Why everyone bothers about the age of a domain?

[codersabir]

If a domain has a cool name, is its age a matter of concern?

 

[luv2b3fun]

That's a really good question... I'll be watching to see what other responses you get...

But from an SEO point of view, the older the domain the more likely it has gained "trust"
in the eyes of "Google", so your site is more likely to outrank a competing domain that
was newly purchased say like... yesterday. Especially if you both are trying to rank in the
top 10 results for the same niche related key word.

From a Backlinking point of view, the older the domain, the more likelihood the domain has
these key factors:

1. Page Rank: Which is the number usually from 0-9 and determines a page's importance, reliability and authority on the web according to Google.
2. Domain Authority: Which determines how credible a domain/website is from 0-100.

So if you have an aged domains with good page rank, and domain authority, and you decide to buy a brand new url for whatever project you want to work on... in "theory" your aged backlink domain should and will be able to give your brand new url a "boost" in the Google Search Results... But of course there a few more things you would have to do to attain page 1 results.

 

[meldwelling]

domain age is an important SEO factor for your Google ranking. Among the hundreds of weighting factors that Google considers in determining how to rank search engine results is the age of your domain — in other words, how long that domain has been around.

 

[affable]

domain age is an important SEO factor for your Google ranking. Among the hundreds of weighting factors that Google considers in determining how to rank search engine results is the age of your domain — in other words, how long that domain has been around.

Domain age having a big impact on SEO is a big myth among those new to SEO or who just don't do research as pointed out by Matt Cutts on many occasions. Age carries very little weight in it's rankings. Do a search and you will find this pointed out many times. Here's one:
http://rapidwebseo.com/matt-cutts-does-domain-age-really-matter.php

 

[Cdomains]

Domain age having a big impact on SEO is a big myth among those new to SEO

I blows my that old information still carries weight even years after it no longer applies.

I could go into a long explanation about this, but instead I will make it short and sweet.

Age, like many factors may be part of the SEO equation, but in the big picture does not count for much these days with Google.

So what matters?

A website that is clearly trying to provide real, helpful, relevant, and current information on a subject, and has links from other sites (back-links) that are real and from high quality sites in the same category or somehow related to the site's subject matter.

In short, a high quality site with great "authority" on a subject, and links from other sites with the same attributes.

Many other factors may count, but only make up a tiny fraction of the whole picture.

 

[Flipsbay]

Age does matters, remember you can buy anything but not history. Age of a domain speaks the truth about that domains valuation

Thanks.

 

[ZapNano]

I blows my that old information still carries weight even years after it no longer applies.

I could go into a long explanation about this, but instead I will make it short and sweet.

Age, like many factors may be part of the SEO equation, but in the big picture does not count for much these days with Google.

So what matters?

A website that is clearly trying to provide real, helpful, relevant, and current information on a subject, and has links from other sites (back-links) that are real and from high quality sites in the same category or somehow related to the site's subject matter.

In short, a high quality site with great "authority" on a subject, and links from other sites with the same attributes.

Many other factors may count, but only make up a tiny fraction of the whole picture.

True.

 

[DanSanchez]

I look at it as "domain equity" - a secondary confirmation of it's value by maintaining someone's monetary attention for X years. Then again most first owners just have the auto-renewal set with Godaddy and they forget about it.

You can be proactive with your best domains by adding 5+ years to their registration, I think it can counteract the lack of age, somewhat.

 

[Cdomains]

You can be proactive with your best domains by adding 5+ years to their registration, I think it can counteract the lack of age, somewhat.

I believe this plays a very small factor, but is important in the respect that it shows Google that you are serious about the site because you have paid for a number of years reg in advance and it shows your intentions to a degree.

But without the other very important factors this will not make any difference in ranking. It is just one of a thousand tiny factors that only matter when you have all the other more important things covered first.

 

[DanSanchez]

I'm personally concerned about perception of value, especially to a buyer who is going to spend $5k (hopefully) to acquire your best name. The SEO factor is purely driven by how valuable the content is to your audience. Seeing an expiration date of 2020 does have a visual impact to some extent.

