How to See If You've Got a Bad Domain

How to See if You’ve Got a Bad Domain

I think I just dodged a bullet. Here I am, well into the process of building out a money site. I purchased the domain, created content, went live, started my SEO work, plus more content and social media, and THEN I stumbled across a way to check for back links.

So…I ran my site through the back link checker, and learned that this site has back links from FOUR YEARS AGO! Now I feel so naïve. I should have done this a lot sooner.

I turns out that my domain was used by another affiliate marketer who created a site and abandoned it. When I picked it up, I thought it was all fresh and new, but it turns out it was used. I feel almost like I bought a used car with the odometer turned back. But maybe it’s not so bad after all…just keep reading…

What I Learned –And How You Can Benefit

Plenty of affiliate marketers have come and gone. Plenty more will also come and go. They will come up with great ideas, get started on a site, try to monetize it, and somewhere along the way something will happen. Maybe their life will change, or maybe they will find out that this business just isn’t cut out for them, and they will stop trying.

When renewal time comes, they won’t renew. In some of my competitive analysis of the niches I am working on, I have seen quite a few dead bodies. A lot of people are trying to make good things happen out there, but they didn’t get the full education that comes from a great open education project like WA where there are tons of knowledgeable people who have gone before you and are willing to help you with all your questions.

Don’t get too flustered when you run across dead bodies. It will happen.

Here’s How You Can Find Out If Your URL Has Been Recycled

The Wayback Machine keeps a cache (pronounced “cash” <little pet peeve of mine>) of old images from…well.. way back in time. The Wayback Machine is right here: http://archive.org/web/

Just type in your url, and the Wayback machine will check the archives for images of what the site looked like way-back-when, and it tells you the actual dates.

It was when I typed my domain name into the Wayback Machine that my heart almost…skipped..a beat. In front of my very eyes was a really cheesy version of what I have been doing. It brought a whole new meaning to the term “cognitive dissonance”. When I saw that, I was concerned.

What About That Back Link Analysis You Were Telling Me About?

OK, OK, you almost got me on that one. Just go to http://ahrefs.com and they’ll fix you right up. Tell ‘em Youbetcha sentcha.

Majestic SEO is a big help, too. https://www.majesticseo.com/ It was actually the Majestic report that showed me that old back link and started me down this track in the first place.

The Open Site Explorer is another good place to look. http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/ My site is too new, and it didn’t show up at all here.

Happy Ending?

It turned out that there were only 2 old back links. I don’t think they will do any harm. With the genuine SEO work I am doing in social media so far, I am seeing my site steadily climb the SERPs (That’s Search Engine Results Pages for my fellow newbies).

If any of you grizzled old veterans out there have any comments or observations, I’m all ears.