How Important to Search Engines is Site Age?
One of the often disputed factors when it comes to search engine organic ranking algorithms is the importance of the site's age. The SEOmoz ranking factor study included it, and it received a relative importance rating of 4, "Exceptional Importance," with relative agreement among the panelists. As with the other factors chosen by SEOmoz to focus on, Site Age is worth a discussion that can last days and weeks, as further research is completed by SEOs measuring this potential impact.
Cre8asite Forums, in fact, has been discussing this particular topic for a few weeks. The discussion was introduced by British member xyZed, who gave an example of an older domain he had owned for a while. He states that he was advised by respected SEO Ammon Johns to keep the domain, which he has owned 4 and a half years, and point it to his main domain, which is two years older. This particular question actually veers into another subject, the importance of having a .co.uk domain instead of a .com when doing business primarily in the UK. However, his worry is that if he switches the content and 301s from .com to .co.uk, he would lose some value form the age of the .com, which as mentioned is two years older.
A very interesting question which has so far drawn out some splendid responses. Join the thread at Cre8asite Forums.
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chrisboggs in Search Engine Optimization at April 4, 2007 8:59 AM
Comments (6)
Comments
Domain age doesn't matter nearly as much as SEOs believe it should. I can take any new domain and get it to rank for most reasonably competitive queries in 2-3 months.
Does that mean I would turn a clean aged domain if it was offered to me? Probably not, but my reasons would be different from most people's reasons.
As far as preferring a .co.uk domain over a .com domain for UK search, that makes better sense than preferring a .com over a .co.uk domain because of age.
Posted by Michael Martinez at April 4, 2007 11:36