Domain Name Scams

So, you want to buy a second hand domain name, What sneaky things can the seller have done to increase its saleability to you? Generally this revolves around the amount of traffic it receives. If you think the domain (or website) has lots of traffic (footcount) then you will be prepared to pay more for it. Free customers is a saving in advertising costs (That's why shops in large foot count area's pay more rent - remember that a domain is akin to buying a perpetual lease).

How do you inflate visitor numbers?:

The seller could have numerous other websites pointing to the domain being sold. This increases the number of hits (traffic) on the domain, which is greater than the real intrinsic numbers that would key in your domain name on any given day. Then once they have sold the domain to you, the supporting domain traffic is gradually pulled away. Remember that a hit counter (or any counter) on any domain sales board or site can be rigged, just like a speedometer on a vehicle (except it's far easier).

The seller could just buy traffic from an advertising program like G**gle etc. This applies to websites as well. Once the domain/website has been sold they can pull the traffic away by dropping the spend on advertising.

They could show you your domain or sites ranking on the likes of alexa(dot)com. This is very subjective! The rank is only determined by users that have alexa tool bars. A large number of professional domainers have alexa toolbars. Furthermore, a domain that points to another website is ranked on alexa at the same level as the receiving site! So, it could have a very high rank compared to a stand alone basis!

Even worse is that it is possible to run scripts against you own site to increase the hits. I have had instances of a Netscape browser jumping my visit numbers by 350 on a single visit.

What can you do to cross check?:

As a buyer you can never be absolutely certain as to traffic. But you can take steps to ensure the fundamentals stack up and thus decrease your risk on acquisition.

Firstly, put the domain name word into the overture search tool (overture(dot)com) if it is a two word domain then separate it into the individual words. As an example Christmas gifts. Then knock off 3 zeros on the exact match, which should then give you some approximation to the daily type in's. According to the August numbers, I would come up with approximately 59 a day. Generally for a .net I take 10% max (I say 2% really) of the .com's number as a rule of thumb.

Daily hits above the above mentioned numbers should signal caution and extra examination. It should also be noted that there is a high degree of variability in key in's per day relative to overture numbers. Just use it as a reasonableness test.

Yes, look at alexa get a feel to where it sits. Any rank of over 100,000 is generally agreed (by most pro domainers) as "unreliable". I would be incredibly surprised if any domain by itself could achieve sub 100,000 without a proper website. In fact I'd bet on it.

Go to all the major search engine sites (G**gle msn yahoo etc) and type directly into the browser link:www.domainname(dot)com. This will bring up all the domains indexed by the search engine as linking to that domain. This will show where some, if any of the traffic is coming from. Remember, that a domain without a history (no previous website) will not have any links as no website owner would ever see the benefit. (Unless they wanted traffic count). You could also do lookups of the sites sending the traffic and see who owns them. Are they the same as the seller? Are the sites sending the links even related? Why would a pet supplier have a link to a sports car site etc?

Go to alexa(dot)com and use the way back when feature. It shows screen shots (sometimes) of its previous life. A historical site may still have backlinks from other sites that are still feeding traffic.

Always remember, that the more traffic that is received from historical links/sites or whatever increases the chances of the traffic being manipulated. Please refer to your legal advisor where necessary - This does not constitute professional advice Copyright UFO.ORG^TM (c) 2005