Search Marketing Consultant

How long is it before you can buy a domain name that has expired?

Not so long ago I found out that a domain name I really wanted had expired so I thought great I’ll buy it.  Well, it wasn’t so easy, you can’t buy a domain name as soon as it expires, you will have to wait 75 days, and then compete with anyone else who wants the domain.

There are plenty of companies that monitor expired domains and have software that snaps them up immediately they become available.  Then of course they try and sell them to someone who really wants the domain name. So if you think there might be some competition when buying an expired domain you may want to hire the services of a professional.

Recently I decided to find out exactly how this all works. It seems that on the expiry date the domain will go into an ‘expired state’ for 40 days, all services are stopped and the original owner can buy back the domain for the standard price. After the 40 days the domain goes into a ‘redemption state’ for 30 days where the original owner can still renew the domain but for an increased fee which depends on the registrar. After the redemption period there is an additional 5 day pending delete phase. Making a total of 75 days.

One of my expired domains was purchased exactly 12 weeks after it expired so it is possible.

My recommendation is to renew your domains before they expire to avoid any extra costs and more importantly to stop anyone else snatching them.

Before you can publish your web site on the Internet you need to decide on a domain name.  There are 2 schools of thought on this. 
1. Use your company name.
2. Use your best key phrase.
I think in certain situations both of these are correct.  It also depends on your marketing strategy.  If you are a well know company or brand that people will be searching for on the Internet then you should use your company or brand name.  If you are just starting out on the Internet and you are selling blue widgets then bluewidgets.com would be a great domain name.  You could always use both.  Create your web site and optimize it for the search engines with the domain name bluewidgets.com and then also use your company name as a domain name and redirect it to your other domain. 

For example redirect widgetco.com to bluewidgets.com.  This way you can advertise your own company name off line and have a domain name optimized for your best key word.