Are you doing your homework before buying new domains? When purchasing new domain names, chances are they might not exactly be 'new'. It could have been registered and abandoned by someone else before. Or worse, it could have been involved in malicious activities that could have resulted in search penalties. So how can one do prior research to check if a domain is safe before actually buying it?
Site Search
First step: do a site search. Search Google for "site:yourdomain.com" (minus the quotes), and you should come across pages from that domain, provided that there's some content on it. If you can see results from that domain, including the latest content, then that domain is in great shape, and has no indexing problems.
However, be mindful of the fact that if a domain is parked, it won't usually return any result for a site search. So unless a domain name is parked, absence of results in site search can be pretty bad sign.
Name Search
Search the Google for the name of the domain itself. For example, "mybloggertricks" or "abcblog". This often helps you find out about the bad reputation (if any) of a domain. People could be talking about that domain name somewhere on the internet, or could be spamming with it. Check out what results get pulled out, and see if any of them indicates some cause for concern.
Internet Archive
If you go to archive.org, and put in a domain, it will show you what the previous versions (if any) of the site looked like. And if a site looks like it was spamming, then that is definitely reason to be more cautious, and maybe steer clear of that domain altogether. The previous owner might have burnt that domain to the ground, and you will have to do a lot of work to get it up and running again.
Buying An Existing Domain
If you're buying a domain from someone who currently owns it, you can ask them to let you see the Webmaster Tools console and/or the Analytics for that domain. Check for any messages from Google in GWT, and analyze Analytics trends. For example, the traffic might have risen up due to spam activity, or dropped significantly thereafter due to a penalty. You can inquire about these changing trends from the current owner.
Extensions
It’s no secret that dot.com rules the roost on the Interweb because that is how people were trained to think of websites. In fact, with the close to 150 million .COMs that exist, its closest competitor is .NET at 15 million. Although dot.net was created initially for technology companies, people didn’t care about etiquette. That became the fail safe for “Well, my URL isn’t available on .COM, so whatevs.” Fortunately, .ORG have remained true to form in that most people equate them with non-profit ORGanizations. If you can brand your URL with the extension, good for you. If not, find a .COM because although your brand may be available with .BIZ, .INFO, or .YOURMOM, many may not think about it that way (unless your mom is cute).
Be Committed
If you want to protect your brand and online properties, be committed. Buy the URL for at least three years. Typically, spam sites purchase a slew of one-year domains, spamdex the crap out of them, and ultimately end up on Page 27 of Google. While it’s nice traffic bonanza for a few weeks, it won’t matter because you have already given search engines the red flag they need to obliterate your website. Another commitment level to consider is if your brand name isn’t available, don’t buy a stop-gap name thinking you will change your brand midstream. That’s not good business, and even worse Web sense.