Expired Domains Spider

Introduction

The Expired Domains Spider is a powerful Apify Actor designed to scrape and extract detailed information about expired domains from various sources. It provides valuable insights into domain availability, backlinks, popularity metrics, and registration status across multiple top-level domains (TLDs), making it an essential tool for domain investors, SEO professionals, and researchers. By automating the collection of this data, the Actor saves time and ensures access to up-to-date information for strategic decision-making.

Features

• Comprehensive Domain Data Extraction: Retrieves key metrics including backlinks, domain popularity, birth year, archive crawls, and DMOZ listings for each expired domain.
• Multi-TLD Status Checking: Verifies registration status for .com, .net, .org, and .de TLDs, along with counts of registered TLDs and related domains.
• High-Performance Scraping: Built on Python Scrapy for efficient, scalable crawling with configurable item limits to manage data volume.
• Reliable and Accurate Results: Ensures data integrity through robust error handling and validation, minimizing incomplete or erroneous outputs.
• Flexible Output Formats: Exports results in JSON, CSV, or Excel for easy integration into workflows or analysis tools.
• Customizable Limits: Allows users to set item limits to control the scope of scraping, optimizing for both small-scale research and large datasets.
• Real-Time Monitoring: Provides detailed logs for tracking progress and debugging during runs.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description	Example
ItemLimit	integer	No	The maximum number of expired domains to scrape and return. This helps control the volume of data extracted.	100

Example Usage

To run the Expired Domains Spider, provide the following input JSON:

{
  "ItemLimit": 50
}

This will scrape up to 50 expired domains. The output will be an array of JSON objects, such as:

[
  {
    "domain": "CheckTheWeb.info",
    "backlinks": 2200,
    "domain_pop": 1400,
    "birth_year": "2006",
    "archive_crawls": 74,
    "dmoz": "-",
    "status_com": "registered",
    "status_net": "available",
    "status_org": "available",
    "status_de": "registered",
    "tld_registered": 4,
    "related_domains": 3,
    "end_date": "2026-01-14"
  }
]

Use Cases

• Domain Investment Research: Identify high-value expired domains with strong backlinks and popularity for acquisition and resale.
• SEO and Backlink Analysis: Analyze backlink profiles and domain authority to inform link-building strategies.
• Competitive Intelligence: Monitor domain availability in competitors' niches to spot opportunities for branding or redirection.
• Market Research: Gather data on domain trends, such as birth years and archive crawls, for industry reports.
• Academic Studies: Collect datasets on domain lifecycle and TLD distribution for research in digital marketing or cybersecurity.
• Business Automation: Integrate with tools for automated domain monitoring and alerting on expiring assets.

Installation and Usage

1. Search for "Expired Domains Spider" in the Apify Store
2. Click "Try for free" or "Run"
3. Configure input parameters
4. Click "Start" to begin extraction
5. Monitor progress in the log
6. Export results in your preferred format (JSON, CSV, Excel)

Output Format

The Actor outputs an array of JSON objects, each representing an expired domain. Key fields include:

• domain: The domain name (e.g., "CheckTheWeb.info").
• backlinks: Number of backlinks pointing to the domain.
• domain_pop: Domain popularity score.
• birth_year: Year the domain was first registered.
• archive_crawls: Number of times archived by services like Wayback Machine.
• dmoz: DMOZ directory listing status (often "-" if not listed).
• status_com, status_net, status_org, status_de: Registration status for each TLD ("registered" or "available").
• tld_registered: Count of registered TLDs.
• related_domains: Number of related domains.
• end_date: Expiration or end date of the domain.

This structured format allows for easy parsing and analysis.

Error Handling

The Actor includes built-in error handling to manage common issues like network timeouts, invalid responses, or scraping blocks. Errors are logged with details for troubleshooting. If a scrape fails for a domain, it may be skipped, and the run continues. For persistent issues, check the logs and adjust the ItemLimit or retry the run.

Rate Limiting and Best Practices

To avoid overloading sources, the Actor respects rate limits and includes delays between requests. Best practices include:

• Start with a low ItemLimit (e.g., 10-50) for testing.
• Run during off-peak hours to minimize impact.
• Monitor logs for rate limit warnings and pause if necessary.
• Use the Actor periodically rather than continuously to ensure data freshness without excessive requests.

Limitations and Considerations

• Data accuracy depends on the source websites; results may vary based on real-time availability.
• Scraping is subject to the terms of service of target sites; use responsibly.
• Large ItemLimits may increase run time and costs.
• Not all domains may have complete data for every field.

Support

For custom/simplified outputs or bug reports, please contact:

• Email: support@getdataforme.com
• Subject line: "custom support"
• Contact form: https://getdataforme.com/contact/

We're here to help you get the most out of this Actor!