– The intercepted domain may have a positive impact on the website positioning process.
– Before using the captured domain, check its history carefully.
– Capturing domains can be used not only to create the main website on them, but also, for example, a good background supporting the SEO of the main portals.

But let’s start by explaining what the domain itself is. This concept covers the most important element of a web address, containing the name of the website and the extension, or the ending. Let’s show it on a specific example. At https://www.paraphrase-online.com/, the domain name is part of paraphrase-online.com, where “paraphrase-online” is the page name and “.com” is the extension.

Buying domains – what is it about?

If we want to run any website on the Internet, we first have to buy a domain – this way we get a unique address where users will be able to find our content. Then such a domain should be paid regularly, because if we do not do it, it returns to the secondary market and someone else may take it. Buying unpaid and expired domains is called domain capturing.

Capturing domains – why do it?

The question automatically arises, why capture a domain, if you can buy a completely new one, on which there was no website before. This is a beneficial process for a variety of reasons. In some cases, you may find that your preferred domain name is already taken and the only way to get it is to wait for it to be released. You can also capture domains with a name very similar to ours, if the customers are wrong and find someone else’s site (e.g. when they differ only with the extension .com -> .co.uk, com.au, co.in, com.ph). Then, on the intercepted domain, we can create a permanent redirect to our website to avoid mistakes among users. Most often, however, domains are captured due to website positioning, i.e. SEO activities.

Captured domains and SEO

So the question remains why it is worth using “reclaimed” domains to position your website. Well, older domains already have a specific opinion in search engine algorithms. Web robots have already scanned a given domain, sometimes for many years, so by buying it, we can benefit from what someone else has achieved in the context of positioning. How? First of all, we can set up our own website on the captured domain. Then we don’t start building a reputation from scratch, but use the power that the previous site had. Of course, this works well in cases where the page on the expiring domain was thematically related to the one we intend to run.

Another way to use captured domains is to treat them as backend pages. If we set up a portal on an expired domain with topics similar to the one that dominated on the old website, there is a chance that traffic will remain at a similar level. Of course, it takes a lot of patience and effort to maintain it. We should create SEO-optimized content and regularly take care of the website so that its rating obtained by Google robots does not drop after interception. However, if we manage to keep the traffic going, we have an excellent backend. We can place an article on it with a link to our main page – the one we want to position – in this way, we provide the website with a valuable external link.

However, it is worth remembering that intercepted domains should be used carefully. A few years ago, they were used to place dozens or even hundreds of links, so that the positioned pages had the most extensive link profile. Today, such practices are no longer effective, and can even harm the website. Therefore, it is much more profitable to put one good quality link than to clutter the back pages with links, because then their value quickly becomes zero.

Capturing domains – is it worth it?

The intercepted domains can therefore pass some of their power to the positioned website. But do they always work so well? Unfortunately, it is not so rosy. First of all, the pages may not have had as much traffic as we thought. Therefore, before capturing a domain, it is worth checking it with SEO tools such as Semstorm, Senuto or Ahrefs. In this way, we can make sure that the domain is really well visible on the web, has satisfactory traffic and a good link profile that the search engine algorithms consider it valuable. Another thing that needs to be checked is the history of the domain in question. You can check it with the Wayback Machine website which saves and stores screenshots of websites from different time periods. Thanks to it, you can check what was on the site in the past.

One of the company’s potential customers found out about the importance of checking what a given site previously hid. It came to us with a big problem – despite many efforts and SEO activities, its website was practically invisible in the search results. After we checked the site, it turned out that it was set up on a domain that previously contained pornographic content. Therefore, the site was banned by the google algorithm, and although the new content was completely different, the domain’s opinion was so weak that the positioning did not work.

On the other hand, it is often possible to buy domains with a long and very good history in the secondary market for a song, thanks to which we can quickly strengthen our own site. So you can answer the question from the header: Capturing domains may be worthwhile, but you need to double-check it before you buy it.

How to capture domains?

Manually tracking domains that have been released or are about to expire is not feasible, so companies have sprung up to capture domains and resell them to other users. They have special scripts that search for such domains and buy them even in a fraction of a second after they are released. Therefore, it is through them that it is best to buy high-quality “used” domains. On the websites of such companies, you can view the list of available domains and a list of those that are expiring soon and will be available for sale.

How much does domain hijacking cost?

