Aged Domains – Discussion about Aged Domains

[Rebies]

We keep hearing that Google and other search engines likes aged domains. I want to open a few points up for discussion about so called “aged domains”…

1.) Is there any proof out there that aged domains are more SEO friendly? Or is it an urban legend by now?

2.) How is the age of a domain determined? What if a domain goes through expiration? It was originally registered in 1997, but now that the domain expired and was picked up in 2007 – is the age still there, or is it a reborn domain in the search engines mind?

3.) Is there any place you can put a domain and get its “true” age – without just looking at Whois which often reflects a domain that expired?

 

[HBK216]

There are plenty of threads on this issue, you might want to search for some of them. As far as questions #2 & #3 go:

2. Most people dealing with domains determine age based on the whois creation date. If a name was registered in 1997, was completely dropped & registered again in 2007, the age is no longer there. The creation date will reflect it as being 1 years old & would be treated as such in Google for instance.

3. The whois will reflect the creation date which will be accurate. If it says creation date 03-19-98, then that is the actual creation date. You won't see inaccurate age information there. There are some sites which will have scripts where you enter a name & it will tell you how old it is. Also some sites where one can check page rank will have age information as a part of the package. Smart Page Rank is an example of such a site.

 

[Rebies]

Thank for posting HBK216. I actually did search but was overwhelmed with posts selling domains of age and appraisals and requests for aged domains.

Another tool to see a real domain history is the WayBack Machine as well. I will see if I can find older discussions on this topic.

 

[cache]

the older the domains are, the better and more valuable.

 

[moped]

I have a domain eyetv.net that was first regd in 1998 then I caught it when it dropped in 2000, whois shows first reg in 2000, archive.org takes it back to its previous owner, PR 1 ever since I had it.

 

[Sufyan]

1.) Is there any proof out there that aged domains are more SEO friendly? Or is it an urban legend by now?

Yes. Google is still lovin’ them!

2.) How is the age of a domain determined? What if a domain goes through expiration? It was originally registered in 1997, but now that the domain expired and was picked up in 2007 – is the age still there, or is it a reborn domain in the search engines mind?

The age is counted from the date of inception (When Google crawl and index it for the first time). Once the domain is expired, its age factor and link profile is reset, AFAIK.

3.) Is there any place you can put a domain and get its “true” age – without just looking at Whois which often reflects a domain that expired?

Webarchive.org

 

[Pred]

you gotta love a 'dilf'™ :sold:

 

[The Stealthy One]

There is no hard proof that an older domain ranks better in Google, but from my experience, this does seem to be the case. Additionally, it seems to me that the longer a domain is registered for, the higher it ranks. But again, I have no proof of this either. These observations are merely based on my own experience.

 

[Sufyan]

There is no hard proof that an older domain ranks better in Google, but from my experience, this does seem to be the case. Additionally, it seems to me that the longer a domain is registered for, the higher it ranks. But again, I have no proof of this either. These observations are merely based on my own experience.

Seriously. You need to go to Google and make a couple searches for competitive keywords such as auto insurance and mortgage refinance. Then check the domain age for each listing and see how many of them are older domains. This will be more valuable for you than your previous experience. IMO

This article is quite old but a must read for you.

 

[lzy]

1.) Is there any proof out there that aged domains are more SEO friendly? Or is it an urban legend by now?

No concrete proof. But from my experience, yes. Aged domains do have a distinct advantage over new domains in SERPS.

2.) How is the age of a domain determined? What if a domain goes through expiration? It was originally registered in 1997, but now that the domain expired and was picked up in 2007 – is the age still there, or is it a reborn domain in the search engines mind?

Whois creation date. If it expired and was picked up again, the value will be lost (as an aged domain).

3.) Is there any place you can put a domain and get its “true” age – without just looking at Whois which often reflects a domain that expired?

Archive.org

...not terribly reliable but the best alternative to the whois data itself.

 

[Rebies]

That article at SEOmoz is great and to me is somewhat proof that older domains are treated better. However, the article was based on data from Dec 12th, 2004. So an updated comparison is needed close to 4 years later.

Thanks for the link seojunkie.

 

[nnn]

Hi,

Let me ask you pros here:

When you pick up an aged, expired domain (say from TDNAM), how do you ensure that it doesn't lose PR and get gray bar in the Google Toolbar in the next update?

Thanks!

N~