Few Tips after Buying an Aftermarket Domain (Dropped, Expired or from Previous Owner)

By: Raymond Hackney

Lennco a member at Namepros wrote a very nice How To post, and I asked him for his permission to post it here.

I don't know how many of you do these things but these are some things I always do immediately after acquiring a new domain from the Aftermarket (Dropped, Expired or Previous Owner)
I recommended doing these steps only if you plan on pushing your new domain immediately after acquiring it.

This first thing I always do is clean up the old Google Index and Cached pages.
Personally I don't like to start pushing a domain that has old pages indexed like Expired Godaddy pages or the previous owners old website. 
These will sooner or later be updated naturally but sometimes that can take up to a couple of months and I don't want potential buyers to Google the domain I am selling and see an old indexed or cached page. (you may still find old pages on the Wayback Machine but few buyers may know about that)

So all you have to do is this

1. Go to the Google Public URL Removal Tool.
2. Click New Removal Request.
3. Type the URL of the webpage that's been changed (not the Google search results URL or cached page URL). The URL is case-sensitive—use exactly the same characters and capitalization that the site uses. How to find the right URL.
4. Click Continue.
5. Type a word that appears on the out-of-date cached version of the page (I usually type expired if its an expired page), but not anywhere on the live version. This is to help Google understand that the page has changed.
6. Click Remove Cache.

The Google Indexed and Cached pages should be cleared in about 3 hours and not 2 months 

Next I always check out Screenshots.com and check to see what is the most current screenshot of my new domain is.
Sometimes there will be no screenshot and thats good, but if you see that there is a current screenshot and its a shot that you may not like (Expired Godaddy Page) all you have to do is Click "queue screenshot for update" on lower right hand side and in anywhere from a few hourse to a couple of days there will be a new screenshot of your domain (most likely your parked page) now keep in mind all screenshots will be on there forever.
The reason why I do this is because DomainTools.com likes to display the most recent screenshot of your domain and a buyer may use DomainTools to search out your Whois info. DomainTools will automatically update your screenshot a few days.

The last thing I do is check to see if there is an old selling price listed for my domain at DomainTools.com and at Screenshots.com along with a few other sites.
If you do see an old selling price listed for your domain at DomainTools it will most likely update automatically after a while if you have it listed for sale at Godaddy or Sedo, but I have found that if you list a Buy Now price at Godaddy or Sedo that DomainTools and Screenshots will update the listed price a lot faster, in about 2 days.
So this way your buyer wont see he previous owners old selling price.

So that's it, Good Luck 

I want to thank Len for the article as I think its very helpful for those looking to clean slate a new domain acquistion.