Domain Evaluation Methodology
A procedural framework used to assess historical utility and backlink provenance prior to portfolio inclusion. Metrics are contextualized so buyers can distinguish durable, historically earned authority from transient or campaign-driven signals.
Registration Lineage & Utility Timeline
Every evaluation begins with the domain's registration history. We reconstruct a chronological utility timeline using WHOIS records, Wayback Machine snapshots, and DNS history to answer a single question: what was this domain actually used for, and for how long?
A domain registered in 2011 as an educational resource that maintained consistent content through 2023 presents a fundamentally different risk profile than a domain registered in the same year but parked for a decade. Both show "12 years" of age. Only one has 12 years of utility.
We document each distinct era of use—including content type, apparent operator, and topical focus—so the buyer can assess whether the accumulated link equity is grounded in legitimate activity.
Backlink Decomposition
Aggregate metrics like DA, DR, and total backlink counts are directional indicators. They are not the analysis. We decompose the full backlink profile across multiple dimensions to assess structural integrity:
Natural diversity vs. over-optimized concentration
Editorial placements, .edu/.gov links, news citations vs. non-editorial or networked placement patterns
Acquisition rate over time—steady accrual vs. sudden spikes that may indicate campaign-driven acquisition
Percentage of authority derived from a single network, hosting provider, or link source
Proportion of followed vs. nofollowed links relative to the domain's category norms
The objective is to determine whether inherited link equity reflects organic acquisition patterns or concentrated third-party placement, so historically earned authority can be assessed independently of aggregate scoring.
Risk Signal Interpretation
Spam scores from tools like Moz, Ahrefs, or SEMrush are composite indicators. A score of 14% could reflect a domain that was briefly scraped by a spam bot in 2017, or a domain that experienced concentrated third-party link placement. These are materially different situations that require different responses.
Our review process evaluates whether elevated link-risk signals reflect environmental inheritance or campaign-driven activity. Elevated link-risk signals are reviewed to determine whether they reflect environmental inheritance or campaign-driven activity.
Scrapers, crawlers, or low-quality sites that linked to the domain without the owner's involvement. Typically cosmetic and non-structural.
Residual signals introduced during prior content or promotion periods. Risk depends on volume and recency.
Indicators of campaign-driven link activity or non-editorial placement patterns. These are treated as high-risk signals during evaluation.
Every listed asset includes a spam attribution summary so elevated signals can be traced to their originating source rather than interpreted as a standalone composite score.
The Legacy Value Framework
Not all domains are equal, and not all authority is reproducible. A legacy domain—defined here as 10+ years of documented, consistent utility with a mature referring domain profile—represents a historically documented link-earning profile that differs materially from recently registered or intermittently parked domains:
Links earned over extended usage periods from diverse editorial sources form an acquisition profile distinct from recently established domains.
Provides historical topical continuity across archived usage eras.
Domains with sustained editorial or institutional backlinks (.edu, .gov, news) reflect long-term third-party citation across documented usage periods.
Often exhibit acquisition patterns associated with long-term editorial placement rather than campaign-driven link building.
This does not mean every legacy domain is superior. It means that when the historical record is clean and the link profile is structurally sound, the compounding value of time represents a defensible strategic asset.
What "Verified" Means
The verified indicator in the portfolio table reflects that an asset has completed our full evaluation pipeline at the time of listing. Specifically, it confirms:
Documented and reviewed
Decomposed and assessed for structural integrity
Link-risk signals reviewed for potential impact on rebuild or redirect deployment.
Checked for continuity and red flags
No detected crawl blockers (e.g., robots/noindex/parking responses); eligible for re-indexing following rebuild or redirect implementation.
Verification reflects completion of the documented evaluation process at the time of review.