Hey everyone welcome to the authority Hacker podcast in this episode we are Going to be talking about picking the Right domain name for your business we Are also going to be talking about Advanced problems like dealing with Trademark issues we’re going to be Talking about expired domains and how to Deal with usually the fact that they are Pretty bad in terms of branding we’re Going to be talking about tlds we’re Talking about dns performance and a Bunch of other stuff so it’s not just a Beginner’s episode we are going to be Covering lots and lots of grounds here It’s going to be exciting there’s a lot Of funny stories in this episode as well So let’s get started with the episode [Music] Everyone welcome back to the atari Hacker podcast as you can see from my Haircut and the poor batteries in the Flamingo behind me i haven’t been Recording these videos lately so i need To re-work on my setup but i am back on The podcast after mark took it away for One week with steve thought it was a Good interview so check it out if you Haven’t uh in today’s episode we are Going to be talking about what seems to Be a beginner’s topic which is going to Be picking your domain name um but we’re Also going to be talking about some Advanced stuff here we’re going to talk
About like the dns that is provided with Uh registrars we’re going to be talking About trademarks and issues you might Have with that we’re going to share some Tools etc so it’s going to be Interesting even if you already have a Domain name uh we’re going to talk about Rebranding as well this kind of stuff so It’s going to be quite interesting and I’m not going to tease you Anymore i’m going to introduce today’s Uh today he’s smiling already i see it Like i’m going [Laughter] It’s like i was like how do i introduce That and then you just like i see you Just can’t wait on the camera so i’m not Going to even make some shitty Transition i’m gonna say uh how’s it Going mark you know It’s going it’s going good thanks gail Um I asked steve that last last week and i Kind of had a smirk in in my my mind When i was when i was You know it’s funny you asked me this Probably for the last three years every Single podcast but yeah i always fail to Prepare like yes maybe one out of ten Times i have a good answer so i think we Need to make a bigger section in the Podcast notes for this so i i remember That’s the main reason people listen to These podcasts right it’s like there’s
Many computing is your podcast i get Much less downloads than this and i Think that is the one usp is that asking You how are you doing So Uh no but like okay let’s get into Today’s stuff i just wanted to note that Uh your background is getting more and More plain but uh uh congratulations on That uh so yeah just just an update on The the renovation we’ve got uh shelves Have been ordered acoustic panels have Been ordered and once they’re installed Um it’s still going to look super plain Because you won’t see the acoustic Panels but once they’re installed and we See the position of the shelves because There’s a door that opens there as well Then we can start doing something more Colorful so by the time you have a Background i won’t have one because i’m Moving out right so it’s around around That time okay makes sense um Let’s get started with today’s podcast Let’s talk about picking a domain it is Uh it is a pretty important thing in Terms of starting your website and it’s Going to i feel like it just affects a Lot of things like uh add a small Percentage and eventually just become Something that can Make or break your site if you do it Really wrong if you do it like kind of Wrong usually you can kind of get away
With it if you do it really wrong uh It’s a problem so i mean one of the Things that it does is uh it’s the Initial impression of your site so like When people are googling keywords you You might be trying to write on google But If your domain name is Uh like peop google shows the domain Name in the search results right and if I if if it’s just not trustworthy and It looks cami usually like your click Stroke is going to be significantly Lower so like spending some time doing Your branding properly will Affect your search click through rate Which means that this extra day you Might spend brainstorming uh the right Domain name Will end up uh getting you thousands and Thousands and thousands of extra clicks Over the life of your website just for That one reason right uh just for that Ctr reason in google but there’s there’s More to that there’s also Another reason that sort of like plays Off of that is in link building as well If you you introduce your link building Outreach says hi i’m mark from cheap Dash iphones dot info um You know people are already without even Clicking on your site making a judgment About it and i’m not sure the info Domains are still the same though when
