Expired domains with backlinks
When a website closes, the links pointing to it stay out on the web. Buy its expired domain and those links point to you. That is why expired domains with backlinks are so popular, and why they need checking more carefully than any other kind of name.
Why backlinks matter
Links from other websites are still one of the main ways search engines judge a site. A link from a respected, relevant site is a vote of confidence. An expired domain that earned such links over years can give a new site a head start, but only if the links are genuine and fit what you plan to do.
How to find expired domains that still have links
- Start with history. Names with years of real website history are the ones most likely to have earned links. Use top picks, or sort any list by Oldest history.
- Use authority signals. Our lists show a free Common Crawl authority rank for names it has measured, and paid Moz, Majestic and Ahrefs scores where we have measured them. Unmeasured values show as a dash, never zero.
- Check other extensions. A name registered in many other extensions is usually a valuable keyword. Use the Taken in and Reg count filters.
- Look at what dropped. The just dropped list shows names that left the registry recently, with a live availability check.
How to check the links properly
- Open the backlink report in a backlink tool and look at the referring domains, not just the total link count. Fifty links from one site is one vote, not fifty.
- Read the linking sites. Are they real, relevant and still online? Links from news sites, universities, local organisations and established blogs are good signs.
- Look at the anchor text. Natural anchors mention the brand or the topic. Anchors full of casino, pharma, loan or adult words mean the name was abused.
- Compare the links with the history. If a bakery's domain suddenly gained thousands of links in another language, it was probably used for spam after the bakery closed.
- Check our spam score and the
site:search. Read the red flags guide for more warning signs.
Using an expired domain with backlinks safely
- Build something relevant. Links help most when your new site is about the same topic as the old one.
- Restore what you can. If the old site had popular pages that others linked to, publishing genuinely useful pages at those addresses keeps the links meaningful.
- Redirect with care. If you redirect an expired domain to an existing site, redirect old pages to closely matching pages. Redirecting everything to your home page looks manipulative and usually passes little value.
- Do not build link networks. Buying expired domains only to link to your main site breaks Google's spam policies on expired domain abuse and can get every site involved penalised.
More guides
- How to buy an expired domain
- Types of expired domains
- How to choose a good expired domain
- Expired domain red flags
- Expired domain tools compared
- Aged domains explained
- How to check a domain before you buy
- Expiry, redemption and pending delete
- How we score domains
Last updated 15 October 2026