How important is the domain age?

[DougDavidson]

Domain age by itself is not important. Tests have proven this. You can have brand new domain pages indexed quickly - albeit the theoretical "Google Sandbox." Universal search experiments have also proven you can get 1st page above the fold SERP for brand new domain pages too.

Its factors like links, content, updates, etc. that add to contextual history and value to older domain.

Hope that helps. All the best,

Doug

[Cornbread]

Domain age is important for about the first 9 months, just because it is "indexed quickly" is illrelevant. Just being indexed doesn't mean you rank well. While not impossible, it is very difficult to get a good ranking with a brand new domain for competitive search terms. New domains don't usually have that many quality inbound links either so that greatly contributes to the theoretical sand box penalty.

[DougDavidson]

Domain age by itself has no value. How is domain age important in the first 9 months?

A parked ten year old domain with no activity - no links, no index, or any web site existence ever - won't get ranked higher or faster than a new domain page under competitive search terms, if the old domain's suddenly put to use. By this, I mean it's not the age of the domain that helps a page rank high under competitive terms. It's all the other wonderful optimization that supposedly comes with age i.e. links, content refresh, context, etc.

Domain age and other factors are two different things.

And yes, a brand new domain page can be ranked in first place in short time, but probably not cases of highly competitive search terms. I've only seen one experiment where an one day old domain showed up above the fold on Google's first page among 3 million plus keyword results... but that was because it was a universal search result. All else is crystal ball gazing - like everyone else who doesn't work for Google.

Hope that clarifies it. All the best,

Doug

[Cornbread]

Originally Posted by DougDavidson

Domain age by itself has no value. How is domain age important in the first 9 months?

Doug

Some people have used the term sand box penalty, it's a debatable topic, but there is some evidence that a brand new domain will receive a penalty for approximately the first 9 months, but that time frame is extremly fluid based on number and quality of inbound links. There is also some evidence that it is just a matter of new domains not having enough inbound links.....but regardless, either way you believe, it takes about 9 months to get enough natural inbound links to rank well. This is of course all relative to how competitive your search terms are. So yes domain age does have value, initialy anyway, but of course, nothing has value by itself, that is why it's called an algorithym.

[coolguy27]

Very important to SEO especially because they are tremendously respected by Google....

More links that it accumulated especially compared to brand new site...

Read more...Google Ranking Factors from seomoz

[seconnection]

I feel domain age is one of the largest seo factors today!

[ezhel]

exactly!it appears to be a credible site if it has good and related backlinks plus traffic.

Originally Posted by parusa619

Age of a domain is very important because of the backlinks and traffic accumulated by a site that may increase the chance of getting on top of SERPs.

[harsha22]

Age of domain is very important.

[deceylon]

I agrees with big G

[firecat]

I have had my domain for a few years, but the website itself has gone through several major mutations. Does anyone know whether age still has any benefit under those circumstances?

[shoaeeb]

It has good importance on ranking.

[ting_1]

Of course Domain age is very important . It course many influence that said by so many people .That's my opinion

[Sam Millington]

Domain age can help to get ranking.

[Cornbread]

Originally Posted by firecat

I have had my domain for a few years, but the website itself has gone through several major mutations. Does anyone know whether age still has any benefit under those circumstances?

After about a year I don't think it matters. Brand new sites don't rank very well because they don't have many inbound links, but a site one year old with 500 inbound links will always rank better than a 20 year old site with 100 inbound links. Quality of the links also plays a role, but age of domain, not so much.

[bermuda]

Well, one of the advantage and positive points about older domain names could be the matter of Google Sandbox and Trustrank because usually the older names have passed such exams successfully and can be better ranked with good links.

[baranbuffet]

Domain Age is really very important factors for your site ranking....

[Jason_Merchant]

An often overlooked factor in an SEO campaign or SEO website design is the age of the domain being used. Well established sites are known to far better in search engine results and Google, in particular, is widely believed to penalize the newest of websites. In the eyes of the search engines, the older a domain, the more reliable the website or web page is. Search engines will usually consider the age of the content as well as how
long a domain has been registered.

[Cornbread]

No No No, domain age isn't that important. It is the inbound links people, not the age of the domain. There are plenty of old crappy, spammy sites that will never rank as good as a new, well read, quality site with a lot of solid inbound links.

[seokingworld]

Yes domain age is also very much important for search engines ranking for a website.

[Sudhir Goyal]

If we have on old domain name and one new one. And, both have equal no. of backlinks. Then, which will be better as far as search ranking is concerned ?

I have learnt from one SEO expert's article that Google gives more weightage to the domains registerd for longer duration vis-a-vis shorter time period. If that is true, then logic guides that older domains will have more weightage to newer one, when every thing else is almost at par.