Is “Age” Always Critical?

[Lewstar]

Some Domain Name Requestors require submissions with “age.” I’m assuming age in this case means the domain name wasn’t registered yesterday, as two of my domain names were
by NameSilo.

Specifically, l was reading about the relatively new sale of hands-free crutches. I immediately thought this new product would make for a good name with and without the hyphen—but was pretty-sure neither version was available.

To my pleasant surprise, both versions, followed by .com, were available—and immediately purchased both versions. Yes, l know hyphens are eschewed in domaining, but when l googled “handsfree crutches,” l discovered that just about all of the manufacturers of these products used a hyphen, and when in Rome.... so l purchased both versions.

Finally, my diatribe begs the question: Why is age so crucial to selling domain names, at least in the eyes of many domainers?

Thanks for your time!

 

[briguy]

For me, Age + history + keyword/name are important.

For example, Via-ga-ra-pills.(whatever extension) could have been registered in 2000 (age) but "not indexed" by Google cause of spam history..

But that just my thoughts @biggie bring up a valid point

 

[johnnie018]

Hi

that statement is not true, in it's entirety

as there are products, services, concepts, etc, that haven't been invented yet.

so, the future for a domain to describe such, may still be unregistered.

imo...

Very rare for that to ever amount to anything (or for those terms to last long even if successful). People waste a lot of money on those types of names.

 

[EbookLover]

15 years ago, no one was regging blockchain domains. Same goes for CBD, vape and a plethora of other words/products/concepts.

 

[johnnie018]

15 years ago, no one was regging blockchain domains. Same goes for CBD, vape and a plethora of other words/products/concepts.

Regging domains isn’t making money. Only big one ever was bitcoin and that lasted 6 months.

 

[EbookLover]

Namebio

 

[pb]

Taken all that into account and disregarding that the domain can be snatched inbetween, is there any reason to buy a 20-year-old domain from GD closeout vs waiting for it to drop and just registering it?

I'm thinking: if I'm the potential buyer and I come across a domain that is just a few months old, I might be reluctant to approach the owner and instead I could wait to see if he renews or drops it. But when I see a domain that is several years old (and not being aware that the owner might have just bought it for peanuts), I will have no reason to postpone the inquiry. The question is, how many buyers are savvy enough to even check the whois?

 

[Shaan Chopra]

The age of the domain would matter what the person is trying to do. Google has over 200 ranking factors "age" is one of them. Let me explain to you why people are looking for aged domains. If I bought a domain name today and wrote an article of 3000 words on "what is a domain name" and you have a domain which is 2 years old and wrote the same article you will get ranked higher over my article because your domain has more authority over my domain.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

The age of the domain would matter what the person is trying to do. Google has over 200 ranking factors "age" is one of them. Let me explain to you why people are looking for aged domains. If I bought a domain name today and wrote an article of 3000 words on "what is a domain name" and you have a domain which is 2 years old and wrote the same article you will get ranked higher over my article because your domain has more authority over my domain.

Although it is important to realize that the Google search impact of age is not simply the domain's official age but rather how many years Google have been indexing the site and the quality of the content over that time. As I understand it a domain could be officially 15 yr old, but if never used for content until today, it will give you no boost. Here is an article on the topic. Google do not share their ranking metrics for obvious reasons, and there probably are marginal trust boosts, but it is relevant age with use that matters primarily.
Bob

 

[Pay.My.id]

May be not always critical , but Aged + quality = your cashflow in the future. I believe that every people should focus on good domain before transfering their money to your wallet .

 

[lock]

I have some 20+ year old domains that had sites that would be better in new hands.
eg I stand to make a lot more selling domain than current white label or sponsored situation.

 

[Indianad]

The age of *A* domain has virtually nothing to do with it's value. However ...

The age of domains in general, on scale, is one of many factors domainers look at to weed out the crap. It's a probabilities thing.

Basically if a person or company bothered to pay renewals on the domain for 15 years, then that increases the probability of it being a good domain. But to be clear .. it does NOT mean a domain is good if it is aged .. nor does it mean that a domain is bad if it's not aged.

It simply means that if you take 2 random domains, the older one will likely be better.

That being said .. within the domainer community the importance of that fact I think kinda grew into it's own thing .. and as such there are actually some domainers who do put more value on aged domains ... and the irony of that .. actually means that indeed within the domainer community there actually is more demand/value on aged domains simply because of a domain's age.

So yeah .. indirectly aged domains do have a tiny extra advange just because they are older .. but it's based on a false narrative that became self-fulfilling. That being said .. I don't think it changes the value to justify over paying for them.

So in terms of wholesale pricing there could be a little bump ... but it really doesn't make much difference to end users in many cases. Although again .. if a potential buyer isn't set on a domain yet and is "window shopping" .. if the domain was tagged "aged domain", then it could be a factor for the buyer because he believes the "hype" and marketing even if at the end of the day age makes no difference to end users.

In fact .. age could technically be a bad thing for end user buyers if the domain had a questionable history with spam etc .. could make for problems sending out emails or getting ranked in google .. but in the end that's not really a factor in most cases.

Where age can be a huge factor is when searching for expired domains ... if you only have 10-15 minutes to search, then you're likely to find better domains if you filter based on age.

That being said .. some of my best domain VALUE PURCHASES have been domains in lower age tiers .. the ones that other people don't have the time to search for so I can grab with little competition or even at closeout.


The one instance where age obviously does not and can not apply .. is "future tech" .. which I would say is what category your "Handsfree Crutches" falls into.

Recent trends are things like drones, crypto, cannabis .. none completely new .. but there has(/had) been such explosive growth in those industries that there were not enough existing domains to fill the demand .. so then the only choice is to handreg.

I almost exclusively buy expired domains at auction and closeout .. however .. every now and then if I'm watching the news, I'll jump to try to register something that looks like it could be a future business or trend. Really does not happen often though (like twice a year .. lol) .. usually 90% the domains are taken ... looks like you got lucky!

As always..thank you@ategy. Your comments are helping with my learning curve. It's appreciated

 

[lock]

One of the guys on GFY is selling a 19 year old domain for reg fee so it boils down to individual name over age. Age might enhance a good name but it wont give everything value.

 

[EbookLover]

One of the guys on GFY is selling a 19 year old domain for reg fee

That's pretty sad.

 

[BrandAptly.com]

Domain age may or may not matter depending on factors such as your target market, business strategy and purpose of purchasing. If a bulk of your buyers are domainers, I can see how it may matter to some (based on some of the thorough explanations above). In my experience, most endusers aren't very savvy and don't really care about domain age. I have registered and sold new domains within a week for low $x,xxx.

If you're buying domains specifically to resell quickly, it will be prudent to have your prospects lined up before you make purchases.

 

[lock]

That's pretty sad.

I dropped one myself about same age was dialer related.

 

[Ostrados]

Short Answer: no

Long answer: premium domains are usually aged, but not all aged domains are premiums. You can still find premium domains with 1-5 years age especially in new techs & niches.

 

[easywebdomains.net]

Thanks to all for an interesting discussion, esp @Ategy re: the thought about it being self fulfilling prophecy in the minds of some to bump wholesale a bit. One of the factors to consider then, amongst many.