8 replies to this topic

[BabaG]

i was advised that registering a domain for only a year would negatively impact
optimization. is this true? it's currently registered for only a year but it automatically
renews. as a n00b, i thought i should ask someplace.

thanks,
BabaG

[ScottSalwolke]

Unless the search engines have access to your credit card statements I don't think they look at your domain renewal. Even if your site is only renewed for one year, you could be set up for automatic renewal. The age of your domain is important, but not its life expectancy.

[donp]

At first blush, I thought, naahhhh. But now after reflection, why not? It could be an indication for those mysterious algo's to maybe rank a site a bit higher. At any rate, I usually purchase domains in 5 year increments just to avoid the yearly renewal hassle and quite often one can get a price break.

For sure, starting a new domain and purchasing it for 5 years is not as good as having that domain already active for 5 years in any possible algo. I do have sites ranking well that I never really optimized but seem to have some legs due to age - not something I've tested out, but I see it now and then.

[Randy]

To believe the theory that how long one purchases a domain is a ranking factor one has to first believe that the search engines consider unknown Future Events in current rankings. I have seen zero evidence this happens. Anywhere in the ranking process.

For instance, we've seen well established evidence in the past where high authority, well established sites have been penalized or completely removed from the index. Where all of their past goodwill was negated by one stupid move. And when these sorts of mistakes are corrected the historical data takes back over and drives the rankings back up to their norm. But to say years of goodwill is in any way an indicator that the engines assume unknown future events in rankings is a leap I'm not prepared to make. Especially given the complete lack of supporting evidence.

[Jill]

Too many sites register for only one year by default for the search engines to be silly enough to have that count against the website as far as SEO is concerned.

[1dmf]

Does even domain age affect Rankings?

my music site redirected(302) for 7 years to another site I was running, till I shut that site down and actually started using the other site with Real Content, now the other site points (302) to this one.

So where in all that does the fact I've had both domains for @ 10 years affect ranking?

[Michael Martinez]

I think the reason why "aged" domains work so well is that they have established track records. They have earned the search engines' trust by not incurring penalties as well as having earned some links.

[Jill]

So where in all that does the fact I've had both domains for @ 10 years affect ranking?

Just a guess based on my knowledge and experience, but I would assume that domains that are simply redirected to other domains would incur no authority at all and would start from scratch once they became a unique domain in and of itself.

[1dmf]

Thanks Jill,

That scenario isn't quite true, as at one point both ran unique for @2 years, them DMO forwarded to SSPL which Ran @ 6years and now SSPL forwards to DMO which has been up @ year with new content.

How does that screw with G!'s assesment of my site?