Was the last time you saw one I mean You could still register them as what I’m saying um you shouldn’t but you they They do still exist but it’s been a While since i’ve seen so many on the Surf and maybe this is why because Nobody wants to link to them because They’re associated as being super spammy It’s the evolution theory being Validated in front of us you know it’s Like they existed and slowly they don’t Adapt to the environment so they Disappear you know so yeah it’s a good Old darwinism uh anyway yeah it matters For that um it also matters if you have Some kind of related keywords in your Domain name so like you know exact match Domains aware i think Um and It’s like I don’t see nearly as many of them Ranking as we used to uh several years Ago um but like What it does when you have keywords that Are somewhat related i’m not saying one Keyword you’re targeting like no site Targets one keyword and you know it’s a Shitty seo strategy to do that anyway um So But having said like keywords that are Somewhat related to what you do in your Domain name what it does is that every Time there’s a naked anchor text or url
And context put your keywords in your Anchor text which increases relevancy And it does matter a little bit it’s Like You can rank sites that don’t have With on domains that don’t have your Keywords that’s not what i’m saying but You Do get a tiny bit of a competitive Advantage if you do that so usually Getting A domain name that illustrates what you Do which is good practice in general for People to click to Through you to Sorry on search is also something that Might Affect the bots of google that will give You extra relevancy and end up end up Ranking a little bit higher for Everything so you might rank a little Bit higher you might get a bit more Click through rate and you might get a Bit more links um so that’s what it does To get a good domain and that’s why we Think that we should cover that and i Was actually surprised to look into the At least on youtube we haven’t covered That topic yet at all um so i think it’s A it’s a good thing to do so um before We jump into tips and tricks and Questions many people have i thought we Should do a section On uh things to avoid when picking a
Domain name because i think picking a Good domain name is is much more about Avoiding mistakes that is about Get like there’s no right answer there’s No like perfect answer it’s not a math Problem Um so as long as your domain is somewhat Related to what you do and you don’t Make the mistakes we’re going to be Talking about uh just now you should be In good shape and i think the first one Is uh using hyphens uh it’s You know they are still domains with Hyphens and you find a domain with Hyphens that ranks high but i challenge You to google competitive keywords and Find lots of domains with hyphens Usually they are the spammy ones that Are like you know here for three months And then gone after that uh don’t really Make it past the updates etc not because They have hyphens but usually because They’re run by people who just Don’t care as much about the website and Therefore don’t You know do as good of a job on it There’s a few there’s a few things going On there so there what you mentioned is Is correct but there’s also some small Subtleties for example If i’m chatting to you In person and i say oh i was on this Really good website Authorityhyphenhacker.com
It’s like or i’m not really going to say That it was authority hacker We we have it i think Um if not then i’m going to go buy it Before this podcast goes out just as Someone Um But If you if you have a hyphen domain it Also means that there’s a high chance Someone else has the unhyphenated Version even though it’s not used at the Moment it could be used later and it can Cause all sorts of issues when uh two Companies start having very similar Domain names Yeah uh i agree it’s like it cannot be Spoken as well so i mean not many people Necessarily do that but like on this Podcast for example it’s very annoying If we’re trying to like share a domain With a hyphen for example and uh making It spoken like people will will mistype More often we’ll do all that you’re Gonna lose traffic uh and usually people Who are trying to type your domain They’re the best kind of traffic the Other traffic that will convert that Will Click on your links and make you money Etc so it’s quite important obviously if You are doing a pure seo game not really Trying to build a brand It’s not as big of a deal and i see why
Some people doing like pure pure Uh But like you know rank and tank Basically let’s just call it that uh the Game then uh then that’s that can be Okay um but in general if you’re trying To build something a long time i would Avoid these There’s a there’s a higher chance as Well that you might start getting into a Case where your br the brand name or the Name is actually trademarked elsewhere If If the dot com Is used and it’s used by a company doing Anything Then In in many cases they will own the the Trademark so you going in and get the Hyphenated version they can come and There’s a process to sort of It costs a bit money but to Wrestle that domain out of you if they Own a legit trademark for it um so you Can open yourself up to all sorts of Issues there where you may end up having To Move domain names uh move domain uh to Something completely different for Further down the line and that’s Something you should you should do Anyway whether you have hyphen or not is Is run a search on The uh to see if that anyone else has a
