When buying an expired or dropped domain name to either launch a new website or to 301 REDIRECT to an existing website, you first need to determine if a domain name is blacklisted.
Blacklisted domains or domain names that have been tagged as being the source of spam email/content means these sites will never rank with search engines and could negatively impact your existing site.
Therefore, you SHOULD check the name against online databases that track known spam sites:
- Sucuri Site Check –sitechek.sucuri.net
- Spamhaus: A well-known database of known spam operations and malicious sites. You can check a domain by visiting the website: https://www.spamhaus.org/lookup/
- URIBL: A database of known spam operations and malicious sites. You can check a domain by visiting the website: http://www.uribl.com/
- MxToolBox – https://www.mrtoolbox.com/services/blacklist
- SiteCheckerPro – https://sitechecker.pro/blacklist-checker/
- DNSChecker – https://dnschecker.org/ip-blacklist-checker.php
For a real-time check to see if a site is malicious or not, you can use one of the following online tools:
- Google Safe Browsing: This service, provided by Google, checks URLs against a constantly updated list of known malicious sites. You can check a domain by visiting the website: https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search
- McAfee SiteAdvisor: This tool, provided by McAfee, checks sites for potential threats and provides a safety rating. You can check a domain by visiting the website: https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/threat-intelligence.domaintc.html
- Norton Safe Web: This service, provided by Norton, checks sites for potential threats and provides a safety rating. You can check a domain by visiting the website: https://safeweb.norton.com/
Unfortunately, there is no single website that tracks 100% of spam and malicious sites so you should check multiple database sources.
