Effect of the Domain Age on Google Page Rank

Domain age refers to the age of the domain name of a website. It considers the age of the site and the time since the domain name was registered. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an important process in improving the page ranking of the website and many believe that the domain age must be taken into consideration, along with the website optimisation and SEO activities.

How much relevance does domain age have in determining your page ranking on Google?

According to Google’s metrics, higher the domain age, higher is the website’s authoritativeness. The logic behind this metrics is that if a domain exists for a long period of time, it must be of high relevance to the web users. As believed, people tend to trust a business which has been around for a long time over the brand which has been recently launched. The same applies in case of websites. In the latest changes made by Google, more emphasis is laid on the age of the domain, the incoming links, web content and the date the domain name was registered.

These changes introduced by Google are an attempt to identify the genuine websites and bar the spam sites. In order to minimise search engine spamming, Google gives a 3-4 months waiting period to newly launched websites before giving them any importance on Page Rank. This is some of the many efforts being taken by Google to streamline the number of websites that appear on its search pages.

However, critics believe that domain age is only a small contributing factor in Page Rank. There are several other factors that may have a larger influence over page ranking including content originality, prominence of a link on a webpage etc. Website owners have to have relevant content and adopt search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to fit in the page ranking algorithm of Google. This means that just by having an old domain name or by buying a pre-registered domain name would help you rank highly on Google’s search page. The website has to serve the purpose for which it has been created. It has to have informative content which holds the interest on the web users and compels them to go through the website and visit it again.

Website optimisation has to be followed as an on-going process by the website owners in order to maintain the site’s visibility on Google’s search pages. The keywords that are most used by the target audience on search pages have to be identified and must be placed strategically on the web pages. The content has to be up-to-date. Any obsolete information would make the web page useless (which happens a lot of times in case of websites with higher domain age, as the site owners fail to update the content). Link-building and several other search engine optimisation activities must be carried out to help the site maintain its ranking.

Thus, there is no denial that the domain age can have a positive effect on Google Page Rank, it is not the most important contributing factor. It may not harm the page ranking, but it cannot do much in enhancing its visibility.

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