26
Oct 05
Oct 05
by Patrick Gavin Strategy with 17 Comments
It seems Google has intensified the ranking factor of one key data point that is very tough to manipulate: the age of your domain name. I have been keeping an eye on trends with Google’s search results and it seems that there is an increasing trend towards "trusted sites" owning page one. A "trusted site" is loosely defined by me as: an older domain, a nice mix of anchor text, links built over time, links coming in from all kinds of c class blocks, maybe a .edu snuck in there, etc.
The factor I want to focus in on and get your thoughts on though is the age of the domain. This seems to me to be a very important factor in top search rankings for Google in today’s climate. I chatted with Ben Pheiffer who thinks that you have a distinct advantage if you have a pre 2002 domain name to work with. The exact year is of course debatable and there are countless exceptions to this rule but I do agree with the general thesis: when it comes to domain names, the older the better.
In my very unscientific test I looked at two commercial searches that I track regularly. I looked at the top 10 results from each of these searches and took each of the 10 domains in the results over to Whois Source to check to see when the domains were registered. The average domain in Set A was created in 1998 and the average domain in Set B was created in 1999! The most recently created domains out of the top 10 of either search was 2003.
OK now I am not naive enough to overlook the fact that old domains usually have the most incoming links because they have had time on their side. This is true but the trend of old domains ranking to the top goes deeper than that. One trend in particular is if you start with a "trusted site" then build a sub page topic on about anything and it will magically jump into top ranking contention.
As Andy Hagans has said when looking at today’s SERPS at Google, "Old domains can get away with murder". What he was referring to is this growing trend where people with old domains are adding new sub pages, building links at will to these pages without mixing anchor text or doing any "natural link building" and these pages seem to be on a rocket collision course to the top of the Google SERPS.
Simply put it seems you have almost an unfair advantage with an older domain in today’s Google, particularly if it passes some kind of "trusted site" test. I would like to keep writing on this but I am off to make some offers on some domains from the 1990’s 
17 comments - add your's now
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Can Google Deal With Blog Search?
Patrick Gavin over at Link Building Blog notes that Google’s search engine favors older web domains. In light of this, is it possible that Google is quite vulnerable to b
The older the berry, the sweeter the juice.
I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time too Patrick, and I totally agree. It is downright screwy some of the old sites I see ranking. Finding “age loopholes” will be the next big thing in SEO.
Old sites DO get away with murder. I think they have went a bit heavy on the aging filters currently, and I’m willing to bet we’ll see them dialed back a bit. If not, exploiting the age variable will become much more prolific.
On our “cool tool” we’ve added an age field, and I am generally hard pressed to find post-2003 domains in the top 10 for any two word phrases.
Has anyone noticed if changing domain ownership affects this “senior” status.
When you’re talking about the age of the domain, I’m assuming you’re specically talking about the “create date”? I don’t think the ownership change has anything to do with it–personally I think it’s the actual create date that matters.
Unless you buy a domain that created quality credible content in the past and continues to do so today, domain age is worthless. I think you may have over-simplified things a bit too much and might be confusing people into believing that older domains are somehow better just because they are older. Google understands that PageRank (based on the popularity of inbound links to a site and the popularity of the sites that link to that site) alone is fundamentally flawed. PageRank alone enables popular yet not credible sites and content to filter to the top of the Google results. For example, a site that states Bush is related to Hitler may be popular with a bunch of websites but it shouldnât be returned before credible websites when people search for Bushâs ancestry. As a result, Google is now rolling out Trust Rank along with PageRank. Letâs say for example that CNN is a trusted site. If CNN linked to a site 2 years ago in conjunction with an article about X then that domain may have a bit of trust rank as it relates to X. However, if the domain has changed owners, IPâs, etc then all these may affect the domains ability to keep their gifted trust. Additionally, if there is no recent connection to current trust (recent trust link to site A then link to site B then link to site C then link to domain) then itâs likely that the little bit of trust rank the site may have had from a link 2 years ago on CCN is all but fizzled out. No need for me to ramble on â just donât be fooled into believing that you should buy or pay more for older domains. Itâs not how old the domain is â itâs more about how long the site has been trusted and continues to be trusted a source for valuable and credible information. By a brand new domain, build credible & valuable content, and in a few years youâll not only have PageRank and recent TrustRank from the credible sites that link to you, but youâll have earned historical trust.
Fellas,
2 posts selling domains have been deleted. Let’s not turn LBB into another Sedo.com, thanks!
“Has anyone noticed if changing domain ownership affects this “senior” status.”
I’ve purchased an old site that ranked well in Google and changed the name servers etc to reflect the new owner’s details and this did not have any effect on my rankings. I can see the reasoning behind such fears, but on the other hand I ask why would a search engine penalize a site because it’s ownership has changed?
“Itâs not how old the domain is â itâs more about how long the site has been trusted and continues to be trusted a source for valuable and credible information.”
Amazing… not 1 hour ago did I have that same conclusion while discussing the recent trends and how to move forward with our sales and marketing manager. That conclusion can easily be missed if not enough criteria are analyzed and not enough samples are taken. This one is easy to oversimplify because of some inherent factors with many older domains.
Today is the Right Time to Buy Old Sites…
Post about why now would be a good time to search Google and buy old sites.
So which is better…a pre-2002 URL or new one that includes keywords in the main URL?
I have also noticed that older domains are much easier to move up in the search engines.
Here’s something else to study: If Google trusts older domains, do they trust domains that are registered for more than one year at a time? I just registered the maximum amount of time on one of my domains to see if it makes a difference.
Music Portal Website
Most MP3 portals have overcome this by using a combination of user registration, pre-authorisation and transaction batching or polling…
I heard that its not how old it is literaly, i.e. in the whois registration; but rather it matters how old it is in that of how ling it has been indexed in the search engines- which as a general rule can be determined by archive.org
Domain Age one of the Biggest Poin in SEO.
Most of us know that the age of a domain is one of the single most important criteria of the Google algo. I’d put it as a top ten – maybe top five – filter. It is a gate keeper.
The real question to me is if that matters on a parked or doa domain? We have some domains 10years old this month that have never had sites on them. I am wondering if there is a default value there because of the age? Is it a pure whois thing? Or is it an age of the inbound links thing?
http://www.fundouble.com
Can I check the domain list from somewhere?
Thanks
I’ve heard MC talk about domains having different types of websites over the years… as if it was easy for him to tell that a domain once was about one subject matter, and then changed to a different subject matter. I believe he referred to this as a sign of trust. I heard this at least once at PubCon/Vegas.
This made me think that the length of time a domain has been used for a specific topic is what really matters, not just the length of time the domain has been registered. Of course if the domain was parked on your own server, with a simple page with info about whatever subject matter you will eventually build-out on the site, this may be enough to allow the trust to build.
http://www.pinkisthenewblog.info
Facts On Domain Age
When valuing a domain you have to look beyond just the link and age related equity it already has built up. How self reinforcing are its key attributes? Would it be easy for someone else to steamroll over your key widget by throwing a bit of ajax on a similar tool? Does a newer competitor have a richer community driven environment that is picking up steam? Are your links next to impossible for others to get? How official or legitimate does the name sound? Will you be able to build it into something that can continue to gain traction and authority? Or is it going to be a site surviving on past popularity until it withers away?
SEO
http://www.virtualstudiopros.com