When was the last time that you purchased a domain name and looked at how many indexed pages the domain name had? I would bet that many never even thought about looking at that number. Although many domain names do not have indexed pages as a lot of domain names were never developed,  a lot of today’s expired or expiring domain named were developed sites at some point.

Expired domain names that have traffic will almost always sell for more than a domain name that doesn’t. Clearly keywords in the domain will help with a higher sales price but "traffic" related domains can also grab a high price at auction as well. Now there are several ways a domain name get’s traffic:

1. Direct Navigation
2. Links

Those are the two main sources of traffic to any domain name. Direct Navigation is clear cut! People simply type the domain name into an address bar for one reason or another. It could be a commercial they saw, an ad in a magazine or a site they think will provide what they are looking for.

Links is a whole different story. I consider links, bookmarks, a link placed on a different site. A link on a different site can be in many ways but search engine listings are links as well. Since search engines get the most traffic, they are also the most likely places to drive traffic for a web page that is indexed based on keywords the searcher is looking for. The more a specific domain name is indexed, the more likely somebody is going to find an indexed page and may click on it. If clicked, this brings traffic to the domain name that holds the indexed page.

With any link to a domain name, it can go away really at any time! A webmaster may simply remove a link, somebody may remove a bookmark and a search engine can remove an indexed page.

One thing that I have noticed with at least Google (the most popular search engine with a 70%+ market share) is they have a hard time detecting Partner Domains that change hands (sell). If a domain name expires and is removed from the registry, Google detects this and will remove any indexed pages. With partner domains, they do not get removed from the registry and hold the domain age creation date. Google has a harder time detecting this and if a web page (actual website, parking etc) is placed on that domain, the majority of indexed pages stay put in the search engine.

These indexed pages often lead to instant traffic to a domain name that you purchase if they happen to have indexed pages.

The biggest problem for domain investors or even domain name buyers, they really do not always think to look at the number of indexed pages a domain name has! I think this is a very big oversight! It can be hard for the average person to even tell if a domain is indexed or how many indexed pages there are for a specific domain.

It’s easy really. In a search engines search box, simply use this:

site:yourdomainhere.com (all together)

The results number shown are the amount of indexed pages for the specific search engine you are looking at. Each search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, MSN etc) will hold a different number because each search engine works a little different.

One of the hardest things about these indexed pages, you can not tell the quality of them besides what you can see when you do your search for the amount. Some may be in a different language. Some will basically repeat. You want ones that are all different, hold basically the same keyword(s). The more, the better and also the more likely they will get some traffic.

How do you tell "Where" and for "what" the domain names indexed pages are. This is something that really can not be done before you own the domain name. You can do some keyword searches in the search engine and see if they rank higher but that can take for ever! The easiest way to find this out, is using Google Webmasters Tool but you have to add code into the Head section of your site. It’s something worth doing if you are developing the domain that has indexed pages already but it’s not something you can do before you make your purchase. The webmasters tool will show you where your popular indexed pages are (rank position).

So what tools are available to help you find domain names with indexed pages? I am not aware of many, but I am aware that Freshdrop.net offers the metric. They provide Google Indexed pages under the tab GIDX.

Now do not get super excited because you see a domain with xx,xxx indexed pages and go and purchase it base on that alone! Even though Freshdrop provides this metric, it’s one that I still Manually check because the number is almost always a lot lower then shown on Freshdrop. Plus, you need to see the indexed pages and inspect the keywords used in the indexed pages. Use the GIDX numbers as a baseline to simply point out the domain to you. Do not set that GIDX number in stone. It’s important that the indexed pages all have a main focus and you need to manually check this with using site:yourdomainhere.com .

As I said, do not only purchase the domain based on indexed pages alone. I always use Compete.com to back up these indexed pages to see if the domain is getting some traffic. You can also use Alexa.com as a guide and be sure to manually check the indexed pages.

I often purchase domains at Godaddy Auctions using this. I have domains that I have owned for 3 years that still hold the indexed pages they had when I first purchased them, so don’t let people say… "they will lose the indexed pages". It’s not true all the time! Some will lose some indexed pages, some may lose most pages but I haven’t had this happen with the domains that I purchased based on the indexed pages and my educated guess if they will get some traffic or not. Be sure the domain is a Partner Domain or owned by somebody already and will be removed from the registry.

Start small, buying some Firesale domains where your risk is lower at around $15. If you can park that domain name and make $15 +, you earn a profit! Many of these are not huge traffic domains, but I have several that get 300-500 hits a month and make a couple bucks each month. I even have one that makes $100+ a month during the summer based on it’s keyword and it’s a .org!

Indexed pages can and do produce traffic, but if you are not looking at indexed page, you may simply be missing domain names with traffic. Do not put "trust" in all the tools that estimate traffic, because most miss the indexed page factor. If you are buying a domain name from Somebody, be sure to check for indexed pages and try to find out what keywords they rank for. If the domain you are buying has a high SERP for a popular search term, that is added value to the domain.

Fun Fact: This article contains: 1223 words