It may seem that whenever you buy a domain, you always start 'in the clear'. Unfortunately, this is not the case. When you take over or register a web domain, you take it with all the benefits of inventory. In practice, this means that domain already has a history, which was built up by its previous owner. Is there a reason why the new owner of a domain should care about what the predecessor did with it? Yes, domain history matters, even after the domain has been repurposed for a new site. In this article, you will learn the details of a domain's history, how to check it and how it relates to the SEO.
What is a web domain - the basics!
However, let's start with the most important one - a reminder of what an internet domain is in general. It is an essential component of your online identity, a unique address at which you can access services on the web e.g. web pages, e-mail. Each domain consists of a name and an extension (e.g. national or functional). By adding a protocol to these elements (http:// or https://) we are dealing with an address URL (see - infographic).
What is taken into account when determining a domain's history?
If you are dealing with domains that have been put up for sale or have not been renewed and that you want to use for your activities, it is essential to check their history. What does this mean? What components are taken into account when determining a domain's history? Read about them in the following paragraphs.
Age of the domain
It is often said that age is just a number. Is the same true for a domain? In a nutshell, yes. Yes, a domain that was registered many years ago has had more time than younger ones, for example, to gather inbound links. And this, of course, has a positive effect on positioning. However, age does not necessarily work in favour of the domain, because in the meantime there may also be processes and interventions that negatively affect its quality. In yet another case - nothing may have happened on (and around) the domain for years. Then the mere fact that it was registered a long time ago does not in any way make it better than other domains.
Links leading to the website
It is these, and not age of the domain should be the focus if we are checking a domain's history. An older domain has the advantage that many links can lead to it if it has been positioned regularly from the beginning. In addition, the linked sites may also have strengthened their authority over time. Of course, not only the number of links is important, but also the quality of the links. After all, nobody wants to take over a domain spammed with links from poor sources, infected sites and link farms.
Potential penalties
The history of a domain may not be colourful. If you are buying back a domain that has already been used, you are not sure how. It may turn out to be so heavily spammed that a Google penalty has been imposed on it - filter manual or even ban! In such a case, the positioning process will be hampered because it can take up to several months to remove the penalty. For this reason, many people abandon these types of domains because they see no point in wasting time on them. Their site will not appear for any search terms until Google removes the penalty.
How to check the history and age of a domain? Learn about free tools
You already know that the date of registration of a domain in itself does not matter much, but you can check it before you buy it out of curiosity. Just go to is a tool from SmallSEOTools and paste in the domain name. The tool will give its exact age.
Another useful tool is Internet Archive Wayback Machinewhich makes copies of the pages and saves their dates. Thanks to this we have an insight into how the site looked in the pastand also, for example, whether it was infected. To check your domain history, type in your domain name and click Browse History. What next? If there was a working website and (importantly!) access for the robot a Archive.org was not blocked, you will see its history. What if the tool does not show any history? This means that either you are the first owner of the domain or the previous owner blocked the robots from accessing it.
A final tool worth using is the Backlink Checkerwith which you can check, what links lead to the domain. In this way, you will find out whether it has links from spammy, low-quality sites, which, as already mentioned in the article, can lower the page's position in search results. A tool similar to the Backlink Checker is, for example. Linkody.
Domain history versus SEO - what's the impact?
The topic of a domain's history and its impact on rankings is often discussed by experts. It is consistently said that the way a domain has been used in the past can affect how Google treats it today.
This impact can range from moderate to severe. The most serious problem a site owner may encounter is acquiring a domain with an unresolved history of manual Google actions. They do not disappear on their own, even after the previous owner has sold the domain. If the penalties are not resolved, the next owner of the domain may immediately notice that his or her site is falling in positions in search results or even becoming deindexed.
If you want to know more about this, watch the this video with Google specialist Matt Cutts.
Attention! Don't confuse domain history with domain age per se!
Algorithm specialist John Muller has on several occasions (e.g. on Twitter) indicated that it is not a ranking factor and "doesn't help anything".
Domain history and SEO - summary
The impact of a negative domain history on SEO is obvious and indisputable, and this is not only confirmed by the observations of site owners. This is also indicated by statements made by Google specialists, who advise us to carry out an analysis and investigate how the domain was previously used before we buy it.
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