How To Check Domain History (Don't Buy Before Checking)

Do you want to check your domain history? Well, your search ends here.

Imagine you purchase a domain, set up a website, and later find out the domain has a record of dozens of spammy links in the past. If this would be the case, forget SEO rankings.

Domain history should be checked whether you are looking for a domain for yourself or for your domain flipping/domain selling business.

How to find the history of a domain name?

To check domain name registration history, it is best to start with a domain history checker tool. Example Who.is. Such kinds of tools would quickly reveal in-depth past information about both the domain and domain owner.

For a quick example, Navigate to Who.is, enter the domain name URL and search for its domain hosting history. As a result, you can see domain ownership details, current registrar, domain age, IP address data, etc.

This is just one way to check the hosting history of a domain.

In this post, you will learn about:

Things need to be checked under Domain history
Various ways to figure out domain and hosting history
More…

Table of Contents

Domain Ownership History Checklist: Things Need to be Checked Under Domain History
Top Domain History Checker Tools to Check Domain Name History
Domain Links History: Beyond Domain Checker Tools
Learn More about Domain Hosting History
FAQs About Domain History

Domain Ownership History Checklist: Things Need to be Checked Under Domain History

Do you know which points need to be checked before buying the domain?

Well, when you look around at the domain history report generated by the domain checker tool, you will find hundreds of lines of data.

The domain history checklist has divided into 2 parts:

Domain Evaluation
Domain Past Owners Evaluation

Here is the complete checklist of factors one should review in its domain history evaluation process:

Original domain registration date
Domain owner details
Record of previous sales or past domain ownership data
Domain involvement in illegal activity data (if any)
Trademark infringements record
Historical Whois records
Connected domains or backlinks history
Type of content published on the domain in the past

Top Domain History Checker Tools to Check Domain Name History

Domain history finder tools (also known as Whois lookup or hosting history lookup tools) are used to find high-quality domain data including:

When the domain was originally registered
Historical screenshots
Ownership details
Information about previous owners
More…

Hereby, presenting you with 6 tools to make your job easy. All the tools are free tools except for the first one (DomainTools).

So, let’s start exploring them one by one.

1. DomainTools

Domain tools is one of the most reliable platforms to check domain hosting history.

Having footprints for over 2 decades in the industry they have the most comprehensive data on generic and country-specific Top Level Domains.

They have stored Whois and hosting-related data that helps you to look up domain ownership history and complete historical records such as hosting history, IP address history, and other related DNS intelligence.

Furthermore, they have a full range of enterprise security products like the Iris Investigation platform, Domain Risk Score, API Integration, and PhishEye.

They have also included monitoring products and personal domain research that makes DomainTools a complete solution for threat intelligence, forensic & incident response, threat hunting, phishing detection, brand protection, and online fraud investigation.

DomainTools is packed with the following products related to personal domain search.

Research Products

Whois Lookup
Whois History
Reverse Whois
Hosting History
Reverse IP Lookup
Reverse IP Whois
Reverse NS Lookup
Domain Search
Domain Report

Monitoring Products

Brand Monitor
Name Server Monitor
IP Monitor
Registrant Monitor
Domain Monitor

All of the services including Whois history on DomainTools are paid.

Though you can perform Whois Lookup for free.

How to check domain registration history using DomainTools:

All you need is to open Whois Lookup, enter a domain name, and click the search button.

Here I checked my own blog domain Whois Record. It will give you all the details of the current registrant and Registrar.

But to explore historical records or domain ownership history records, open up the Whois History page, put up the domain link and tap on the Lookup button.

As mentioned, DomainTools is a paid tool. You have to invest to see a full domain history report. This report is worth it and might be hundreds of pages long.

Here is the domain history report sample generated by this tool. You can preview it and decide whether to invest in this tool or not.

2. Wayback Machine

Wayback Machine is an unbelievable service from the Internet Archive organization.

It is a non-profit organization that is building a digital library of all the sites over the Internet and other cultural artifacts.

Quick Note: Wayback Machine is one of the best free domain checker tools which allows you to check what type of content was published on a particular domain in the past.

Started in 1996 by archiving the Internet itself, now this organization has massive data of billions of web pages, books & texts, audio recordings (including live concerts), videos (including television news programs), images, and software programs.

Whether you are researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, or the general public, it is a completely free platform for everyone.

Anyone can sign up for a free account and can upload the relevant data to the archive.

How to Check Domain Ownership History Using Wayback Machine Domain Hosting History Checker:

Now coming to the main aspect which is how to check domain history, all you need is to enter the URL of the site you want to check history for and Click the Browse History button and it will take you back in the history of that domain name.

Here I checked the domain history of BloggersPassion.com and it took me back to 2010 when I started this blog.

Select a year, month, and a highlight day from the calendar and simply click on the snapshot to see the domain history.

Alternatively, you can use Collections, Changes, Summary, and Site Map to crawl the domain history.

Have a look, this is how my blog used to look in 2021.

wayback machine domain history report screenshot

Isn’t it amazing?

So start using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and check any domain history.

3. Who.is

Who.is is another platform to check domain history including IP owner information along with dozens of other statistics.

You can also get all the information related to any domain name on demand at a single click.

Powerful data organization, unbiased domain intelligence, and domain tracking across different registrars are some of the highlighted features of Who.is.

Moreover, you can transfer and buy premium domains at name.com via Who.is.

