Analysis of 48 Odys Global Domains: Where Are They Now?

Odys Global is my go-to source for finding brandable aged domains, often with links from high authority sites that are very difficult to replicate. I’ve acquired several domains from Odys that have grown into successful sites earning significant revenue.

Each week, I share interesting aged domains for sale in my Weekly Deal Flow report that is sent out each Wednesday morning to newsletter subscribers. 

For this study, I analyzed 48 Odys Global domains that were featured in the newsletter. My analysis team used AHREFs, and the Google Search API to extract relevant metrics. 

The team analyzed the following:

1. How many domains have actual sites on them
2. Average domain age, traffic, pages indexed, number of links
3. Average cost of domains and backlinks
4. And much more…

Let’s get into it!

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Summary of Key Findings

Here is the bottom-line-up-front:

• 17 of the domains have NOT been actively worked on after being purchased. “Shiny object syndrome” is at a play here where investors buy domains but do not build anything on them.
• 7 domains are still live on Odys for sale
• 2 domains in our sample have over 1,000 monthly AHREFs traffic. 42 domains have less than 100 monthly AHREFs traffic.  
• 7 domains have been 301 redirected to another site

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Summary of Key Metrics

Here are interesting independent metrics when evaluating aged domains:

1. Average cost per referring domain (dofollow) = $20.30
2. Average cost per domain rating = $169
3. Average cost per domain age = $250

Note these were calculated by taking the average cost divided by average referring domain, domain rating, or domain age.

On a referring domain basis, aged domains are still undervalued since the cost is roughly $20. In comparison, one has to pay upwards of $50 to sometimes $500 to obtain a backlink from a dofollow referring domain via guest posts and/or niche edits.

In addition, an aged domain has a value of $250 per year of age (i.e., a 10-yr old aged domain costs $2,500 on average).

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View Raw Odys Domain Data

Note: Due to Odys’ Terms of Service, the URLs have been hidden. You can still view all of the data and run your own analysis.

If you would like access to a Google Sheet with a breakdown of all of the data, check it out below:

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Average Referring Domains = 166 

The domains in our sample had an average of 166 referring domains (dofollow) and a median number of 112.5. 

This is not a very high number of links but Odys domains often have links from high authority media sites (e.g., Wikipedia, Huffington Post, New York Times) and niche relevant links.

The highest number of referring domains (dofollow) was 1,047 and the lowest was 10.

Takeaway: The main benefit of an aged domain is the backlink profile. When building from scratch, you need to factor in the time commitment to obtain backlinks which aged domains help you bypass (if done right).

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Only 2 Domains Had Over 1,000 Monthly Traffic

Just 2 domains currently have over 1,000 monthly traffic according to AHREFs. This seems like a low number, however about 24 of the domains out of 48 have not been actively worked on even after being purchased. 

42 domains have less than 100 traffic and 23 domains have 0 traffic.

A few sites show promising growth and traction with almost 100 AHREFs estimated traffic per page. For many sites, it is too early to tell whether the site will have traction in Google search results. 

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Avg. Number of Indexed Pages (Google) = 24

Using the Google Search API we gathered the number of indexed pages for each domain.  The average number of indexed pages in Google was 24 (the median was 5). 33 domains had less than 10 pages indexed in Google.

Takeaway: When evaluating an aged domain, the number of pages still in Google’s index can be an indication of the authority and viability of the domain. If almost all of the pages have fallen out of Google’s index, it may be harder to resurrect the site.

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Avg. Number of Pages (AHREFs) = 11.9

We also checked AHREFs top pages report to see how many pages are published on the domains in our sample. 

The average number of pages was 11.9 (the median number of pages was 2). A majority of the domains had very little content added so far. 

The number of pages according to AHREFs ranged from 0 to 94. 

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Average Domain Cost = $3,369 

The average list price of domains in our sample was $3,369. The highest list price was $9,990 and the lowest list price was $1,230.

The average cost per referring domain (dofollow) was $20.30. The average cost per referring domain is much less than the cost of most link building campaigns, where you do manual outreach to obtain guest posts or niche edits. 