The domain interception service itself is not expensive – it usually costs several dozen dollars. However, the situation is different when we want to buy an already captured domain. These are put up at auctions and their price depends both on the attractiveness of the domain itself and the interest of users. Some addresses can be obtained for just one dollar, the price of others increases to several hundred or even several thousand dollars. The most attractive domains can cost even tens of thousands of dollars. So as in most cases – when asked about the price, you can answer “it depends”. First of all, whether anyone else is interested in taking over the domain. However, if we hunt for extremely tasty morsels, we must take into account that we will take part in a fierce auction.

The most effective advertising for big players

The programmatic campaign was carried out in April this year and lasted a month. Our client has just introduced a new product to the market, so the main goal was to achieve the widest possible reach of advertisements to reach the largest possible group of potential customers. At the same time, however, we did not want to lose quality, so the campaign was to be visible mainly on high-quality portals that were very popular among Internet users. We have been cooperating with our client for a long time, creating other types of campaigns, so we knew his recipient profile, which made it easier for us to choose the means to achieve the set goal.

We decided that the best solution for the client would be to use video ads published on YouTube and in places automatically purchased by the Programmatic system as part of Open Auctions. We supplemented these activities with the Display campaign, using, among others, the Rich Media (Parallax) creation, whose advanced functions increase the possibilities of interaction with the recipient. We also decided to use animated HTML5 banners, which draw the attention of a typical user much better than traditional ones. What effect did the chosen strategy bring? In a month, it managed to reach 22,823,700 views in the most attractive advertising spaces on the Internet.

When it comes to impressions, the natural question may arise as to whether the ad was actually spotted and worked. After all, the creations could appear in a place where the user will not notice them, or they could be scrolled so quickly that it was impossible to register the message. To avoid such doubts, the viewability parameter was created, which determines what percentage of displayed ads was most likely actually seen by the recipient. In the case of the discussed campaign, viewability was at the level of 89%, which means that almost every display was related to the achievement of the assumed goal.

The best surfaces at optimal prices

But let’s move on to a more detailed campaign analysis. As the main goal of advertising was to familiarize as many potential customers as possible with the new product, we focused on different formats and different environments – this maximized the chance of achieving the expected reach. Different activities in different systems and display places, however, always carry the risk of burning through the budget. In optimization activities, we focused mainly on minimizing the cost of impressions without losing their number and, of course, the quality of placements for advertising. We also set a common capping for all formats, i.e. the maximum number of ad impressions per day per user. Thanks to this, it was possible to avoid unnecessary expenses on repeating the message to recipients familiar with it, and thus reach a greater number of new potential customers.

We also took care to exclude low-quality placements on an ongoing basis, which allowed us to maintain high-quality broadcasts throughout the campaign. As a result, the ad was most often displayed in such recognizable and prestigious placements.

Of course, we also paid attention to brand safety, i.e. securing the brand’s reputation. Throughout the campaign, we made sure that advertisements did not appear on websites rich in controversial content or in provocative contexts that could harm the client’s image.

Programmatic campaign costs

The entire month of the campaign is also the work of both our specialists and self-learning algorithms on issues such as budget relocations and bid optimization to achieve maximum reach within the assumed budget. As a result, we significantly reduced the costs of the campaign – a single impression averaged 2 cents for open auctions in Programmatic and 3 cents for the YouTube platform.

– Average CPV Video total: $ 0.03,
– CPV Programmatic Average Open Auctions: $ 0.02,
– YouTube average CPV $ 0.03.

In the case of CPM rates, i.e. per thousand ad impressions, the costs were as follows:

– Average CPM total: $ 3.66,
– YouTube average CPM $ 12.7,
– Average CPM Programmatic Video open auctions $ 3.90,
– CPM Display Programmatic average open auctions $ 2.21.

The total cost of the campaign was $ 83,500 and allowed to reach almost 23 million views. So optimizing your bids resulted in a number of impressions close to the population of Texas. Of course, this does not mean that so many people saw the client’s advertising creations, as promotional videos and banners could be displayed several times to the same users. Still, this is the reach that has significantly helped raise awareness of both the brand and the new product.

It should not be forgotten that Programmatic is an advanced system that collects huge amounts of data about Internet users in order to display advertisements only to those who are likely to be interested in the offer. This is a significant advantage over television or outdoor campaigns, in the case of which we have very little influence on the selection of the target group, and thus the final result of activities.