Checking a Domain's History

[turtle]

So since I'm still fairly new to the SEO game, I have a question regarding buying and checking a Domain's History.
I'm currently in the process of getting a niche site up and running. Along the way I found a Domain that is for sale. Now I thought it would be wise to get an existing one and jump the sandbox. However I'm not sure if it's worth it or better said if it's clean and good to go. The Domain itself contains two KWs from my niche (don't care about EMD but why not...) and costs 100$. The Domain was originally registered on Jan 2012.

Here are some screenshots from my research:

MOZ Report for the Homepage

MOZ Report for a Subpage

Ahrefs Report. The Anchor Tags look clean. 45% used as the raw domain

Majestic

Looking at archive.org, the Site hasn't changed much in those 4 years besides getting a few more articles.

I'm aware that those aren't amazing stats, but the question is if it's worth the 100 bucks or I should just register a new one. Am I missing anything?

 

[backwoods]

As far as metrics, you can purchase expired or closeout domains all day long that are 10+yrs old with much better authority than that.

 

[Calamari]

Definitely not worth $100. You can get much better metrics than that for around that price.

Shop around for a couple weeks at least to get a better idea of what $100 will buy you in your niche.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Check the build history in as many time ranges to see if it was in a PBN or Viagra site. If it was that can still be okay. Use: https://archive.org/web/

Go to Google and run two searches:

site:domain.com
info:domain.com

"Site" is to see if its indexed if it should be. "Info" is to see if it's got any other domain 301'd at it to help fake out any metrics. The most powerful domain will show.

Otherwise you're covering the rest of the bases. If it won't index or rank after that, register it in WMT and send in a reconsideration request. You'll get a notice in a few days if there's a manual action for cloaking or anything else and can say honestly that you bought it and did the best you could to make sure it was clean. They usually will fix it within 24 hours.

 

[turtle]

@Ryuzaki I did run the two searches. Seems to be clean from redirections and indexed.

I'm still debating if I should take it or not. The owner seems to hold at the price and according to you guys it's not worth the 100$. The only real reason to get it is the domain age.

 

[Steve Brownlie]

Shop around for a couple weeks at least to get a better idea of what $100 will buy you in your niche.

^ this.

I think the 'value' you get really ramps up the more you spend too. Like if you look at the metrics for $350 on http://yourmaindomain.com/ (I bought one here once years ago for 299 on behalf of a former client that was a beast - insta 100 subs/day after we added content for him) they are pretty high.

Obviously for someone with a mediocre domain there's kinda a 'minimum' price they'd bother selling it for which may or may not be what you'd ever want to pay.

Now I'm not saying go buy a more expensive one on YMD, I just mean follow @Calamari's advice and really dig in, get a list of prices/strengths down so you know the market. THEN you'll have an easy decision.

 

[Georgie Casey]

check it out on domaintools as well for past owners, past servers. i've an account if you wanna use it. is taht done on this site? sharing accounts like domaintools, majestic, etc.

 

[Ryuzaki]

check it out on domaintools as well for past owners, past servers. i've an account if you wanna use it. is taht done on this site? sharing accounts like domaintools, majestic, etc.

One-time checks are fine. We don't support or allow gathering members for group buys. Every builder, whether a member of BuSo or not, deserves to be paid for their work, especially by those who are finding repetitive use for it.

 

[Golan]

The metrics don't tell you shit. Only backlinks do tell you what the domain is worth. So instead of the numbers, give us a screenshot of referring domains.

And speaking of numbers, you should measure them twice : with www and without. Only DA will be the same; while PA, TF, and CF will be most probably different.

 

[yuckystuff]

The people saying the domain isn't worth $100 based on the metrics are right, but if the domain itself is good or memorable or brandable or whatever, then $100 isn't much at all.