How important is domain age?

[chicagojoe]

I'm researching a new market and one of the factors that I am stuck on is domain age. I have heard people talk on both sides of the fence on this, either it doesn't matter that much, or it does matter alot.

What I'm trying to figure out is should I go into a new market with a brand new domain name, or buy a pre existing one that is a few years old? In other words, will it be a mistake to start with a new domain name?

I'm using the tool Market Samurai for research. I feel that I can compete in the market for the keywords I have found, but the top 10 sites always seem to have an age of 5+ years. It's the one factor that most of the competition will beat me in if I go with a brand new domain name.

Should I be concerned about domain age?

[billmcintosh]

Domain age is definitely a big part of Google's trust algorithms. However, just picking up an old or dropped domain doesn't necessarily help you with this. (Sometimes it does & sometimes not I haven't isolated why this is). Also, sometimes the old domain you buy has a bad history with Google (maybe it was used for spam or part of a "bad neighborhood")

Brand new domain names and sites have a bit of an uphill battle to get established in competitive markets. So it can definitely be worth it if you can buy a domain name with a site attached to it that is indexed in Google & the theme of content on that site matches what you plan to put up.

Otherwise, just find a nice brandable domain name and don't worry about domain age.

[otisduffy68]

But not all that has old domains has high rank it real depends of the people working on the site.

[oclights]

what is the optimal expiration time for domain ? I heard 2 years. I know less than one year is not good.

[radinfo1]

Domain age has more influence with Bing/Yahoo than with Google.

Older domains are less likely to get hit with the Google Dance as well.

Plus older domains (if they have content on them) typically already have some links back to them. A old domain name that has never had anything published on it isn't any better than a new domain.

If you get a new domain be prepared for a couple of months of bouncing up and down in the rankings until things settle out.

[adonaaddie]

I agree with you