Sherlock Holmes Domain Tools
Hey Everyone,
Today's blog post is about: Researching Your Domain Names Like Sherlock Holmes with These Tools
For most of us we probably do our keyword research and come up with a domain name based on those keywords if it's available or a variation thereof. The rest probably don't really care about a keyword rich domain name and come up with their name based on personal preference or a whim or whatever strikes their fancy. I myself am always torn when I want to buy a domain name because a cheeky domain name suits my personality but my brain tells me keyword-rich is where the money is. But either way, whichever camp you fall into, I hope that you do your due diligence before buying your domain names.
Why am I telling you guys this? Well when I first bought my domain name clothdiaperaccessories.com I didn't research it. I didn't even know how. I just did my keyword research and "cloth diaper accessories" looked good according to the numbers and the domain name was available. I was pretty stoked that it was available and that no-one had ever thought of it before me lol....ha ha what a maroon...of course someone thought of it before me...
Have a look at this screenshot:
That's my domain name up there but that's not my website. And if you can see it clearly enough, the two screenshots for this domain are from September 2012 and March 2013. I only started my website in August of 2015.
The reason I started researching my domain name is because Google Webmaster Tools has thrown out the oddball thing or two about my website. For instance 404 error codes for pages about "Flushable Diaper Liners" or "Cloth Diaper Sprayers" that I haven't even written yet. I've submitted my sitemap to Google but the Big G seems to not want to let go of those pages.
But then I got to thinking what if my domain name was registered before? And after a little bit of research it turns out that indeed my domain name was registered before. Then I got to thinking about what other people would have to go through with their domain names if they didn't know these kinds of things either. So I've put together a list of the tools I use to check domain names before you buy them with a couple of really useful tools that are free and easy to use.
Here's how you can research your domain names before you buy using and example domain name. In this example I chose "ihomesuccess.com" that kind of domain name sounds like cutting-edge home business to me.
So let's find out if this domain name has been registered before by going to:
So you can see from the screenshot that "ihomesuccess.com" is available to register as a domain name. But it has been registered as a domain name before.
The next tool I use is:
So from the screenshot you can see that this website used to be one of those "get paid to take surveys" type of websites. It's bordeline spammy at this point but we don't know for sure if it really is.
So then the next tool you can use is:
It's the home of the waybackmachine and it can often have a lot more details about a domain name than screenshots.com but the screenshots at archive.org aren't so great. So here's a sample of the history of "ihomesuccess.com"
If you look at the calendar it shows the date of May 17th, 2014 highlighted in blue. That means that a snapshot of this website was taken at that time and put into the archive. If you click on that blue dot you get this page come up:Curioser and curioser...it doesn't show the archived snapshot for that page..instead it shows a link. So I copy that link and paste it into my web browser and this page comes up:
Aha!...so that link goes to a website called "Toluna" and it is one of those "earn points for prizes and rewards" type sites.
So think for a moment what that means. Did the wayback machine make a mistake with that website's snapshots? Nope...
It means that "ihomesuccess.com" dropped their domain name and redirected themselves to "toluna.com"
Now why would a website that claims to have rewarded tons of money to it's members redirect to another domain name?
Probably Google de-indexed them for being spammy under the old domain name and they are starting fresh with a new one. What does that mean for the old domain name?
Good luck getting any Google love with that domain as it has probably been marked as spam. Is there a way to come back from a Google penalty? I imagine there is but it's probably a lot more time consuming than going back to the drawing board and choosing another domain name that hasn't already been tossed off the internet by the Big G.
Try out these tools on your existing domain names and see what turns up for you. Especially if you are having a hard time getting indexed or ranked in Google or if something doesn't seem right in your Google Search Console data.
So play detective while you play affiliate marketers and until next time,
Keep on your toes Lovelies!
Thischick aka Lori
Recent Comments
39
Hi Lori, Thanks for this information! Every morning when I look through the "love" from WA I read yours first. You always have great stuff! Thanks
Thanks very much for your kind words. I try to think "outside the box" and help people here in areas they might not have thought to check. Thank you so much for reading it means a lot :)
Thanks Lori "Sherlock". I thought if a name was good keyword wise and was available that I was good to go! I would never have known how to check all this out and I know I'm going to be adding future sites. This will definitely come in handy and save a lot of possible grief.
Blessings,
Debby
You're welcome Debby. Since I started researching domain names before I buy, it has been a real eye-opener. There's actually sites out there that used to be really great domains but bad things happened along the way. I've seen domain names that sounded great turn out to be not so great when I ran them through screenshots.com
Websites that were quite legit a few years ago but then were bought by people who turned them into porn. And now the domain is available to buy...can't imagine why lol :)
If you run "foodinfoquest.com" through screenshots.com you will see an example of what I mean about legit sites turned into porn and then the domain name gets dumped because Google won't index it...but don't say I didn't warn you...
Sad part is that domain name looks kind of cool and I would have been the unwitting fool who might have bought it until I got some smarticles ha ha :)
ha ha ha ha...I like it...but first let me make sure that name hasn't already been used for malicious purposes woot! Oh I kill me...I really do :)
Thanks for sharing! This is great information My domain name is pretty unique to me (its the name of my kids stuffed animals) so I wasn't worried that it had been used before. But this is good to know for when I decided to start another site and might have a more keyword rich domain name.
That's good that your domain name is unique TanjaRita, at least you won't run into these kinds of problems. I got lucky in the sense that my website domain name was "previously owned" but by a legit website within the same niche that I'm in. It would have been terrible to find out that it was some spammy or porn website name before it was mine lol:)
That worked out well for you then! I wonder why this isn't covered in the training. Maybe they will add it!
So you are on the side of keyword search as opposed to the content camp? LOL
How are you Lori? I was just messing with you!
Stay blessed,
Ed
That's okay Ed :)
I went for the keywords with my first website name. Maybe I will go with something catchy for the next one so my domain name is an original this time lol.
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I'll definitely have a look, great post by the way, this post could really help a lot of people out. Cheers Daragh
Thanks for reading Daragh...I wish I could have made it a training but I haven't been here long enough yet pffft :(