28 replies to this topic

[lenwood]

Hi All, came across an interesting question today. I've read that the age of a domain can affect SEO if the site was registered less than a year ago. I've never seen anything quantifiable on that, but it makes sense that brand new sites wouldn't do as well as ones that have been on the 'net for a while. Is there any difference between a site registration thats updated annually and one that's registered for several more years?

Thanks,
Chris

[incrediblehelp]

I've read that the age of a domain can affect SEO if the site was registered less than a year ago.

I have not seen proof of this, but I would have to assume they look at it.

[honestman]

Hi All, came across an interesting question today. I've read that the age of a domain can affect SEO if the site was registered less than a year ago. I've never seen anything quantifiable on that, but it makes sense that brand new sites wouldn't do as well as ones that have been on the 'net for a while. Is there any difference between a site registration thats updated annually and one that's registered for several more years?

Thanks,
Chris

I do think it takes time for a site to do well but in addition to getting a domain name and waiting to be found it help to
have the most searched with the least amount of competition keyword or words in you domain name

Cliff

[Jarret]

Search on Google for google sandbox, if you check out the wikipedia page, it explains that yes there is a hold on domains.

[Jill]

Is there any difference between a site registration thats updated annually and one that's registered for several more years?

Impossible to test to know for sure, but I'd guess no.

[Randy]

Like others have already commented, I've never seen any positive or negative effect. I did try to test the idea as well as I could one time with a couple of sites I had that were in general field so shooting for some of the same general keyword phrases, but were targeted at different types of users.

I the domain that typically didn't show up quite as high was first registered yearly like all the rest of my domains, but when renewing it once I bumped it up to 10 years. The domain that tended to rank a littel bit higher was set up to be renewed annually and stayed that way. The rankings of the two sites didn't change one iota with any of the search engines over the two years I watched it prior to finally merging them into a single site.

That's not really a valid test I know, but it's about as close as one can probably get. So based upon my observations I'd say the length of future registration has no positive or negative effect.

[don h]

And it would be stupid if they did use it. That is a useless metric and completely normal for domains to be renewed yearly.

[Hyperformance]

I understand they gather this data... I can't remember where I know this from? Like search or algorithm patents? Not sure.

However, that does not mean they use it (or weigh it) in their algorithms.

- S

[Jill]

Yes it was mentioned in one of the patents.

[mcanerin]

1. The aging delay/sandbox (which only affects Google) applies to sites for the first 6 months or so of their life. Figure up to 3-6 months for an initial spidering if you don't do any SEO and you are at about a year. In this case, it's not the domain registration that is the issue, it's a kind of "probationary period" for new sites.

For someone who knew nothing about SEO, and just bought a domain a year ago then began building a site with it, it could very well look like a site with a domain less than a year old is a problem to search engines.

2. One of Googles patents (the temporal data one related to the aging delay described in point one) outlines all of the things that Google could look at while assessing temporal (time-related) data of a site. This included all sorts of things, from the age of links to the age of the site to how many years your domain was registered for. One paragraph mentioned that there is a possibility that a domain registered for only one year is more likely to be spammy or considered "short-term" by it's owner than one registered for many years (indicating an intent to keep it).

It's up to Google to use (or not use) this data, and in what way, but since they were mentioned in a patent it's fair to say that someone at Google considered them as a possibility long enough to register a patent mentioning it. This doesn't mean they actually use it today.

I'm afraid that although it's a possibility (in Mythbusters lingo: Plausible), it needs to be tested for us to be certain, and I've not seen any tests that have addressed it.

Ian

[Bob Collett]

I read something just yesterday that makes sense. The search engines will penalize if the domain is about to expire, or if it will expire within the next year. It seems that spammers do not want to invest pay for multi year registrations... so the search engines assume that anyone who does not have a long term registration could be a spammer.

I am in the process of making sure all of my website urls extend out at least two years.
Bob Collett

[Jarret]

I read something just yesterday that makes sense. The search engines will penalize if the domain is about to expire, or if it will expire within the next year. It seems that spammers do not want to invest pay for multi year registrations... so the search engines assume that anyone who does not have a long term registration could be a spammer.

I am in the process of making sure all of my website urls extend out at least two years.
Bob Collett

That is very interesting. Care to divulge where you found this information and just how exactly they proved that this is the case?

[Randy]

Be careful believing everything you read Bob.

Judging by the few dozen domains I own and actively work on the idea you've just put forth is complete and utter balderdash. All of my bevy of sites --save the two I tested the theory with as mentioned earlier-- have never been registered for more than a year at a time. And they all have first page rankings for dozens and dozens of their most important phrases. Most in the Top 3.

Maybe I should extend 'em all so that I can remove this supposed penalty and move from #3 to #1 across the board for those that need a little boost.

[Bob Collett]

I read something just yesterday that makes sense. The search engines will penalize if the domain is about to expire, or if it will expire within the next year. It seems that spammers do not want to invest pay for multi year registrations... so the search engines assume that anyone who does not have a long term registration could be a spammer.

I am in the process of making sure all of my website urls extend out at least two years.
Bob Collett

Sure...
I was at an E-Marketing conference yesterday. At a breakout sessions, one of the SEOs was using the tool www.websitegrader.com to give an overview of websites for attendees. Websitegrader made the argument. It seemed to make sense to me at the time.
Bob

[Jill]

Tool creators have to find stuff to say, so they often find things that in reality don't make a difference.