Advice on Picking Domain with Age or Not

[ChiefLee]

Hey guys. I need a little advice. We will be launching a new site. And it's going to be important to try to establish SERPs / organic traffic as quickly as possible. We have a number of domains we purchased back in 2004 that we can pick a name from (bought several names littered with important keywords at the time). And I'm unsure how important domain age is. And whether or not a domain has age, but has been unused, does the age still add value (or as much). So my options are:

1 - Use a domain that has been up and running since 2004, but not used much. Gets indexed regularly (has been used recently as a blog that we can replace). The URL is fine, but unfortunately it's a .us which doesn't excite me. I personally prefer .com's as I assume they're easier to remember for the customer. It has a couple of inbound links, but not enough for that to be a determining factor.

2 - We also own the .com version of the same domain name (since '04). So it has some age. I don't know why we used the .us version instead of the .com version when it was first setup. It's possible that both were setup at one point pointing towards the same site, and only one (the .us) got migrated to the new server (which would have happened about a year ago). I noticed the .com is pointed towards our old server. Which means that it MIGHT have been live at one point.

3 - Go ahead and just get a new name and don't worry about the age of the domain.

***

And one more thing. We're probably 60 days away from launching the site. I could go ahead and move the blog at the .us to the .com so there's live content there for the next two months. If that's a benefit.

[SteveGerencser]

Its not the "age" of the domain that matters, its what was done with it during that time.. That is why some people think domain age plays a role, the forget to account for all the years of effort put in to a site..

If I had to choose between a .com and a .us, .com baby.. Unless its some horrible nasty name..

[angilina]

Hey guys. I need a little advice. We will be launching a new site. And it's going to be important to try to establish SERPs / organic traffic as quickly as possible. We have a number of domains we purchased back in 2004 that we can pick a name from (bought several names littered with important keywords at the time). And I'm unsure how important domain age is. And whether or not a domain has age, but has been unused, does the age still add value (or as much). So my options are:

1 - Use a domain that has been up and running since 2004, but not used much. Gets indexed regularly (has been used recently as a blog that we can replace). The URL is fine, but unfortunately it's a .us which doesn't excite me. I personally prefer .com's as I assume they're easier to remember for the customer. It has a couple of inbound links, but not enough for that to be a determining factor.

2 - We also own the .com version of the same domain name (since '04). So it has some age. I don't know why we used the .us version instead of the .com version when it was first setup. It's possible that both were setup at one point pointing towards the same site, and only one (the .us) got migrated to the new server (which would have happened about a year ago). I noticed the .com is pointed towards our old server. Which means that it MIGHT have been live at one point.

3 - Go ahead and just get a new name and don't worry about the age of the domain.

***

And one more thing. We're probably 60 days away from launching the site. I could go ahead and move the blog at the .us to the .com so there's live content there for the next two months. If that's a benefit.

I will suggest to see this video in which Matt Cutts from Google answered the very question that you asked

youtube.com/watch?v=Y1_1NQWQJ2Q&feature=PlayList&p=841CB8F9F31BF5D5&index=45

[SteveGerencser]

That is a totally different thing Angi.. That is length of domain registration in the future, not age of domain in the past..

[Moxie Soho]

I will suggest to see this video in which Matt Cutts from Google answered the very question that you asked

youtube.com/watch?v=Y1_1NQWQJ2Q&feature=PlayList&p=841CB8F9F31BF5D5&index=45

Yes awesome video.

[claybutler]

Go with the best domain regardless of age. It's all about the long term. Why avoid your most strategic choice just to gain a quick, temporary (and possibly imaginary) gain?

Age of a domain is waaaay overrated.

[ChiefLee]

Hey claybutler, you may be right. But are you saying that from gut reaction of from anything empirical?

[ChiefLee]

Its not the "age" of the domain that matters, its what was done with it during that time.. That is why some people think domain age plays a role, the forget to account for all the years of effort put in to a site..

If I had to choose between a .com and a .us, .com baby.. Unless its some horrible nasty name..

Well today I've got our IT guys swapping it over (the current blog) from the .us to the .com anyway. So now I'm down to two choices. Either drop the new e-commerce site onto the .com or buy a new domain name.

I guess most of us feel that there's not much "added" value in a domain name that google would know is 5 years old?