 

[Cdomains]

I'm personally concerned about perception of value, especially to a buyer who is going to spend $5k (hopefully) to acquire your best name. The SEO factor is purely driven by how valuable the content is to your audience. Seeing an expiration date of 2020 does have a visual impact to some extent.

Most end users only care if the domain relates strongly to their business or purpose.
The only way they would know the age is if they examined the whois info.

If they really want the name, age is irrelevant to them. The only people who seem to care about age these days are people who buy them for PBN's, and misinformed domainers.

 

[Bullock]

Most end users only care if the domain relates strongly to their business or purpose.


If they really want the name, age is irrelevant to them.

I agree

 

[namerav]

No...else no new gtld will be registered.

 

[Cdomains]

Age does matters, remember you can buy anything but not history. Age of a domain speaks the truth about that domains valuation

This is only true for an existing site with content that has built it's authority and reputation itself over time.

Usually when a domain name expires, or is not renewed, the former owners or publishers have stopped tending to the site and it has been this way for a period of time before the name finally expires and is available for someone else to pick up.

Let's not forget how long the process takes between the time a domain is not renewed and the time someone else gets it. The domain will be losing rank for quite some time before it is picked up again, and its age will not help it.

While it is true that a domain name with age could still have good back-links pointing to it, the site itself is usually not hosted anywhere, anymore, with the content it ranked with. It will plummet in ranking or disappear from search engine indexes altogether.

A site that resolves to a parking or sales page will not keep its ranking no matter how old it is. A site with no content is no site at all in the eyes of Google, back-links or not.

Let us also remember that we are buying just the name and not the content or the website, which along with the back-links is what makes the site rank and is a major part of the reason it ranked in first place.

Some might suggest to find the old site content on Internet Archive -com and just copy it over to the new site, thinking this will restore it back to its former position, and many people try this.

The first problem with this idea is the content copyright is still owned by the previous publishers and may not be legally used without their consent.

The second problem is whether it will even be possible to replicate the site using the Archived site and bring it back to where it was before. This is usually not possible.

Another thing is how Google will treat the site in the future as they surely know the site has changed, has been without hosting and content, and is no longer maintained.

It may be possible to start from scratch and build a new site on the same subject and with similar content to the old site, taking advantage of the still existing back-links, and go from there. But this is a long road back.

This situation is not the same as buying an existing website and just continuing on with it. In this case there is no interruption or change to the site for Google to notice or penalize.

So in this case the age will continue to be a part of the ranking because it has not been lost and the site has been in continuous publication all along.

So, the age of a domain you pick up at the drop or back order has no bearing in the real world. For someone who thinks they can just pick up with it like nothing happened, well, it just doesn't work that way.

I don't care what anyone says, and I have been involved in SEO for a very long time, and have watched all the changes occur.

I know age is a big thing for many domain investors. This is evident when viewing the listings at Flippa. Most of the bids are for aged domains, because many investors mistakenly believe there is value here.

The real value with respect to aged domains selling at Flippa is when you list and sell an aged domain on Flippa - because everyone falsely believes these domains are more valuable, and so bid them up.

It is true many old or aged domains have value, but not because they are old. It is just that most of the valuable domains were registered many years ago and so the best ones automatically have age, but their age is not what makes them valuable, it is just an earlier registration made when good names were still available.

Dogs-com, cars-com, etc. are valuable because they are short, generic, exact match, specific names that make sense in the real world and are valuable to a business as a brand or destination site. Do you think anyone would pass up these names on the basis of age, if they were available to register right now.? I don't think so.

 

[affable]

A website that is clearly trying to provide real, helpful, relevant, and current information on a subject, and has links from other sites (back-links) that are real and from high quality sites in the same category or somehow related to the site's subject matter.

This is very true and this matters way more than the age of a domain as far as SEO rankings. If someone was to buy an aged domain then slap up a bunch of spam on it, that doesn't mean it's going to rank well just because it's an older domain. Length of registration is a stronger ranking factor because it shows the SE's that you are serious about sticking around and not some fly by night spam site.

