There’s no doubt that buying expired domains in Hong Kong can have huge SEO benefit.
I’ve blogged before regarding buying a Hong Kong domain and the difference between a .com.hk or .hk but in this post I want to let you into a little secret…
Buying Expired Domains In Hong Kong
Contents
The great thing about buying expired domains is that they very often have existing links and a history that can really help your digital marketing efforts.
In fact, when I set out to get high rankings for keywords like Hong Kong SEO or SEO HK, I was able to do so by acquiring some really excellent expired domains that had a fantastic backlink profile.
Jargon: “Backlink” is a link from another site to yours.
Does it matter is a domain has expired?
Yes, and no – and the answer that every SEO will give you is that, as ever in the world of SEO, it depends!
Very often, when a domain expires then you’re out of gas – Google can re-score that domain and mark it as a “zero”; it can view the domain as “under new management” if it is relaunched.
However, that’s now always the case…
An expired domain, with an excellent backlink profile, can be resurrected as long as:
- It was never used for spam;
- It is re-published ASAP followings its’ dropped status;
- The original content is re-published ASAP, (i.e. “immediately”);
- and – perhaps most importantly – it is niche-relevant…
As long as the domain is clean and you follow the points listed above you might be able to snag a solid domain.
The first things I look for when buying an expired Hong Kong domain is that it has a solid backlink profile.
I’d say that I buy a domain every month in Hong Kong; and if I do then it will be because it has two or more excellent high DA backlinks.
How to benefit from a dropped domain?
In summary to the above, there are really two ways:
- Redirecting the entire domain to your main site (using “301 Redirect” code), or;
- Republishing the entire site with links going back to your main money site
For #1 you’d need a developer to do this – and it is a very simple task to do, and for #2 you’d need to either outsource this project or if you want to do it yourself then search for videos on YouTube on how to bring a site back from archive.org using the “Way Back Machine”.
Here’s an excellent video from expert SEO Craig Campbell – who incidentally is one of the best SEO’s that I follow.
What Makes Buying (Expired) Hong Kong Domains Unique?
It’s simple.
The answer is that you need to have Hong Kong ID.
That means that if you are not a Hong Kong resident or not holding a work-visa of some description then you’re out of luck.
So, the awesome thing is that the competition to buy expired Hong Kong domains is very limited.
The population of Hong Kong hovers around 7.5 million and trust me – very few people are buying dropped Hong Kong domains.
Buying Expired Domains Is Very Competitive
There are many shrewd and smart domain buyers snapping up high-quality expired (dropped) domains every day; because for the reasons I’ve mentioned, buying expired domains can be part of your overall SEO strategy.
However, buying Hong Kong expired domains is not only easy but there’s significantly less competition.
In fact, I’d argue that there’s only really a handful of us doing this in Hong Kong.
The reason why I feel that is because I rarely miss an opportunity to buy a dropped domain that I want
As stated however, you need Hong Kong ID to buy a HK Domain so there’s clearly a “Barrier To Entry”. This can be golden, and I can attest to this because I’ve bought expired domains with excellent backlink profiles in these niches:
- Petstore
- Casino
- Real Estate
- Kids Entertainment (Kids Sports)
- – and a bunch of other mini-niches
Some of the backlinks come from high DA (“Domain Authority”) sites like Forbes, WebMD, SCMP.com and plenty of other local sites.
The Downside…
Yes, there is one major downside to this “exclusive” barrier to entry…
Once you bring a website back from the dead or redirect the SEO backlink juice over to your main site you might not see vast traffic coming over….why? Because the Hong Kong market is very small compared to the United States or the EU.
If you want to dominate local Hong Kong SEO search then sure – what I am saying here in this post is a solid strategy and I can prove that it works, however will it help you international SEO? Probably a decent amount, but I am of the opinion that when Google sees a local cTLD it tends to place the SERPs in that local catchment area.
Either ways – good luck with it and if you ever need help with this please feel free to reach out to me anytime.