Trademark for how do you do that So there’s a Each country in the world has its own Trademark database it’s not really Realistic to search for all of them so If you just search for through the us And through the european ones they have Search functionality we’ll put links to That in the video or in the description Uh and then just see if anyone else has A trademark or similar trademarks be Aware that uh the plural of a trademark Still still counts against the singular So we have a trademark Authorityhacker.com If someone registers Authorityhackers.com plural um we still Own the trademarks covered under that Someone actually did that Um and we kind of had got into it with Them for for a little bit And eventually they just sort of uh get Gave it up and we were able to register That However It can Uh it can be a bit expensive you know It’s Maybe if i do enforce it as well like Like let’s say someone takes your Your domain like what do i do So first things first is you send them a Cease and desist you tell them what They’re doing and just make them aware
Because quite quite often it’s the case That they’re just not aware of the legal Rules are that you you’re using it or That you have the trademark or anything Um if they’re A lot of the time they’re going to be Okay you know fine here you go If they’re still like no you or They don’t they don’t respond then there Is a process it’s called a ud Urdp Universal domain name resolution process And basically every domain registrar That that’s set up has signed up to this And there it’s a process where you have To pay a few thousand dollars and There’s some judges like a panel of Judges will sit and arbit and kind of Decide whether You know your trademark is legit and What should happen and There’s a whole process to go through It’s not cheap it’s a few thousand Dollars before legal before legal pro uh Fees so you know you you’re looking at Maybe five thousand dollars or something To some big companies that’s nothing Yeah they’re doing so they have teams of Lawyers armies of lawyers ready to come After you if you if you do anything like This um and so You know you just don’t want to like Have that that hassle so it’s very Important to it happened to perrin
Actually you know when he started his Dog site he Named it truly says dot com because his Dog was called chewie except chewy.com Is also one of the biggest Pet stores online Unfortunate And they did all of that and he had to Hand over the domain so It does happen So be a little careful of that i know a Lot of people are gonna like roll their Eyes and be annoyed etcetera but the Problem is usually these enforcements Don’t happen as you’re starting your Site they happen like a year later year And a half later you’ve invested lots of Time and money and energy into like link Building your domain all that the Content and the site you can kind of Move to another domain they don’t care About that um but the links you will Lose um so any links that you have built To that domain you you are They’re gone you have to hand them over Pretty much um so just be a little Careful because it could cost you a lot And it’s not very frequent but when it Happens You’re gonna cry you’re gonna be annoyed And you there’s a big chance you will Probably just give up on the site to be Honest there are cases when uh The domain is used in like another
Context Um and it’s kind of like allowed so for Example Nissan.com i know this one um it’s Probably the most famous nissan’s Obviously a world famous car company They don’t own nissen.com it’s owned by A small computer Computing like a computer repair company I think somewhere in the us And they’ve They still have the domain and they Fought against the Countless lawsuits from from nissan the Car company over this but they’ve even Admitted like this has totally not been Worth it there’s so much stress and it’s Cost them so much to defend themselves And even though they still have it it Was just it’s a nightmare so Stick well stay well clear of these These situations yeah uh another thing To avoid is having too many words in Your domain or having a too long domain Name Uh first of all When you’re like again i’m just gonna Talk purely from a search perspective so That people because i know people care Mostly about that um You know you have a number of pixels Allowed to your url in the serps and so If your code if your domain name your Base domain name takes a lot of space
Then people won’t see What the url is it’s just going to be Truncated uh and you are less likely to Get clicks like anything that gets Truncated on google gets less clicks for It like we’ve done all these ctr studies And all that etc it just gets worse so You in general like having a shorter one Is better for spoken uh language is also Better like again if i mention a domain Name is like five words right now it’s Like it’s going to be complicated for You guys to go on there um There’s more opportunities for typos in The domain name therefore uh broken Links etc are going to happen more often And in general just bad practice like Doing a logo on top of your site it’s Going to be a nightmare it’s going to Look weird uh like lots and lots of Things that just get worse with long Before also on that point when you look At a domain in your your cert in the Serp or in the url bar at the top of Your browser there’s no spaces right so Authority hacker two words it’s pretty Obvious when you when you read it your Eyes like will identify those those two Words uh but if there’s five words and There are six words in there it gets Harder and harder to actually see what Is the domain name here like you have to Like really pay attention read it Closely and that that can count against
