Reading a domain's history: backlinks, archive, TF / CF

A domain with history can bring existing links and recognition, or old problems. The metrics in drop/expired help you tell which.

Age

How long the name has been registered, counting from its first known registration. Older is not automatically better, but a long, continuous history is a good sign.

Backlinks and referring domains

Backlinks count links pointing to the domain; referring domains count the different sites those links come from. Referring domains matter more: 1,000 links from one site are worth far less than 100 links from 100 sites.

Web archive

The first archive year and the number of snapshots show what the site looked like and for how long. Open a few snapshots before you buy:

• Was it a real site on a related topic?
• Did it turn into a spam or link-selling site near the end?
• Did it change topic several times?

Trust Flow and Citation Flow

TF (Trust Flow) estimates how trustworthy the linking sites are; CF (Citation Flow) estimates how many there are. A healthy profile has TF not far below CF. High CF with very low TF often means many low-quality links.

Other zones and search volume

If the same name is registered in many other zones, it is usually a good name. Search volume estimates how often people search for the words in it.

When a value is “—”

We never show a missing metric as 0. “—” means no data yet for that metric, which is different from “zero backlinks”. Each value carries the date it was measured; hover it to see “as of”.

Metrics are a first filter, not a verdict. Check the archive, check the links, and when in doubt, ask the agent to explain the domain: it summarizes the history and points out red flags.