How much does a domain's age affect its ranking?

[CoachTerp]

"..don't worry about this much, not very much at all" does not mean it doesn't have at least a nominal amount of weight. He just "doesn't want us to jup to the assumption...," but never does he unequivocally state that it has no impact. ;)

[agapitoflores001]

Very nice points about domain age! I hope he discuss more about this.

[tobto1]

in short: if G sees two resources almost identical, more older will got +. Thx.

[estanuk]

Once again Cutts completely avoids the actual question.

[internetmall2]

Thanks this info helps a lot

[RemusLt]

is google still hosted on an IBM computers similar that i see a laptop on your table :)

[phillipnz69]

People are getting confused between domain age and the length of time a domain registration is purchased for (ie. you can register a domain for 5 years or more). The later is actually the message of the video - the title is misleading!!! He is saying how long into the future you decide to register for is not a ranking factor (as some SEOs say this indicates how long you intend to be around and say it is). Also the other message is just case they patent it does not mean they use it.

[infikitsune]

You say not to worry about your ranking algorithm looking at domain age, but then you don't deny that it does so. Do you really not know how your own software works, or are you purposely trying to mislead people?

[jontaioba]

Eu acredito que o tempo do domínio passa sim uma relevância ao google. Quanto maior o tempo mais confiança vc transmite ao google!

[jmorg1]

Is it just me or did he not really answer the question? "Don't worry about it too much" isn't exactly a "yes" or "no".

[ezekielvictor]

how to destroy Google:

1. form a registrar, register a domain, and fabricate its existence to show 2^63-1 years.

2. put a single index.htm file on it that has 50 yotabytes of text in it.

3. ???

4. lawl.

[hairyfrankfurt]

I find that a lot of people trust older domains that have acquired popularity and it's harder for new domains to get the same popularity that older ones have. But I see where you're coming from, Matt :)

[emarketed]

Thanks Matt. I do feel it plays a role though and if you have a domain around for 10 years it's going to do better than a domain that's 2 months old..

[bohicadeus]

Yeah, he didn't answer the question properly. The guy was asking if domain AGE mattered. Meaning, would a site that's been around 10 years do better than one just registered 2 months ago. He wasn't asking about how many years you pay for in advance. I'd like a "redo" of this answer with the proper information.

[VideoLeadsOnline]

I think your version of the question is valid..the issue is "Google's Sandbox". The age of a site/domain does seem to be taken into account when giving it "value". That value may be in the form of "trust" which seems to make a difference. It appears that links to a site are valued more if they come from an "older" more established site, so one might imply that the site from whence they come might be valued higher if it is older.

Kinda nerdy, but it seems that the Google Sandbox effect is true

[ZoharAashique]

For almost any question that's answered by Google 'great quality' or 'quality content' is always pointed out. I guess that would always be the way to go in your sites.

[gasyoun]

"we do use it in our rankings but I would rather not make it official." sound realistic

[videonovice08]

This answer doesn't make any sense. Google favors blogspot blogs to get higher page ranks (even if they are relatively new) compared to self-hosted blogs running on a different platform.

It seems that Matt Cutts is playing around the bush and making it appeal to everyone that content is king when in fact a large number of blogspot blogs have a very low quality to the very least some are just download sites that claim a high page rank.

[contentwritingadvice]

I think this Video is mislabeled. Matt was talking about the length of time you register your domain, 1 year, 2 years, so on into the future. He didn't actually talk about domain age, in terms of when the domain and site first appeared online...

[ameerulislam]

@contentwritingadvice I was thinking the same. Is there any video where he actually talked about domain age?

[AmericanFabricator]

The salient points are:

It was not based upon anything google said which means they are not denying it.

Move along folks, nothing to see here. In other words, we do use it in our rankings but I would rather not make it official.

Observation from personal experience:

The "google sandbox" is well in effect so plan your new venture accordingly.

[FloridaCarClubcom]

It sure sounds to me like your answer to everything is "don't worry about this, just focus on producing good content", which, in my opinion, is fairly obvious. How about some information that is not widely known?

[hendricius6]

Great video. May I ask which cam you are recording it with?

[jopolod]

Matt - thanks for the update but to go back to the question for a moment.  "How much does a domain's age affect its ranking?" The answer is what? (a) Not at all (b) a little (c) some or (d) a lot. From the video I guess (a) or (b) but I'm still not clear which one it is, thanks.

[chrisseoconsultant]

the bottom line is it does get used in the rankings just not very heavily.

[HelperNinja]

I recently had a GoDaddy support tech advise me against a single year registration due to SEO. Although he didn't specifically say Google indexed more efficiently in response to this, he did indicate it would be a greater benefit to me if I registered for multiple years (like 5 or more)... Thanks for the clarification!

[johniman7]

That is garbage, godaddy just trys to sell you stuff you don't need.

Domain age in my experience is pretty important, but I believe it is more "time since indexed" than it is the actual purchase of the domain.

[manfmnantucket]

good answer. I had been hearing these rumors too and wondering...

[srvwiz]

nice matt..as I see many registrars are taking benefit from this one..

[alps07]

Thanks Matt.

Quality comes first.

[alexmoba]

I've had this doubt for quite some time, thank you for clarifying!