There’s nothing better to finish off the spooky season this year with a quick reminder to always check that new domain name you just acquired has a different past you weren’t so aware of.

We’re talking about a banned or lowly rated domain name, one that might have been used for illegal online transactions or piracy. And truth be told, unless the domain is removed from blacklists, chances are, if you try to use it, your site won’t be indexed or ranked correctly. Here are some tips for making sure you check your domain name before using it for your next site.

Check Blacklists

Name says it all. You’ll probably want to visit dnsblacklist from noc.org to run a quick check to see if the domain has ever had a shadier past and has been blocked. This will work for email too, since if the domain is listed, chances are any email coming from the domain will also be blocked.

If the domain is listed, you’re going to have to visit the providers listed and try to get the domain removed. This will be a tedious process and will take some time, which is probably a good reason you’re reading this now and not after launching that new blog.

Check The Wayback Machine

Archive.org has a cool archival tool called the wayback machine which has over the decades archived sites. You never know, your domain might have ad a previous life and been archived.

Google and Bing

Ok, so it turns out your domain does have a shady past, now what. One of the first things you’ll want to do is have it removed from Google and Bing.

• Create an account on Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

You’ll need an account to submit a removal request and prove you own the “haunted” domain. This will of course take some time, hence this article on checking a domain before using it. You’ll be able to see its past history and how to go about removing poor SEO links.

Sometimes the domain name could have been apart of something more nefarious, such as spreading malware or DMCA requests. If this becomes an issue, you might be in for a really long uphill battle. Usually but not always can the domain recover its trust/value after many years, but not always. So make sure to do due diligence on that new domain name and stay safe out there.

This article was inspired by another blog which you can find even more informal information, check out Bryan Braun’s blog post all about it.