domain with a few good PR links?

    I do the opposite with my PBNs. PR only and ignore PR? comments, forums etc, even if they are relevant. We are of very conflicting opinions here and I just can’t see how PR?, even if relevant, ends up as a powerful backlink as a PBN, just because the overall MOZ metrics are high.

    Please put me in my place if this is outrageous :)

    Any response is highly appreciated.

    • Yes Moz can be inflated, just as PR can. But it’s easy to spot (high numbers of LRDs).

      Also:
      Moz is way more up to date.
      Moz is easier to bulk check.

      Do you honestly feel that just because the inbound links to your expired domains are relevant (even though they are PR? comments, forums, directories etc) – they really result in the same link juice when built into a PBN site, compared to an expired domain with a few good PR links?

      PRNA “PR?” doesn’t mean anything. It used to be a sign of not being indexed – not anymore. I trust that the overall PA/DA benefit from that link is more or less accurate as long as it’s relevant and real.

  2. I see your interested in an Ireland domain from looking at your toolbar. I found a couple potential PR5-6, good metrics foreign domains like .org.br and .org.ve that expired a long time ago but I can’t register them because of restrictions like you need to have a non-profit or be a resident in the country, etc. How do you get around this?

  3. Thanks for the great video! One thing that I’ve been wondering; I know you’ve mentioned in this video and another that you do redirects from the various high PA pages to one specific page. Is there a reason you don’t just do a wildcard redirect to one page?

  4. Instead of everyone chasing the high DA domains, why not just putting together a few nice clean lower DA sites (10-15 range) together into a network?

    Great material, thanks.

    • Because it’s a lot of work to setup a site so you’d prefer to set up fewer sites to get the same benefit. Plus it takes about 5 DA15 sites to equal one DA25.

  5. Great tutorial. I go thru similar process except a lot slower. Can you quickly explain the formulas you used? What were the extensions you added and what does it mean?

  6. Hi Hayden,

    Thanks For the detailed info, As you mentioned “Pills” anchor text considered as spam domain. Its spam just for vi—ra Pills, Or for all kind of pills,

  7. Hayden,

    What do you think about the ratio of nofollow to follow links? Is it a red flag if there is a large portion of either follow or nofollow?

  8. Okay so what if we are ambitious and want to automate this process, but… we are complete fucktards. Any hints for us special people??

  9. Thanks Hayden – useful.
    Is the number of links also important to you? I’ve come across many domains with good PA/DA/DMT stats but they only have 10 or 20 links in total. Are these still worth picking up?

  10. Hayden –

    Thanks for the info! I agree that spam checking is the most time consuming and probably makes it worth it to just buy a few domains from you ;). I have a few questions I was hoping you could answer:

    1.Do you block bots such as OSE or AHREF from your site so your competitors cannot easily see the links? If so, how do you think the best way to do it is (robots.txt, .hta access, a plugin)?

    2.You mentioned testing the domain to see if it gets indexed before putting content on the site. To do this do you just put the domain on a hosting account, install WordPress, install a 301 redirect for all links that point to old pages on the domain, and then wait to see if gets indexed? How long does it usually take?

    3.Do you have any new hosting companies you are using?

    Thanks again!

    • 1 – It is impossible to block ahrefs, so no.
      2 – just install wordpress. ping the backlinks if you like. usually a week or so.
      3 – ya I’ve got a big list… I’ll post some shortly.

  11. Alejandro Garcia says:

    Really great tutorial Hayden!

    Could you explain more about the PA value which tends to be 10 points higher than the DA value?
    Is it good to pick a domain with these metrics for example, knowing that it will gain PA value once internal pages are redirected:

    – DA 35
    – PA 14
    – MozRank 4,5

    Thanks in advance

  12. Hayden,
    When I check Google Analytics, I can’t help but notice that when I post a new article on the RankHero network, I get a visit to my money site from app.rankhero.co. I guess that’s your staff checking out the links back to my money site that I included in the article?

    Why give Google such an obvious clue, and thereby jeopardizing the entire network?

  13. If you are having trouble with the Excel (openoffice formula) and are getting an error is the: “
    – try this ”

    OR this reformatted …
    =HYPERLINK(“http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?page=1&site=1&site=www.”&A2&”&sort=page_authority&filter=&source=external&target=domain&group=1”, “OSE”)

  14. This video was exactly what I was looking for.

    I have watched your webinar videos, however I am wondering if you will ever re-brand a site 100% to match your money site keyword?

    Some sites are too good to pass on but the topics are too specific, to appropriately link inject.

  15. Ugg!!! Literally..hahaha. Thank you Hayden for your posts and this site. I have been burning the candle up at night reading your blog, watching your videos, and vetting expired domains with Ahrefa. IF I see another domain that appears good in OSE (30s/30s DA/PA) that shows up on Ahrefs anchor text cloud with Ugg Boots or some other unrelated spam links I will crack up. Thank you for your disclosure of the Ahrefs recommendation. It makes hand vetting domains a quicker process as well as saves me money because OSE and Majestic don’t show these links most of the time.
    Thanks again!!

  16. Hayden, Google will treat bulk 301 redirects to the home page as 404s, or soft 404s at best. How do you deal with that?

    By 301 redirecting a large number of pages to a single URL that is not releated with the old URL, Google may simply drop the old URLs from its index without passing any link juice at all.
    Moz has a good explanation on this topic here http://moz.com/blog/save-your-website-with-redirects

    I have some solutions, was wandering how do you deal with this situation, because many people don’t know about the soft 404 , and are simply setting a wp redirection plugin, that will 301 redirect all 404 pages to homepage, and in most cases the new blog doesn’t have anything releated with the old domain.