[angilina]

That is a totally different thing Angi.. That is length of domain registration in the future, not age of domain in the past..

Very true. I mixed up things a little :)

I have seen Matt Cutts talk about this matter somewhere, may be it was his blog.

When I saw this video title, I thought he talked about this matter in it. Which he has not.

"I guess most of us feel that there's not much "added" value in a domain name that google would know is 5 years old? "

If this 5 years old domain contains relevant content, that is: the new site's Niche is relevant to the old niche, and that there are some quality/relevant backlinks pointing to this old domain, then I guess you should go with developing this old domain.

If this old domain have no useful content in it and no good backlinks, then you can either go with a new one or with this old domain: choosing any of these will have somewhat the same results.

[The Leader]

If the older domains have any pr I would probably use them to give me a head start!

[PPIS]

I agree that age is probably over rated and that it really matters what the domain name has been doing in the past but on the basis that 'every little helps', it's still worth capitalising on any small piece of the SEO jigsaw puzzle, however tiny!

I think that the way I'd handle this would be to make the .com domain the primary domain now on the existing site. Then submit a new sitemap to Google under the .com domain and find some sites where you can secure some links to the .com domain. Once that is in place, use a 301 redirect on the .us domain. This way you shouldn't lose any visibility, everything is within guidelines and by the time you are ready to launch the new site, Google should have indexed the .com domain and you should be in a good position.

I have used this process several times for clients who have decided to rebrand etc and it has worked each time with very little disruption to traffic. You have a couple of months for this to shake itself out but don't leave it too long.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Duncan

[edhan]

Frankly, I do not think much of the age of domain but instead more about the quality content and IBL. Start thinking about building your site for visitors and create a fantastic quality site. Get authority sites linking to you. Build trust and for a long term website. Relying on factor like age domain will not give you long term benefits if you do not have quality content and quality IBL.

I always remember one thing - build website for visitors not thinking too much for search engines. I do believe search engines will find you when you give quality content sites.

[weegillis]

Yes age may be a factor, when the history of the site is taken into consideration. As previously pointed out, what has been done with a site during its past will have a bearing on the quality of the IBL's and the PR it has accrued. But what happens when what you do has a negative effect, just because of the departure from the old?

My assumptions?--old domain, carry the brand or suffer the consequences; new domain, haul ass and get early recognition, then never look back.

[mtuba4u]

age of domain is one thing, age of URL is another! you need both.

new URL's on old domains do not do as well as old URL's on old domains, age of URL is critical.....

if used on static pages then it is more impoartant.

In Database driven sites the age of domains and URL's is irelevant.

Search engines know the differeance between static pages and database driven pages.

How is your site constructed ?

IBL - Inbound links is the real key..........!!!!@!!!

If you have other sites make sure that the IBL key words, page description and title are writen into the link code, poorly formed links are not effective and carry minimal weight.

make sure your IBL (inbound links) have the correct code. this is the most important part of SEO.

IBL must match your page keywords, page description and page title for best results at all search engines.

OBL - out bound links are also very important, and if you do not have at least 1 out bound link per page you may battle to get any score with SEO. if you have a link share programe it really helps.

make sure you have a face book profilre, a twitter profile and a myspace profile for your web site and ensure that they are updated atleast once a week and you will be shocked at the differance in your rankings at all seracxh engines.

domain age is a factor, but it is a very small factor, and you shpould rather worry about content, inbound links and link exchanges. out bound links must go to relevant pages otherwise you will be punished with negative factors by many search engines, with large negative scores dropping you right out ofd the picture. so be prepared to link to your oppositions pages untill your rankings are feasable.


domain age is a factor, but this only helps when URL ages are relevant to the domain age. new pages take some time to get high rankings for old key words, and should contain new copy structure with out quoting old pages, or else update the old page without changing the URL

URL placements are critical, that is why you should have folders with key words as names within your directory structure, and make sure that names are relevant.

enjoy the hard work !!!

[PaulSymonds]

I personally think a lot of emphasis needs to be put on localisation for the domain i.e. if a localised business you really might as well go for your county's prefix such as co.uk or com.au
Age of domain of course helps but it only one of so many factors hence I would not over-worry about domain age.

[leegrace]

It really depends on your site that what is it's value on search engines. If it is really valuable you can continue with that. :)