Takeaway: There can be a good case that aged domains are undervalued at the current market prices when considering factors like the cost and time required to build a site of equivalent link authority.

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Average Domain Age = 13.5 Years

The average age of domains in our sample was 13.5 years.

The oldest domain was 26 years old. The newest domain was just 2 years old.

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Total Domains Sold = 41 (7 Domains Still Available)

As of late December 2021, 41 domains that were featured in our newsletter were sold. 7 domains were still available.

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Actively Worked On = 17 Domains Only

It is common for website builders to buy a domain with the intent to build it out, but never actually execute their plan. 

17 of the domains in our sample had been actively worked on and had set up a functioning website. Conversely, 17 of the domains have not been updated as of December 2021. The rest were 301 redirected or are still available for sale on the Odys marketplace.

Takeaway: For those who have acquired domains but are not actively working on them, Odys will soon allow members to list domains for sale on their marketplace.

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301 Redirects: 7 Domains

7 domains from this sample have used 301 redirects to existing sites (rather than rebuilding a new site on the domain). 

These included:

• 3 domains that were redirected to an informational diving site.
• A baby domain that was 301 redirected to a stroller review site.
• Someone bought 2 tattoo domains and redirected one tattoo domain to the other (one domain was priced at nearly $10,000 and the other was priced at just over $5,000).
• A fitness domain was redirected to a strong fitness affiliate site with over 15,000 monthly traffic.

Some domains were redirected to the homepage while others had pages redirected to similar or identical URLs of the existing site.

For redirects of aged domains, I recommend pointing the 301 redirects to a press release page on the existing website to explain the acquisition and link to relevant pages.

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4 Interesting Aged Domain Rebuild Examples

A few of the domains featured in the Weekly Deal Flow newsletter have been resurrected with a good amount of newly published articles with related content.

1. Tattoo Aged Domain

Two tattoo-related domains were purchased and the lower authority site was 301 redirected to the higher authority site. The main domain previously sold temporary tattoos and reached over 30,000 monthly traffic in 2017 according to AHREFs. It also had existing links from several high authority sites like Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Teen Vogue, and Pop Sugar which made it one of the more expensive listings on Odys at $9,990.

The site has about 100 tattoo-related articles published so far, however, traffic is currently low at 105 according to AHREFs.

2. Coffee Aged Domain

This site was built on a domain with over 500 referring domains but with a DR of just 9. It was previously a coffee shop in San Antonio that received several links from local media sites. 

The new owners have pivoted the content to discussing coffee products and information about making your own coffee. It has grown to over 3,000 monthly AHREFs traffic since restarting the site in early 2021.

3. Dad Blog Aged Domain

While mom blogs are a huge niche with tons of traffic, there are far fewer dad blogs and lots of potential untapped keyword opportunities. 

A parenting related domain was purchased from Odys for a list price of $2,180 and the owner added 74 pages according to AHREFs. Traffic has grown quickly to about 5,000 in just a few months, which is the kind of growth you like to see when building on an aged domain.

4. Diving Site

This newly launched site about diving has 600 dofollow referring domains and a DR of 40. It 301 redirected 3 Odys domains from our sample as well as 4 other diving-related sites.

With a top-notch site design and 23 high-quality articles published so far, this looks like a site that could grow quickly. One potential risk is that there are 7 domains redirected to this site which is higher than usual.

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Final Takeaways

Odys is my go-to marketplace because they make it really easy by vetting domains for quality and trademarks. Can you get age domains cheaper via auction? Definitely, yes. However, I personally have tried this and spent countless hours participating in auctions. My goal is to build a content website portfolio, not an aged domain portfolio so I let experts like Odys source for me.

Here are my major takeaways from this analysis:

1. Aged domains do NOT guarantee success; they take time to increase in traffic if done right
2. Many domains have nothing built on them. Niche website investors have “shiny object syndrome”
3. Average cost per referring domain (dofollow) is $20.30; thus aged domains are undervalued
4. Redirecting aged domains to existing sites is a viable strategy

Aged domains can be seen as a “tool” in your arsenal as a niche website investor. To learn more, check out our detailed review of the Odys Global marketplace and our guide to building niche sites on aged domains.