 

[doubleU]

Better to have a good domain than an aged one for search engines.

Age domains get more attention at auction and some buyers are prone to pay more for an aged domain ...

Quite often endusers will never even consider or know the domains age when purchasing.

 

[imadoer]

for me i could care less. i have a few aged domains. like lets say REPT.com for example. its 19 years old.. to be honest i would pay the same amount of money for it, if was 1 day old. so for me its about the quality of the domain

 

[Casey L]

I look at it as "domain equity" - a secondary confirmation of it's value by maintaining someone's monetary attention for X years.

I agree with this. Although the age doesn't directly make a $x,xxx domain into a $xx,xxx domain, it's reassuring in a way to own something that someone else over a decade ago saw value in as well.

That being said, if someone offered me a domain with 19 years or a 4L Chip that's 4 years old I would take the latter . Overall, it can add value to certain types of domains IMO.

 

[DomainVP]

Age is a good selling point, that's all.

For those that don't understand domain age works, like most businesses, an aged domain gives off the feel of valued long-term possession - therefore inherently giving the domain name more value.

But truly, a domain is all in the name.

 

[affable]

For those that don't understand domain age works, like most businesses, an aged domain gives off the feel of valued long-term possession - therefore inherently giving the domain name more value.

But truly, a domain is all in the name.

Very good points! Some people and businesses that are new or are not well versed in domains can think age adds value.

However, I am with you in that it's all about the name!

 

[bigbagofbricks]

It's actually more of a negative than a positive as you don't know what that domain has been up to before.. Could be on spam lists etc.



It doesn't really help seo as Google basically resets a domains ranking if they recognise that there's a new site there.

 

[affable]

you don't know what that domain has been up to before.. Could be on spam lists etc.

That's very true. You can do research and check many of these things, but you never really know the whole truth.

I bought a dropped domain once that was checked out completely before regging it, then a week after I got it the name showed up on spam lists. I hadn't done anything with the name yet and it still had the registrars default landing page from when I reg'd it. It was just sitting. Then about week later I found it on some of the spam lists that didn't have it listed when I bought it or I would have never bought it.

 

[Nerevar]

End users care very little about domain's age, if at all. Domainers care about age because it is one of many indicators that the domain was valuable and useful to someone. If you hand-register a domain, you keep thinking that the name must not be that good - because if it was, somebody would have snatched it before it came to your attention. On the other hand, if you see a domain that people never drop, but sell to other businesses, you understand that it could be valuable.

 

[HUKU]

Age is very important for any domain name:

(1) Past SEO intelligence suggested that search engines assigned an X score to a domain name.

Renewal Date - Creation Date = X

The higher X is, the more trust the SEs would assign to it and it is a (contributing) factor for ranking because early creation means its more likely to have been around for longer, has a history, more experience in its business area (a positive) and its later expiry date is an indication of the amount of commitment to the domain name by the owner (transient gateway sites are rarely registered more than a couple of years forward).

(2) It is one of a very few data points about domain names which cannot be altered or gamed in any way. Once the domain is registered, creation date is fixed and cannot be changed.

(3) Its indicative of value because the more valuable domain names were in general (but not always) registered much earlier on than less valuable ones.

 

[Domainace]

Age has almost no effect on a domain's value. It's nice to have, as it makes the name look desirable and it may help a tiny bit with SEO, but it's like having new paint job on a house you are selling. Not a deal breaker, but nice to have.

Conversely, age is one useful metric when trying to narrow down drop lists. Aged names are more likely to be good names. Lots of domainers register ridiculous names and keep them for a few years. They are less likely to keep a silly name for 10 years. It happens, of course, but it's less likely. That makes age one of the dozen or more ways there are to help narrow down a list.

I often see domains being sold on this forum as "aged." And they are 3 or 5 years old. That's not age. That's a domainer who registered a bad name and was silly enough to renew it for 5 years. (I have a few of those.)