You uh just even if the words are Fine together but they can also cause Situations where Different sets of words look differently If the if the space is in different Spaces So there’s a few uh good examples i i Dug up uh teacher Teacherstalking.com Uh can also be read as Teacherstalking.com Uh that’s quite interesting Powergen which is a uh Which is a energy company they set up Their website in italy powergen Italia.com which read reads power Genitalia yeah i didn’t even realize What it was um And then there’s a an island in the u.s Called pen island um which is penis Island uh i think penis island.net was Their their website pennies Don’t go to that Don’t go to that domain just in case It’s something else Um and my all-time favorite was uh i was Searching for my own name once just to See i think i was looking for harrows or Something And i just went to google.com uk and put In mark webster And this guy’s who was like a sports Phys a physiotherapist um for sports Teams came up and his his website
His name is mark webster and he has his His website was mark therapist Webster.cod.ukr.com What’s wrong with that you say well Therapist if there’s no space in in Between or if there’s a space in between Can also be read as the rapist so it was Mark the rapist webster Uk which was just yeah i mean i don’t Know how he didn’t see that one I believe he’s since live yeah i don’t See yeah he’s he’s since changed it i Have to we’ll have to look up wayback Machine for uh to see if that’s been Been used previously um so now it’s just A matter of time before someone picks it Up to do a pb and only with your face oh God [Laughter] Good job bringing it up let’s see let’s See what people decide to do with this And in a in a similar sort of sphere um You know maybe sort of Less bad but still an issue is when Words can be can sound the same but are Um are spelled differently so a good Example is our previous agency was Called higher click h-i-g-h-e-r Click i can’t tell you the number of Times i was on the phone to someone and They telling them my email address or Whatever and they They thought it was higher h-i-r-e which Is pronounced almost exactly the same
Another another good example for that is Our friend Johnny ward he runs a pretty big travel Blog actually And uh his his website is one step for The number ward Uh instead of forward so it’s kind of a Play on that but every time he says it Or someone said oh you’ve seen one set Forward you know it’s it causes issues So just just think about those as well i Think it’s a smart play on ward but uh It actually probably loses him lots of Traffic Because he’s that guy where people would Like type the domain name actually So it’s a bit of a it’s a bit of a Mistake on that and probably he should Buy forward Onestepforward.com and just be direct so We tend to do that like and actually It’s something that um something i’m Bringing it up now i have like a list of Questions we should talk about later but It’s one of those like should you buy Variations of your domain et cetera if You are branded like you know if people Are likely like if you’re doing a Podcast like we do or if you’re showing Your face and if you’re doing youtube if You’re doing that stuff yes you should Do that And you should buy all the typos Variations etc and redirect so like i
Don’t know how many domains we are Maintaining right now uh for tory hacker For example but at least a dozen or Something like atari hikers with an s And a bunch of others basically so it’s Yeah and let me just just clarify like If you’re watching and you have like a a Big site a semi-big site or you you know You it’s it’s growing stop and go and Buy all those now it’s a hundred bucks a Year but it’s so worth it in terms of The hassle because you’ll get all sorts Of people uh registering the dot net the Dot org dot i n dot co dot uk Uh with a hyphen with a plural like just Go and buy them all like it’s it i i Know it’s if you buy it should buy like Absolutely every country or like do you Leave some up no so we we did i think um Uk india Dot eu Maybe dot ca and i think dot a you the Australian one it’s hard to buy you need Like you can’t buy that one so we didn’t Have that um but if you buy it for Authority hacker we’ll come after you so Don’t do it Um We’ve had people We’ve had people for some of our product Names like uh the authority site system I think someone registered the Authoritysightsystem.com Once and they were an affiliate and they
Were trying to like rank for it so we Just like okay we’ll just cut you out of The affiliate program and they’re like Oh no don’t do that so we got the domain Of them um but i mean people try all Sorts of like trick tricks like this and It’s it’s not it’s not cool you don’t Need to be that big of a company for This to happen to you as well i think a Lot of people expect like it’s like i Thought it was like okay but it’s not Big companies like just some some dudes Talking on youtube you know If you want to if you want to take it to The most extreme i actually know the guy Who owned Facebook.net in the early days And he sold it to facebook to mark Zuckerberg and he got a really high Amount of money for it but he didn’t Take the money he took pre-ipo facebook Shares as well so probably one of the Best pro Probably one of the best I wouldn’t call it cyber squatting but It kind of is uh deals of all time Um from from his end at least but like Here’s my question then if you buy one Of these let’s say i if i dig around i Guarantee you i can find variations that Are not bought by companies yeah are They gonna pay me for it or they’re just Gonna force me to hand it for free Most of the time no i mean there’s
