How to check a domain name before you buy it (or link to it)
A domain name has a life before you. It may have hosted a real site, a spam site, a shady redirect… or nothing at all. Before registering a domain, buying one back or linking to it, a five-point domain name check avoids bad surprises: availability, WHOIS, history, reputation and authority.
Test a domain now:
1. Is the domain available, active or expiring?
The first step is the WHOIS, now replaced by the RDAP protocol. It tells you whether the name is registered, its creation date, its expiry date, the registrar and above all its statuses. A domain in redemptionPeriod or pendingDelete is expiring: it will be available again within weeks. DomaineScore shows this status at the top of every report; for these data alone, a free WHOIS lookup is enough.
2. What is the history of the domain name?
Public web archives keep snapshots of most sites since 1996. Look at the number of archived years, the gaps and the content of the snapshots: an English site that turned Chinese or Russian for two years, "casino", "online pharmacy" or counterfeit pages are signs of a spammed domain. Our guide to a domain name's history explains how to read the archives.
3. Is the domain blacklisted?
A domain listed on an email blocklist or flagged by browsers will have its emails rejected, warnings in the browser and poorer indexing. The check is a simple DNS query; DomaineScore runs it for you and sets this criterion to zero when the domain is listed. See blacklisted domain: what to do?
4. What authority and what link profile?
Domain authority (PageRank, Domain Authority, Domain Rating…) measures the quantity and quality of inbound links. But the number alone is misleading: thousands of links from Russian forums with "viagra" anchors give artificial authority and a high spam score. You have to read the anchors and the countries the links come from. Details in how to check a domain's backlinks.
5. Does the domain resolve correctly (DNS)?
A DNS lookup shows whether the domain points to a real server, to a parking page or nowhere. MX and SPF records show whether email is set up, a sign of real use; the SPF, DKIM and DMARC checker reads them in detail.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check a domain name for free?
Type the domain in DomaineScore: the tool cross-checks WHOIS, DNS, web archives, blocklists, link profile and authority, then sums everything up in a score from 0 to 100. Free, no sign-up.
How do I find the creation date of a domain name?
The creation date is in the domain's WHOIS (RDAP). It is shown in every DomaineScore report, with the expiry date and the registrar.
Is checking a domain the same as checking if a website is legit?
Not quite: whether an online shop can be trusted also depends on reviews, legal information and payment. But a blacklisted, very recent or toxic-history domain is a first strong warning sign; the <a href="/en/is-this-website-legit">website legitimacy check</a> gathers these signals.