Every expired domain here shows its backlinks and its referring domains as two separate numbers, next to the Domain Rating, the age and the asking price. The list is ordered by referring domains, because that is the number that decides whether the links are worth paying for.
Membership $24.50/mo billed yearly, or $49/mo. One listing unlocked free when you open an account.
| Domain | DR | Backlinks | Ref. domains | Age | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
por*****hub.io
Premium SEO domain
|
42 | 626 | 228 | 7 years | $2,400 |
|
cus*****nce.io
Technology
|
51 | 214 | 164 | 12 years | $1,800 |
The raw backlink count for each name sits next to its referring domains on the full catalogue page.
The short answer
Buying an expired domain with backlinks means buying a name that other websites already link to, so a site built on it starts with a link profile instead of earning one. The links stay with the name after purchase. The value is in how many separate real sites link to it and what the anchor text says, not in the total backlink count, which sitewide footers and spam inflate easily.
SEODomain lists a small number of hand-checked expired domains at a time, each with backlinks, referring domains, Domain Rating, first registration year and asking price public on the listing. The strongest name on the list right now has 228 referring domains across 626 backlinks according to Ahrefs. Membership costs $24.50 a month billed yearly and reveals the names, the full Ahrefs reports and a direct purchase link.
Every seller of expired domains with backlinks quotes a backlink count, because it is the big number. A domain with 20,000 backlinks sounds like an asset. Look at the referring domains and it is often four websites, each linking from every page of a template footer. Those 20,000 links carry roughly the weight of four.
Referring domains is the count of separate websites that link to the name. It is harder to inflate, it is what Google's systems weigh most heavily, and it is the number that predicts whether a site built on the domain will rank sooner than a fresh registration. A name with 150 referring domains from real publications, trade sites and a few universities is a serious head start. A name with 150 referring domains that are all expired-domain blog networks is a liability that will need a disavow file.
That is why the listings here show both numbers separately and order this page by referring domains, and why a domain does not go on the list until somebody has opened the Ahrefs report, read the linking sites and read the anchor text. The report goes to the buyer with the name, so you check the same data we did.
Separate websites linking to the name. The number to buy on. Fifty or more real ones is where a competitive-niche buyer starts looking.
Individual links, counted per page. Useful only next to the referring-domain count: a huge ratio between them means sitewide or automated links.
What the links say. Brand names, bare URLs and natural phrases are healthy. Pharmacy, casino and foreign-language commercial anchors mean the profile is burned.
These are the checks a listing has to pass before it goes into the catalogue. They are the same checks you can run on the report the moment you unlock a name.
| What to look at | Healthy profile | Walk away |
|---|---|---|
| Backlinks to referring domains ratio | A few links per referring domain. Editorial sites link once or twice. | Hundreds of links per referring domain. That is a footer, a sidebar or a bot. |
| Who is linking | Publications, trade bodies, universities, real businesses in the same topic. | Expired-domain blog networks, directories with no editors, sites in a language the old site never used. |
| Anchor text | The brand name, the bare URL, plain phrases like "this study" or "their guide". | Exact-match money keywords repeated, or pharmacy, gambling and adult terms the old site had nothing to do with. |
| Link velocity in the history | Links accumulated steadily over the years the site was alive. | Thousands of links appearing in one month, especially after the site went dark. Someone inflated it to sell. |
| Archive history | One recognisable site on one topic, then it closed. | A stretch of redirects, a casino or pharmacy site in the middle of the timeline, or a previous expired-domain rebuild. |
| Topic match | The linking pages are about what you plan to publish. | Strong links about an unrelated subject. They pass less, and repurposing an unrelated name for rankings is the behaviour Google's expired domain abuse policy names. |
Backlinks, referring domains, DR, first registration year and the asking price are public on every listing. Only the name is masked.
Membership reveals the full name, the complete report with every referring domain and anchor, and the direct purchase link. Opening an account unlocks one listing free so you can read a real profile first.
The domain itself is bought separately, at the price shown, from the registrar or broker holding it. Members can also send an offer instead of paying the asking price.
The honest comparison is against the alternative, which is registering a fresh name and earning or buying the same number of links one at a time. Editorial placements are priced per link and take weeks each to arrange. A domain that already has 100 real referring domains hands you the whole profile on the day you buy it, usually for less than a fraction of those placements would cost, and it comes with a crawl history that gets the new site indexed faster.
What you give up is control. You did not choose the linking sites, the anchors or the topic, so the report has to be read before the money moves. That is the whole job of a curated marketplace, and it is why this page is short: names go on it after the checks, not to fill the table.
Yes. Backlinks point at the domain name, not at the owner, so every link that is still live on the linking site keeps pointing at the name after you buy it. What changes is what the links land on. Until you put pages back at the old URLs, or redirect them to matching new ones, those links hit error pages and pass less than they could.
They are when they come from real sites that linked editorially and are still live. A link from a newspaper, a university or a trade publication does not stop counting because the domain dropped. What has lost value is the other kind: links from link farms, expired-domain networks and paid placements, which is why the anchor text and the list of linking sites matter more than the total.
Count referring domains, not backlinks. A domain with 150 separate sites linking to it is stronger than one with 20,000 links from four sites, because the second profile is almost always sitewide footers or spam. For a competitive niche, buyers usually look for 50 or more real referring domains. For a local or small site, 20 to 40 good ones is plenty.
A backlink is one link from one page. A referring domain is one website that links to you, however many links it contains. One site with a sitewide footer link creates thousands of backlinks and one referring domain. Ranking value comes mostly from the number and quality of referring domains, which is why every listing here shows both numbers side by side.
You can, and it works when the old site and the new one are about the same thing, redirected page to matching page. Redirecting an unrelated domain at your site purely for its links is the behaviour Google describes in its expired domain abuse policy, and in practice it passes little. Buy a domain in your topic and rebuild or redirect it page by page.
A checked expired domain with a clean history and 50 or more real referring domains commonly sells for four figures on a curated marketplace, and the price on each listing here is the asking price rather than a starting bid. Compare that against buying the same number of editorial placements one at a time, and the domain is usually the cheaper route to the same link profile.
Open the backlink report and read four things: the list of referring domains and whether they are real publications, the anchor text and whether it reads like normal editorial linking, how many links are still live, and whether the linking pages are in the language and country you sell to. Every listing here shows the referring-domain count in the open and hands over the full Ahrefs report with the name.
Open an account and you can reveal one listing, every referring domain and anchor included, and send one offer without paying. If the profile is what you expected, membership is $24.50 a month billed yearly.
Also worth reading: buy high DA domains, buy aged domains, expired domains with traffic, what an expired domain should cost and the Odys Global alternative comparison.