There’s not too much you can you can do With that the issue with authority Hacker is there there were actually Quite a few because there’s two of us There’s quite a few people that think We’re authority hackers and still call Us the authority hackers And the people even link their their if You put hr in ahrefs there were links to Authorityhackers.com People just assumed that was it so it Was more of a problem in that case It was worse though in in this guy’s Case because he he carbon copied the Authority hacker site And then so like our logo was there Photos brand all it was it was color all The colors everything and linked to Another like his own In affiliate marketing course and it was Just like You know that that’s textbook uh like Trademark abuse right there so Yeah didn’t didn’t i don’t think he made That many sales or anything i guess some People saw because they were you would Click it wasn’t us it was like some Other dude Um Okay uh anything else on oh yeah the Last one i wanted to give as a tip Things to avoid is to buy the domain Immediately if you found a free i’m Talking more in the case of like you
Found a dollar a 10.com domain right if You found like an expired domain or Something and it’s a good opportunity And the auction is finishing in two Hours i buy it um but if um if you know Very often i like to brainstorm like you Know Like when we start a new auto is a System Course or as a site sorry i buy a 10 Dollar domain right i don’t buy an Expired domain i don’t do any of that Maybe next time i’ll change we’ll see um And uh and i tell people to wait 24 hours and to talk to someone about it Because very often there’s like things We don’t see In the domains or like we sleep on it And we change our mind or something like That and actually in the last version of The authority side system i buy a domain In the video and then i I didn’t follow my own advice And the next day i come back to record The rest of the training and i’m like You know what i like this other Variation of the domain that i found Better and so i changed the domain name So my recommendation if the dot com is Available still today it’s probably Going to be available tomorrow um so Give it 24 hours actually it’s good tip For anything you want to buy in general Like don’t buy things immediately just
Give it 24 hours or 48 hours or Something like this and very often you Don’t want to buy them anymore However be very careful if you’re asking People for advice especially in any kind Of public forum like hey what do you Guys think of this domain because people Will just go out and and buy it and like You know cyber squat on you right oh Yeah someone did that too one of our Friends did that to us Like seriously It’s like we’re braced on the the the Domain name phone you say he’s like ah This domain i’m like oh yeah that’s Pretty good it’s like too late i bought It Like you So Yeah good times um Now he’s a ceo of a billion dollar Company so you know Because of this but not because not Because of that domain no it’s something Else Um anyway uh while we’re talking about Buying domains i’m going to give you Guys a good tool that you can use that i Find is decent like actually the tool i Used to use just doesn’t work anymore i Actually need to change the link in desk Um but a business name generator.com is Pretty cool like you can put a seed Keyword it’s going to like you know find
A bunch of variations with uh domains That are available not available Um so i mean obviously it’s how to find A dot com and actually let’s talk about The tld where we’re at it as well um Usually you probably do want to buy a Dot-com domain 99.9 of the time i think My Uh The time where i wouldn’t do it is when You’re running something more local like Let’s say your plan is to do like a shop In the uk for example i’ll buy Uk because the tld is actually a huge Ranking factor in the market where you Want to go you can Rank a dot com in uk for example there Is an option in webmasters console to Target your domain address to ac um Geographical area but from my test that Where a while ago so i’m putting a Little bit of a disclaimer here The tld of the country was stronger than Uh having a dot com set up in webmasters Console so in general uh that’s when i Would pick that otherwise i would 99.9 Pk.com unless maybe there’s like a Really really good expired domain you’d Probably want to buy both the dot com And the dot code yeah but like they’re Available now there is one one exception Which is uh if i started on an expired Domain with the intention to rebrand Later and we’ll talk about this a bit
