Youdot interviews Solidnames about expired domain names

Youdot invited Solidnames to its blog to assess the legal risks of recovering expired domain names (not renewed by their holders).

Youdot is a company specializing in the recovery of expired domain names. When a domain name is not renewed by its owner, it becomes available. Buying a formerly registered domain name is possible after a period called the “redemption period”, which follows the expiration date.

In this context, companies such as Youdot, known as “namecatchers”, immediately register domain names of interest as soon as they become available.
This process of ensuring that expired domain names fall back into the public domain is also known as “backordering”, “snap” or “dropcatching”.

Youdot recovers expired .FR domain names

To obtain an abandoned domain name, there are “namecatchers” specialized in certain Internet extensions. There are few backorder services for the new Internet extensions approved by ICANN. In France, Youdot (formerly Domraider) is known for its high performance in quickly registering a non-renewed domain name in the .FR domain managed by AFNIC.

Youdot also offers other country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs). For example, Youdot offers expired domain names in .EU for the European Union or .BE for Belgium.

Solidnames is one of Youdot’s customers for buying expired domain names.

Expired domain name backlinks generate SEO juice

First of all, why register a domain name abandoned by its owner? Registering a free domain name (with or without hyphens) with a registrar is easy. Finding an expired domain name to create a WordPress website is a different matter.

One of the criteria for being well-referenced by search engines is popularity. This is measured by the number of backlinks to a website. It’s worth noting that the more the backlink comes from an authoritative site (e.g.: institutions, media…), the stronger the link’s power. This is why SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionals look for links as part of their “netlinking” strategy. They use tools like Majestic Seo to find out the “ndd” metrics (e.g. Trust Flow, referring domains) of an Internet domain name. Webmasters will also use Google Analytics, for example, to check the internal and external links of their home page.

An expired domain name often contains links to the old website. This is why Youdot offers its SEO tool for expired domain names.

Choosing an expired domain in compliance with trademark law

Of course, buying expired domains is useful for SEO, but you can’t do just anything. According to Jean-François POUSSARD, recovering an abandoned domain name with a well-known brand name is likely to result in a registered letter.

In an interview given to the Youdot blog, Solidnames presents the best practices for acquiring an expired domain name. More specifically, our company discusses the free tools that enable you to find out whether a trademark is already registered (e.g. INPI). Solidnames also explains how to choose a domain name that respects industrial property rights.

To find out more, read the article “Trademark law: how to choose an expired domain with peace of mind” on the Youdot blog.