When an old web address lapses, someone else can pick it up. Here’s what we’ve seen and how to check yours.

A domain name is rented by the year. Stop paying and, after a short grace period, it goes back on the market. People buy expired domains on purpose, because they still get visits from every old link pointing at them. Some resell them; some point them at gambling, scam or ad pages; some just use them for a business with the same name in another state.

None of this needs anyone to hack anything. The old address simply belongs to someone new.

Three things we found this month

• A web designer’s domain in the footer. A local business’s site still credits the company that built it, with a link to that company’s domain, on every page. The web company appears to have closed. Its domain was registered by someone new in late 2025, and today that footer link opens a browser security warning with an online slots page behind it.
• A business’s own old domain on Facebook. A shop’s Facebook page still lists the website and email address it used years ago. The domain lapsed, and it now belongs to a different shop with the same name in another state. Customers who tap the link see the other business, and email sent to the old address goes to someone else’s mailbox.
• A directory listing pointing at a domain nobody owns. Directories still list a local store’s website at an address that isn’t registered at all. Today it shows an error. Anyone could buy it tomorrow and put whatever they want there.

Why it matters more than it looks

Your customers trust the link because it’s on your page. A gambling site behind your footer, or a stranger’s shop behind your Facebook button, reads as your business being careless, or worse, hacked.

Email follows the domain. Whoever owns an old domain can receive mail sent to any address on it. Suppliers, customers and password-reset emails sent to an old address go to them.

Google notices. Links from your site to a spam domain are a bad signal, and a lapsed domain that used to be yours keeps sending your old reputation to its new owner.

Check yours in ten minutes

1. List every address you’ve usedYour current domain, any older ones, and any your previous web company or marketing agency set up for you, such as a landing page or a second brand.
2. Click every link on your own siteEspecially the footer. A “site by” credit, an old blog, an old booking page or an old store link can all point off your site. Check where each one actually lands today.
3. Check Facebook, Google and directoriesOpen your Facebook page, your Google Business Profile, Yelp and the Chamber or industry directories you’re listed in. Tap the website link on each and make sure it lands on your current site.
4. Check who owns your current domainLog in to the registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace Domains and so on). The account should be in your business’s name, not your old web designer’s, with auto-renew on and a card that won’t expire next month.
5. Keep the old ones you still needIf an old domain is still printed on vans, signs or business cards, keep renewing it and point it at your current site. It costs about the same as a lunch per year.

If a link already goes somewhere bad

Take the link off your site and profiles first; that part is fully in your control. If the domain was yours and lapsed recently, the registrar may still be able to recover it during its redemption period, for a fee. If it was taken or changed without you letting it go, that’s a domain recovery job: who changed what, and when, and getting it back.

We do both. Domain recovery for when it’s already happened, and domain protection to keep a watch on renewals, records and where your links lead, so it doesn’t happen quietly.