After then i’d be happy to take another Tld for the beginning i would also say The other tl the maybe the only other Tld that i would consider aside from.com And your local geographic one is dot io If you’re a software company it’s it’s Not the best i’m not not the biggest fan Of it but it’s it’s often seen as quite Legit a lot of startup companies a lot Of software companies are are using it And i think it’s it’s fine Certainly compared to dot info or you Know a random dot tld Like dot track don’t mind. as much like There’s a few companies on dot and it’s It’s not great it’s much worse than dot Com but there’s a few companies on dot Net actually like i’d say it’s like the The runner up who do you know is on.net I can’t remember i was thinking about it Now but i’ve always seen a few because i Remember problogger used to have exactly About net but they’re a dot-com now yeah Of course it’s still better like if You’re a big company like it’s never Better but you can start on.net Leadpages started on.net for example In all these cases they ended up having To pay quite a bit of money to acquire The the dot-com thing so Maybe it’s fine when you’re a bigger Company but Yeah If you can’t avoid it you you probably
Should Yeah no noah kagan started on Sumo.net i think or sumodo no he didn’t They just had appsumo.com and then they Wanted the sumo.com and they paid Three million dollars for it There was no because appsumo was still Absolute um yeah but they wanted sumo For like their group name Sumo it was the pop-up tool like they They had this free wordpress plugin with Like you know contact forms pop-up it’s Still there if you go on sumo.com you Will see uh so it’s like an email Capture tool that they were running for Free for long time that was very popular But it was something else it was another Name like sumo something and they wanted And so because they wanted that similar Account they paid 1 million dollars for That sumo.com domain name actually it’s Public like they he shared that publicly So uh i don’t mind mentioning that Um but yeah it’s like it can cost a lot Of money if you uh sometimes it’s better To just brainstorm early and then uh and Save that money later but um but yeah It’s like that especially because that Was not that popular anymore uh It’s a bit of a Shame to spend this much money on the Domain name i believe but uh Yeah that happens and that is usually Either ego a lot of people have a lot of
Ego around the domain name uh they do Want like the the shortest tld like That’s a full letter Uh principle name that means something Yeah yeah it’s it’s valuable like uh it Would resell for quite a bit of money But It’s like a lot a lot of people that I’ve seen spend a lot of money on Domains like that it’s people with big Egos as well So I’m just gonna You can usually you can usually avoid it By just spending a few more hours Brainstorming yeah it’s hard it can be Very valuable hours usually in the first First hour or two You’re doing this it can feel like Everything’s taken but i promise you Just work out a little bit longer and There really are a lot of uh good domain Names available still yeah and it’s kind Of like you know i had this question in My question it’s like what to do if a Domain name is already taken that i want To take um i mean very often if the Domain name is not exploited so there’s No website on it it’s going to have a Page that tells you that it’s for sale Or something or you can make an offer or Something like this Usually that offer is going to be in a Four or five figures range most of the
Time for two or three words uh for two Or three hours domain i would expect Something you know between Three thousand and forty thousand Dollars let’s say something like this i Got in touch with the people that had Mark webster uh just to see how calm Just to see how much it would be um and Uh they wanted i think like twenty seven Thousand dollars for it or something Like that Um i obviously didn’t buy it No Obviously but That gives you an idea of like the how These how much these these kind of uh Domains uh go for and that’s two two Words if it’s one word Uh it can be you know i’m gonna i’m Gonna buy uh gailbreton.com after this Podcast because it’s actually free 8.98 So Yeah probably i i will be registered by The time the podcast goes live so oh i Don’t mind uh but i probably should buy That who knows Um Yeah how do you do an email when you Have your name as a as the domain it’s Like gal at girl but Uh that’s Kind of like it’s too much ego here for Me you know like Hello maybe something i don’t know it’s
Not not my favorite just keep your gmail Um anyway Um The next one i had was should you Register your domain name with your Hosting on a separate registrar which um It’s an interesting question as well um Especially for newbies because most of The time when you buy cheap hosting they Kind of like sell you the domain visit And very often they give you the domain For free why because they put you on a Subscription for like you know i think Siteground charges you like 20 bucks per Year For your domain after the first year so They give you the first year for free Then they charge 20 bucks Um but really a dot-com domain costs About nine bucks per year uh to maintain On a normal registrar so they kind of Like make them their money later Uh What’s the best register to use Um now i use cloudflare actually um and So yeah but like to go back to the Original question if you’re a beginner And you don’t want to deal with tech You’re first here you can absolutely Register with your registrar um because If you’re with your registrar or with Your hosting company with your Hosting company i’m sorry Um
