When should you retire or rotate a domain?

Knowing when to retire a domain prevents wasted effort on unrecoverable situations.

Signs retirement is needed:

Persistent Spamhaus DBL or similar severe blocklisting

Gmail Postmaster Tools showing sustained bad reputation

Recovery efforts showing no improvement after 4 to 6 weeks

Delisting requests repeatedly denied

Damage affecting your main brand domain's reputation

Rotation planning:

Have backup domains registered and aging

Maintain domains in various warmup stages

Don't wait for crisis to acquire alternatives

Budget for domain rotation as operational cost

Rotation strategy:

Use domains on scheduled rotation (not just when burned)

Give domains rest periods between heavy campaigns

Spread volume across multiple domains to reduce individual risk

Best practices for retirement:

Keep DNS records active to prevent spamtrap conversion

Maintain ownership to prevent domain hijacking

Document what went wrong for future prevention

Planned rotation is better than crisis management. A wise fleet rotates vessels rather than running each to destruction.