Domain Names to Age or Not to Age

Webmasters have long debated the value of aging a domain

. The question revolves around whether a domain that has existed for a long time will rank better in the search engines. In short, will an aged domain name give you better SEO than a brand new domain would?

Before getting into the question, it is important to know that the internet is far from an anonymous place. It is easy to forget this. But just as it can be hard for an individual to remain anonymous on the internet, it is even harder for a domain name to remain anonymous. Through a somewhat complicated system of domain name servers, each domain has a history that can be found by any search engine.

Given the history held by a domain name, it is worth noting two things: Google, Yahoo, Bing, and any other search engine you may look to get traffic from will know: 1. how long your domain has existed; 2. If that domain name was used for any untoward purposes.

But back to the main question. Does an old domain name have better SEO potential than a new domain name? To answer this, I went straight to the source. Matt Cutts, Google's liaison with the outside world of webmasters, released a video about this very question. The trouble is that his answer to whether or not an aged domain name is better was absolutely equivocal. What he told us webmasters is something along the lines of "well- we file lots of patents and this is just one of them- lots of them don't get used." So the obvious question is, "does this one?" The answer is- nobody knows. However, if Matt Cuts won't say to the world that domain name age doesn't matter, it is my inclination to believe that it does.

In addition, I have had personal experience in the matter. I put up two sites at about the same time. One actually had better content with more searches for its keywords. However, I had just registered the domain. I put the other website up on a domain name that I had had sitting around my account for nearly two years and done nothing with. It's now been a month. I'm getting more than 90% of my traffic to the older domain name from search engines, and have yet to get a hit on my new domain name. There could be many reasons for this. However, I have done my best to give an advantage to the new domain name- better content, more frequent updates, careful title tags, etc. I will not claim that the age of the domain name is the only factor, but when combined with Mr. Cutts refusal to deny that it matters, I'm inclined to believe that domain name age does matter for SEO.

So what does this mean practically? Well- aged domain names cost more. It's simple business- if you pay to keep a domain registered and hosted, you are essentially keeping real estate and need to charge more to make up your costs. However, it could easily pay for itself in the long-run- or short-run for that matter. More visitors and more traffic leads to more business, so having the best domain name possible is critical.

No one who knows whether or not aging a domain matters will come out and tell you openly whether or not it matters, but I personally am inclined to believe it does. If you add to it a carefully chosen domain name that is memorable, has a keyword in it, and has no bad history, then I am inclined to believe you will do better in the search engines than if you register a new domain name and promptly start adding content.

Domain Names to Age or Not to Age

By: Darryl Millette

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