Why is Domain Age Worth Looking at When Buying Domains?

When looking at domains to buy, you could focus on many different factors.

For SEO, you might look at exact match domains for keywords with high monthly search and/or high Adwords cost-per-click. Additionally, you might consider high advertiser competition to confirm it’s a solid market/niche.

For branding, you’d look at whether it’s easy to say/spell/type, how catchy/memorable it is and the kind of identity and message it portrays. Short length is also a factor if you require something openly brandable.

What about domain age? What exactly does a higher domain age mean for a domain? Age does provide some SEO benefits, but not the targeted super boost like an exact match domain gives. That said, there are other reasons to focus on age.

Why is domain age worth looking at when buying domains?

1. SEO power on a brandable domain

Many SEOs have understood that Google does show a little favoritism towards aged domains. Not a ton, but enough for it to make a difference vs. a new or merely slightly old domain. Since a brandable domain generally won’t be able to provide a keyword-powered SEO boost, high age can help the domain give you some SEO benefits. Something is better than nothing!

2. Additional SEO power on an exact match domain

Exact match domains do wield lots of SEO power, but why stop there? If that domain is also aged, you’ll get that added oomph that may help you reach page 1 a little sooner.

3. To avoid Google’s “sandbox”

Getting a highly aged name adds a positive while taking away a negative: newness. Google is not generally fond of new domains, enough such that they let new domains settle first in their sandbox. You’ll have a harder time achieving rankings on a new domain than one even 6-12 months old let alone an older domain.

4. Because the best domains have already been taken

This is not ALWAYS true – sometimes new concepts like blogs, tube sites, and apps along with new trends like in branding come along to create value in newer domains. That said, in just about every established industry, the best names are old ones. Not every old domain is good, but there’s a better chance of an older domain being higher quality than a newer one.

5. Unlike other factors, age only improves and becomes rarer

On March 6, 1997, the 1 millionth domain was registered through Network Solutions, covering all .com, .org, .net, .edu, and .gov. Today, .com alone has over 99 million registrations and total registrations across all extensions is over 215 million and growing.

Meanwhile, some aged domains drop completely and thus actually lose their age. So aged domains get rarer in two ways – relative to total registrations and due to drops. Consider that backlinks and pagerank typically get worse if not vanish entirely if you do nothing – domain age improves without you having to lift a finger!

Getting an aged domain may not be the silver bullet to solve all your worries, but it certainly can provide some help. That’s why we have a strong focus on aged domains. In fact, our Holiday Season $99 domain sale still has over 80 domains aged 5-12 years ready for the taking!

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