To check Whois information of any domain, all you need to enter is the domain name or IP address in the search box.

Once you click on the search icon you will be presented with related Whois records that include Registrar info, Important Dates, name Servers, Similar Domains, and Registrar Data.

Furthermore, you can also check DNS records and do Diagnostics.

4. WhoIs Request

WhoIs request is another great domain research tool that will help you to find domain history along with domain ownership history and other valuable information.

And the process of checking domain history is quite straightforward.

Either you can check Whois Lookup or Domain History.

To perform Whois Lookup, enter the domain name and click the Go button and you will be displayed complete details about the domain name as shown in the image below.

As you can see above, you will get to know about the current domain registrar, registrant organization, state, country, name server, and many more details.

And to check domain history, first, you have to open the domain history checker tool by clicking on Domain History in the right corner of the website homepage.

Then type the domain name, click on the Get History button and you will be amazed by seeing the results.

Let’s have a look at the bloggerspassion.com domain history results.

You can see above a clear domain history for bloggerspassion.com

So search domain history before finalizing one for you.

Note: You can track name server changes since 2002 for all COM, NET, ORG, INFO, BIZ, and US domains.

5. IntoDNS

IntoDNS is another fantastic tool that you can use to check the DNS server and mail server health.

It is a very simple tool to use with a clean interface. All you need is to enter the domain name and click the Report button.

Within a fraction of seconds, you will be displayed a comprehensive report having massive records related to the domain and site health divided into 5 categories (Parent, NS, SOA, MX, WWW).

Within the report, you will get the status of different records and suggestions to improve and fix the issues.

So these are some of the domain checker tools and platforms to check the domain history.

Every tool I included here is quite unique in its own way.

So start utilizing these tools to check whois history, domain ownership history, and much more.

Domain Links History: Beyond Domain Checker Tools

Be the safe domain buyer – Evaluation of Links history is mandatory.

As per backlinko analysis, the domain with quality backlinks has the potential for high SEO rankings.

Analyzing whether the domain has a record of bad spammy links is crucial especially if you’re looking to buy a domain for Affiliate marketing or for a goal of good SEO rankings.

Well, the best way to dig into the backlink profile of a domain is to use a professional SEO audit tool like Semrush.

Among various tools, Semrush has a backlink audit tool that you can use to explore the link history of a domain name. Semrush analyzes the backlinks and gives an overall toxicity level (low, medium, or high).

evaluate domain links history with semrush

Learn More about Domain Hosting History

Initially, buying a domain name was completely free but seeing exponential growth in Internet users, some entity was needed to manage all the things properly and that resulted in the creation of ICANN.

ICANN is an acronym for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

It is an American group and non-profit organization that manages all the namespaces databases along with numerical spaces on the Internet.

Why Do You Need To Check Domain History

Domain registration is the first and foremost step to building your website and then comes web hosting.

To register a domain name, either you can buy a new domain, an expired one, or a premium domain.

Expired domains are the domains that were not renewed by their owners for whatsoever reason.

And for any reason when any user does not renew its domain, the registrar puts the domain in auctions for sale immediately after the grace period is over.

Premium domains are registered domains but still available for sale at high prices based on the domain name, the level of interest one has in buying, or the amount of organic traffic one receives.

Though it takes around 2 minutes to buy a new domain name, it is advisable to check domain history before buying it.

Now you might be wondering why it is even important to check domain registration history.

You know most people buy a new domain name that has no history at all. But you never know the domain name you are going to buy might have its own history.

Though buying an old domain name is beneficial especially when you consider Google rankings. An expired domain name should have a high DA.

Old domain names are easier to rank as compared to new ones because of their respective domain authority.

They can help you to boost the efficiency of your SEO efforts.

Being said, expired domains might have a bad reputation as well. Spam links, Google penalties, sensitive content, and malicious code, could be some of the reasons.

And if you end up buying such a domain then it would be difficult for you to rank your site in the Google SERP and you will be regretting your whole life.

So one should keep both positive and negative aspects in mind while buying a domain name and must check its domain history to ensure what you are getting and would not regret it later.

What Others are Reading:

FAQs About Domain History

Who is the registrant of a domain name?

A registrant is an individual or entity who owns the domain name. Whenever you buy a domain name you have to register the same with your name or a company name. Then you or your company name becomes the registrant of that domain name.

How do you find out who owns a website?

You can use a platform like DomainTools and Whois Request to find out who owns a website.

How do I check my domain hosting history?

Domain Tools, Wayback Machine, Who.is, Hosterstat, Whois Request, are some of the best tools to check domain history.

Who owns the .com domain?

.com is the most recognized Top Level Domain (TLD) owned by VeriSign Registry.

What is domain privacy?

Domain privacy is the service provided by domain registrars and hosting providers to protect your sensitive information from being exposed to the general public. It will replace the registrant’s personal details with the company’s details.

Can SEO tools help in determining the domain history?

Tools like Semrush, Ahref can be a big help in figuring out the past backlinks profile of a domain.

What is domain name history?

Domain history is the document of a domain that holds the past ownership information of a domain including the original registration date, expiry date, a number of owners, past backlinks profile, etc.

Can you find out when a domain was registered?

The original domain registration date is stored in Whois records. You can use whois.domaintools.com to reveal the domain registration date.

What is Whois?

Whois is the publicly accessible database of domains, IP addresses, and other information.