Google’s John Mueller Responds to Question About Domain Age

Before this morning, I was under the impression that Google uses the age of a domain name as one of the (many) ways it determines a website’s position in its search results. I thought that developing a domain name that has been registered for many years could be helpful in getting a higher search engine ranking.

Apparently, I was mistaken in thinking this.

In a tweet on Wednesday, John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, answered a question that was posed to him about domain age by another Twitter user:

Mueller provided a short answer, but one that is helpful to know.

Although I don’t know Mr. Mueller, I understand he is one of the most respected authorities when it comes to Google search. I have heard his name mentioned many times, and he seems to have become the “goto” person now that Matt Cutts is no longer working at Google.

It was Mueller who dispelled the rumors/claims/opinions  about new gTLD domain names giving a ranking boost to websites that use them.

I  hope this tweet translates to lower auction prices at popular expiring domain name venues, but I am sure that won’t be the case!

 

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

8 COMMENTS

  1. I wouldn’t believe everything that the google talking heads say. He said nothing about domain age and how long a site has been up, and other factors that come with an older domain.

    • There is 100% no reason that Google would consider domain age as a ranking factor, on a purely ‘domain age’ basis.

      Are there side effects that can help rankings? Yes.

      Pure domain age? No.

    • I second Bill on this. Don’t fall hook, line and sinker for everything that is blogged, tweeted, posted etc.. Half the reason Matt Cutt is gone (probably) is he couldn’t stomach the webmaster blow back and Google lies anymore. There is too much money and politics in the mix of Google these days; it’s just not realistic to believe in transparency about search results anymore.

  2. good information, not only for auctions but also for people from forums that ask for ‘aged’ domains or for domains registered before a certain date, fhis making them ridiculous.

  3. good idea to use that filter to prevent use fishing sites to penetrate corporation mails, it’s almost the same for business, you have to have a long history and track records to deal with big players, a new patent could be deposited to check webarchive website and check if the said domain was not parked before sending email to the corporation 🙂

  4. This is something that the industry has blindly followed, developing valuation systems using some truly ridiculous philosophies that frankly are false. Back in the day, there was a “sandbox” effect that had a weighted penalty system that evolved from two years to six months. It was to prevent keyword loaded pages from early SEO masters from rising to the top overnight, in part to maximize clean results and in the majority to try and guide adoption of paid keyword campaigns through PPC programs. It is now almost entirely discontinued, as fresh relevant results and indexing are important, and Google’s broken pledge stacking a half page of ads, local business information, wikipedia, etc., has forced real organic results half off the page so they can profiteer. Nearly every major domain company using integrated metrics for valuations not only doesn’t understand this, but hide under blankets with bedazzled looks even when it’s being discussed. They incorporated several false metrics within their systems, and can’t remove them because the barebones reality system isn’t good for marketing or add to the viewing feel good factor. Bar SERP purchases, even prior Alexa/PageRanking/Importance ratings are just plain silly. I’d prefer a clean brand and domain any day with an unused history over one telling me it’s worth an additional $5k because of the traces it left historically when someone else used it. This industry and the domainers that follow it needs a brain enema, and the SEO buyers are in general not that bright when it comes to determining actual organic value.

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