  17. Great post.

    My question though – what if you buy a network site about dog training and want to use it to rank your money site about fitness.

    Doesn’t that seem weird to Google? I know you re-brand the dog training site as a fitness site but all the links pointing to the dog training site are still about dog training.

    Any thoughts on this?

  18. Been following you for a while now. Always good info.

    Lets say you find a domain which all the metrics look pretty good non spammy site links to it, good DA/PA age, high PR etc etc EXCEPT — many of their link anchors are over optimized on 1 term. Lets say the term is “widgets” and is more than 20% and even up to 70%. I don’t care if it ranks for widgets as my niche is something totally unrelated, lets say “dogs”.

    does the penalty for overoptimized anchor hit the entire site for the keywords it has overoptimized, or does it hit the whole site so that it never ranks for any keyword ever again?

    does the overoptimized anchors for an unrelated term still pose a threat and make the domain worthless?

  19. Kind of an unrelated question: is it important to have each money site on a unique IP? I have 6 sites on the same hostgator shared account and it seems like links from my PBN are passing less juice per site.

  20. Any correlation with keeping a sites old site title as close as it was before when re-making the domain and the amount of pa/da it retains?

  21. This is ind of an unrelated question: is it important to have each money site on a unique IP? I have 6 sites on the same hostgator shared account and it seems like links from my PBN are passing less juice per site.

    this is a second comment because nobody answered the first one.

  22. Hey Hayden,

    If you find a domain that still has decent metrics DA 30 PA 40 but in archive.org you see it definatley was onced used as an pbn site, is this where you would install WP and ping then see if it indexes? If it does do you use it? Or stear clear of it altogether if you see it was a pbn site at one time and expired.

    I ask because my gut says stear clear but my mind says what if it expired out of neglect. Appreciate any help you can give!

  23. Hello Hayden,

    I have already made the mistake of linking some web sites with spammy backlinks too my main money site. I bought them from register compass, and I just looked at the metrics without paying that much attention to their backlink profile thinking it couldn’t hurt. I have now removed the links from these sites, do you think I could have done permanent damage to my SERPs for my targeted keyword?

    Thank you

  24. Hayden, a thing that troubles me –

    Is it that important to go after high PR these days? Or rather go after good PA/DA?

    I’m asking that because I notice that dropped domains regaining PR is a lottery – very few of mu own domains did regain PR, and I notice that even in your list of domains for sale, most are still a PR0 or N/A. This thing, for a starting domain hunter, is pretty discouraging.

    On the other hand, PA/DA are solid metrics that are there even before registration. One encouraging thing I noticed today is that Textlinkads for instance doesn’t display PR in their presentation of links to sell, but only moz DA.

    Your thoughts on that?

  25. I really like the information you bring to us Hayden, so thank you for doing so… I wanted to ask about starting out and not having funds to begin paying for some of the services you use. What I’d like to do to get started is to have a method of finding expired domains that I could register via say namecheap for 10 or 11 bucks and then flip them for 20 or 30 bucks profit. I’d build up from there, could you offer a good method to do this with out going the extra mile to locate these pristine expired domains? I mean I just don’t have money for Ahrefs or OpenSiteExplorer or majestic(either one of them) or more or less any service currently. I do have some cash to spend but I really need to choose the services that will help me grow into a position to pay for more services… Thank you.

  26. Thanks a lot for the detailed information.

    May I ask is there a list of hosting service that’s recommended by you, for PBN?

    And other than having different C-class IP addresses, is it important to also have different geographic location for the IP addresses, or it doesn’t matter? Seems the same hosting tend to have IP addresses from the same / similar location.

  27. Heya,

    I have a question regarding PA/DA.

    I use these metrics for so long without asking questions and suddenly I face a potential issue.

    I didn’t know where to post this so excuse me if this is the wrong place.

    Does a PA32 with 80% nofollow links has the same value than a PA32 with only 20% ?

    I realize that I have never thought of this…

    Thanks in advance !

  28. Hi, Hayden
    Thanks alot for the great content!
    so, as long as Expired domain gets index by google, is that mean that i could get some link juice from the domain?

    Thank you in advance!

    • We don’t. Though it’s not uncommon for a PBN site to rank for KWs. You could re-purpose a PBN site into a money site if you saw it was getting decent traffic, but we setup sites as either a PBN site or a money site and don’t really waver from that once they’re live.

  29. Hyden, thank you for this guide! I didn’t understand why we want domains with less links pointing to them? Maybe because of spam, but if domain has many good backlinks, I suppose it’s ok? I thought we want strong domains with lot of backlinks. Does DA and PA is much stronger metric than number of pointing domains for the domain strength? Thanks.

  30. Hyden, thank you for this guide! I didn’t understand why we want domains with less links pointing to them? Maybe because of spam, but if domain has many good backlinks, I suppose it’s ok? I thought we want strong domains with lot of backlinks. Does DA and PA is much stronger metric than number of pointing domains for the domain strength? Thanks.

  31. Hi Hayden,

    I am seem to be finding myself in the same situation which is best explained with an example. Which site would you choose between ;
    1) PA 40 / DA 30 / good link profile – But links are NOT related to niche
    2) PA 25 / DA 15 / good link profile – but links are related to niche

    Also, is it better to use Moz Page Trust or Moz Domain Trust?

    Thank you :)

    • The trick with re-purposing an expired domain is to make it flexible for link building. So take the former site and inbound links and then stretch the niche a bit so that the new site is still relevant to the former site, but more flexible for link building.

      But if I had to choose, I go with relevance over higher DA.

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