It’s fine basically it’s not it’s not Going to do a big difference and you can Transfer it out just make sure you can Transfer that later and you can move it To a registrar later if they overcharge You for your domain you can move out uh It’s an easy simple setup for people who Don’t want to deal with it if you’re a Little bit more advanced uh and you Don’t need to be that advanced really You can go on a separate registrar i use A cloudflare now because it’s our dns of Choice and we’re going to talk about dns In a second But namecheap is pretty good too So it’s a good idea to split it as well Because if you change hosting later Then you don’t need to Uh move your domain as well when you’re Doing this you can just uh you can keep Your domain on the registrar and move Your hosting and you only have one thing To change not two things and it’s a lot Less of a headache so my recommendation Is to split it eventually cloudflare is Actually doing it at cost now so it’s Really cool um Now when you use a registrar you get a Dns so dns is short for domain name Server that’s basically what ties the Domain name that you have so the string Of letters that your domain name is to The ip of the server where the website Is hosted so it just connects the domain
Name to the files of the website so that It loads when people put the address And so this dns resolution the servers That do that they uh how do they matter For your site performance for your site Speed actually um and there is a website Called dnsperf.com That does real-time testing of dns For to see which ones resolve the Fastest and actually cloudflare which is Free is number three in the world Actually and they’re not by much i think They have like 1.2 millisecond difference from the Number one um so it’s really good and You can get a free hosting like you can Get uh you can either register your Domains on cloudflare or you can use the Dns even if you’re on a separate um Registrar or you can even use their dns If you are on like siteground for Example which we use uh i teach that in The other side system as well i show People how to put their dns on Cloudflare because it matters for size Speed and very often registrars have Terrible terrible uh dns performance and That it’s not like going to You know make you pass cover vitals to Do that but it’s going to matter a Little bit for a resolution for each File so If it’s free you might as well use that Um so yeah that’s uh that’s that’s one
Tip that i wanted to To share Um i wanted to put more questions after As well like um i wanted to put Ourselves in the shoes of someone who Might have started the website on a bad Domain name right so what do you do if Like you start your website six months Ago you’ve built 50 links to your site And you start on a bad domain would you Start over mark Um Only if it was a uh if there was like a Real trademark threat Because okay you’ve built 50 links but You know you you go build another 150 This year and then you might get taken Away next year um so i would In that specific case i would register a Different domain and then i would 301 Uh the your current domain as you would Do with any website migration but the Fact that it’s 301 may not def Definitely but may make it less of a Yeah it’s going to be less of a chance Because you’re yeah because they’re not Going to find you as easily yeah they Need to really type it because like even Google is going to show the site you Direct to and so on so Yeah i mean in general yeah it’s like i Would if it’s really bad i would rebrand Right away But rebrand with redirect if it’s not
Really bad Probably just keep going uh it’s like It’s Probably keep going and rebrand at some Point but like maybe just you want to Think the the the name change was like a Full redesign or something like this Like you kind of want to make it kind of Like the next step of the company Something like this so like it doesn’t Always have to be immediately right now Right now you know There’s something we didn’t really touch On that’s that’s kind of relevant here As well if if you buy a 10 off the shelf Domain name it’s worth checking whether That domain name has been used Previously for for something else Uh because that there can be a lot of Risks there uh for example if it has a Dodgy link profile maybe it was used as A Spammy pbn in the past and uh And all sorts of all sorts of issues Like that so if you put it in Archive.org in the wayback machine see What it was used for before that gives You an idea you put it in ahrefs as well To find out how has had traffic before Has had links before are those links Good i just do like a very basic audit Of things before you uh you acquire it As you would with any expired domain Really um and and you can you can kind
Of avoid any potential pitfalls there as Well I actually made a blog comment in 2012 That links to Gailbreton.com because i had to put a Url in the comments so This domain has one link So i basically i’m gonna rank for Everything um but Uh yeah do check that arcade.org ahrefs Um Yeah make sure there’s no spamming History on the domain usually i mean Look if the domain has been not used for Many years I do believe that Google does have some kind of reset Going on eventually So if you really really really want you Can take that risk but know that there Is a tiny risk that it wasn’t visited Then The spam history will matter uh and the Thing as well is like There’s lots of like spam lists of like Spammy domains etc that um that Are used for example by email providers So if you start sending emails from your Site et cetera like it might become an Issue even if google doesn’t care that Much about it so it’s a little bit uh Dodgy to use a domain that has done bad Stuff in the past it is a risk i Probably better brainstorm something
