What Is An Expired Domain?

Source: Seobility

Date First Published: 22nd January 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Identifiers

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 5/10

CONTENTS

Why Do Domain Names Expire?
What Happens When Domain Names Expire?
Benefits and Risks In Registering Expired Domain Names

Learn about what an expired domain is in this article.

An expired domain, also known as a dropped domain, is a domain name that has been registered by someone, but hasn't been renewed before its expiry date. When a domain name expires, the website will stop functioning and the registrant will be unable to alter any of the settings of the domain name. When users visit the domain name in their web browser, it may show a parking page that only contains ads or a notice that says the domain has expired. Expired domains can be renewed by the registrant, but it is a much better choice to renew their domain name before its expiry date.

The registrant has a responsibility to renew their domain name before it expires. Most domain registrars send registrants an automatic email alert that their domain is about to expire.

Note:

Anyone can see the expiry date of a domain name by performing a WHOIS lookup on this site.

Why Do Domain Names Expire?

There are so many reasons why domain names can expire. Domain names can either expire on purpose if the owner chooses to close their business or no longer needs the domain name. Domain names can accidentally expire if the owner forgets to renew their domain name registration or doesn't pay their renewal fee. Most domain registrars have measures in place to prevent owners from forgetting to renew their domain name registrations, like auto-renewals and email reminders.

What Happens When Domain Names Expire?

After the expiry date, the domain name enters a grace period. The grace period is the time when the registrant can still renew their domain name at the normal price without paying any additional fees. The length of the grace period can be as short as a week to as long as a whole year. For example, the grace period of Namecheap is 27 days. Not all domain registrars have grace periods, but most well-known ones have this.

After the grace period ends, domain registrars will then offer a redemption period, usually lasting for 30 days. It is the time when the registrant can still renew their domain name, but for an additional fee on top of the renewal fee, called a redemption fee. Redemption fees are usually quite expensive. The average redemption fee for most TLDs is £70.

5 days before the redemption period ends, the domain is in 'pending delete' status. When the domain is in this status, it means that it is about to be deleted. The WHOIS record is deleted, but the domain name is not yet available to the public. If the registrant does not renew their domain after the redemption period ends, the domain may be auctioned by the registrar.

When domains are auctioned, people bid for the domain name and the highest bidder buys the domain name. Eventually, the domain name will be returned to the original registry if no one buys it. It will be released and available for others to register 70-120 days after the expiry date of the domain, depending on the TLD.

Benefits and Risks In Registering Expired Domain Names

Once domain names have expired, they are available for anyone to register. Registering domain names that have expired does come with some benefits. These include:

Increased website traffic - Registering previously expired domain names that had a lot of direct traffic, which could come from people accessing them from bookmarked links or manually typing the URL will make it easy to increase website traffic. When the domain name is reregistered, it will just display content that the new owner has put up and the location will not change.
Backlinks - Some people find expired domain names for sale with no owner, but with a long history with hundreds or thousands of backlinks. Expired domain names can still have lots of authority due to the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to the site. A 301 redirect may be used to redirect all of the link authority to another domain name to improve its authority. Redirecting the domain name might cause it to point to an unrelated website.
Reputation - Sometimes, a previously registered domain name that has expired may have a good reputation for search engines and users. Based on what the domain name was previously used for and its backlinks, expired domain names have a reputation.

However, there are also some risks in registering expired domain names. These include:

If the expired domain name has lots of low-quality backlinks pointing to it, this can increase the chances of getting penalties.
If the expired domain name has been previously used for fraudulent purposes or spam, it will have a bad reputation. This could result in a loss of trust by users and search engines if they know about it.
If the domain name was previously used for a completely different website, this can harm user signals.