Domain Vetting Stat Thresholds

Expired domain vetting requires evaluating multiple overlapping metrics. No single metric is sufficient — a domain that passes Trust Flow but fails IP diversity or history checks is still disqualified.

Minimum Metric Thresholds

| Metric | Minimum Threshold | Tool | |---|---|---| | Majestic Trust Flow (TF) | 15+ | Majestic | | Majestic Citation Flow (CF) | 20+ | Majestic | | TF/CF Ratio | 0.4+ (TF should be at least 40% of CF) | Majestic | | Moz Domain Authority (DA) | 20+ | Moz | | Referring Domains (RDs) | 10+ unique RDs | Ahrefs / Majestic | | Referring IPs | 8+ unique IPs (not all from same block) | Ahrefs | | Referring Subnets | 5+ unique /24 subnets | Ahrefs |

Topical Trust Flow (TTF) Requirement

The domain's TTF (Topical Trust Flow) topic must align with the target niche or be in a neutral/broadly applicable category.

Acceptable TTF categories for any niche:

Business and Industrial
News and Media
Reference (Government, Education)

Must match niche for vertical-specific PBNs:

A roofing PBN domain should score in Home, Construction, or Services
A legal PBN domain should score in Law

Disqualify if TTF is in:

Adult, Gambling, Pharmaceuticals, or Casino — regardless of other metrics

History Check Requirements

Run every candidate through Wayback Machine (web.archive.org):

Was it a real site? — not a parking page, doorway page, or empty shell
Was the original content topically relevant? — ideally related to the target niche
Was it ever penalized? — check for "This site may harm your computer" warnings in cached versions
Was it used as a PBN previously? — thin content, multiple unrelated topics, obvious templated design in prior crawls
Language/country match — if a domain previously hosted Spanish content and you're targeting English-language SERPs, the link equity may not transfer cleanly

Red Flag Checklist

Disqualify any domain with:

[ ] Spam score above 30% (Moz)
[ ] Links from adult, casino, or pharmaceutical spam domains in the backlink profile
[ ] Any prior Google penalty visible in Wayback Machine crawls
[ ] All referring domains from a single country (e.g., 90% from India = link farm history)
[ ] TF/CF ratio below 0.3 (CF far exceeds TF = artificial link profile)
[ ] Zero real backlink content — all links are from comment spam, forum spam, or link directories
[ ] Domain previously used as an exact-match keyword domain with thin pages (classic PBN pattern that was already burned)
[ ] Referring domains list includes PBNDetector.com or known public PBN lists

Valuation Scale

| Domain Profile | Recommended Use | |---|---| | TF 30+, DA 30+, 20+ RDs, clean history, niche-relevant TTF | Tier 1 PBN — link directly to money site | | TF 20-30, DA 20-30, 10-20 RDs, clean history | Tier 1 PBN — lower-competition niches or Tier 2 support | | TF 15-20, DA 15-20, 10+ RDs, neutral history | Tier 2 PBN — links to Tier 1 properties | | TF under 15, any red flags | Reject — cost of building and monitoring exceeds benefit |

Cost Benchmarks

| Source | Expected Cost Range | Quality Expectation | |---|---|---| | GoDaddy Auctions | $10-200 | Variable — requires vetting | | Spamzilla | $50-500 | Pre-filtered, higher quality average | | NameJet | $100-1000+ | Competitive, often clean history | | Direct buy (owner) | Negotiable | Best for niche-specific domains |

Always vet before buying regardless of source — no platform guarantees link profile quality.

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