Else but uh if it’s been like dead for a Long long time it might be lost or Skipped that branding is really good i Would say Um so yeah that’s pretty much that um Same if you want to i put if you want to Buy a site on a bad domain name so if You want to buy the site on that domain Name same thing um consider rebranding Usually that’s kind of like You know if i was buying a site i Probably want to usually i hate the tech The way it’s built so i would probably Rebuild it and rebrand at the same time While keeping all the urls of the pages So that i can maintain the rankings um So do that and it’s going it might it Might give you a nice boost or yeah That’s what i would do basically Um It’s another reason it’s another reason Here why it’s important to pick a a good Domain name because it can affect the Sales process right yeah if there’s a Trademark issue trademark threat there You’re so funny um You may not even be able to sell it in Some cases So yeah you have to be really careful Yeah i agree it’s dangerous uh it’s hard To exit you put something about premium Domains Yeah so i guess this is the same point Before where sometimes you search for a
Domain name and it’s available on Godaddy or whoever but there it’s rather Than ten bucks it’s a thousand bucks or Two thousand bucks I’m not sure exactly how they decide What these are sometimes i think they Can be uh domains that were used Previously for something else but Sometimes they’re just like shorter Goods often two two words names And uh yeah it’s just a thousand dollars For the first year Um or just to buy it and then it’s just Ten ten bucks a month Normally for like a beginner especially I really wouldn’t recommend um doing This we’ve done it once and we we never Did anything with the site um in in the End so probably wasn’t worth it we made Which side it was It was the the finance one um and we Haven’t done anything with it yet but we We may at some point uh Yeah don’t you remember it was like the End of the tax year and it was like oh This is available we should do something With it i don’t remember but that sounds Like a terrible idea like many of our Ideas um But thank you you made the mistakes so You don’t have to yeah exactly uh now Let’s talk about expired domains um so That that is an interesting one expired Domains like 90 you you’re really going
To find something that has a great link Profile And a great branding slash angle etc Because oh it’s going to be extremely Expensive like prohibitively expensive To the point where they’re like well why Don’t i just pay link building agency to Link build a 10 dollar domain you know And that’s probably cheaper um And so i would probably follow the same Strategy that i mentioned so if you Started a site with a bad domain but the Difference is that expired domains i Tend to like the idea of reviving them On the original domain at the beginning So google kind of like brings some life Back to the organic traffic starts Ranking them again et cetera because Usually they get no traffic Um And i’m talking about like a yeah a year And a half like some time you know like You probably want to run the site for Like some time Right as a normal site even if the Domain is a bit crap uh build a couple Things but if you are buying spyderman You already have links so it’s more About building a quality site putting Content regularly showing You know showing google is a good site Basically and later we brand it so buy a 10 dollar domain that you will rebrand To
Move the whole site to that new domain Uh wildcat 301 redirect so that you know Every url maintains its slug Uh when you throw one And Use the new brand that is going to be Much better higher quality swap your Logo and that’s it so that’s one of the Cases where we probably not Rebrand at the same time as i change the Design because Uh you probably need a design to Revive the site so do it at that point But do it in my with the Maybe you can buy the tender domain at The same time as you buy the expired Domain and you do the branding so that You they can you know fit well together So that’s that’s how you handle expired Domains they’re a good idea you can rank Really significantly faster buying Expired domains i have videos on youtube Talking about you know how to find them What to look for them etc so i’m not Gonna go over that we’re just gonna put A card probably this way this way i Don’t know you choose um and uh and you Guys can check about that but yeah uh You will really rarely find expired Domains with good branding and you will Need to deal with it pretty much you Want to say something Okay so you were raising your hand in a Weird way i think you were showing the
Card as well um Anyway just trying to i was just trying To figure out which side it was if it Was like i think it’s it’s your your Left is the the youtube’s right so Yeah okay It’s confusing it’s like because i’m Doing it the same way i see it on the Screen but it’s kind of like the Opposite never mind never mind any final Words of wisdom No Okay well that is how we pick domain Names thank you for listening guys we Will see you in two weeks for another Episode of the podcast if you liked it Don’t forget subscribe like bell Comments everything we check it all so Thank you very much and we will see you In twix bye [Music] [Music] You