If a domain is registered in say, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, but then goes unregistered from then till present, does google see it as registered since 2000?
I don't know if GoDaddy looks at the registration date or just how long a domain has been in it's database. I suspect the latter.
There is sure a point up for Age and Big favours age! So if there is no drop then its counted as a aged domain but if its a drop and catch domain then you need to the SE stuff from scratch.
thanks for the feedback, I beleive you are right about it renewing at most recent registration data. What happens though if I buy an active site and perhaps register the domain under my own, and possibly different register info? Does anyone have a source/know of an article that supports their theories?
Everything that was said here is completely wrong and based on what has been read, or heard from companies that have only been around since 1999, at best. As Far as SEO goes, the search engines could care less if it was dropped and re registered What you get with an aged domain is one that is not going to be sand trapped, and has been crawled and recognized steadily, and with any luck a little traffic. There is more weight put on how long it is registered until, combined with how long it's been registered. The only aspect of an aged but dropped, domain that should be of concern is, was it dropped because it was banned from a monetization program, or used for spamming back when ever it was dropped. Other than that, an owner who has an aged domain is doing you a favor by keeping it clean and spidered so you can hit the ground running. Next you need to put dynamic content on it, and register it out for the future, and perform additional SEO, and you hit the ground running with an aged domain that would other wise be off the market. There are a few hundred thousand domains dropped and re registered everyday. What would be the purpose of penalizing the domain because it was not continuous? With that logic, more than half of the domains on the web will be under penalty in 5 years. It doesn't make any sense and it is a completely untrue statement. This is something that buyers say to justify not paying an asking price, and naive sellers fall for it, not knowing that age, any age over a year automatically saves the new owner considerable time, and money. If you think it's untrue, just use common sense, look at how many threads are started every day. "I can't get indexed" "I think I'm in the sand trap" "I have zero traffic" "What's the sand trap" "Google won't index my pages" "Yahoo won;t index my pages" "MSN won't index my pages" How much time and money is wasted by new site owners with this non sense. The money they saved, bitching about domain resellers, and registering a new one, or buying a $30 one, ends up costing them months of productivity waiting for these other issues to resolve themselves with the things that new domains go through when they are first put online. So basically, save $$$ , and waste 3 months and an update waiting to get recognized, and trusted. You are going to spend it one way or another (Time or money), may as well hit the ground running and at least give yourself a shot. JMO
It's my belief that the age cannot have any gaps in it's registration or any small benefit from this will start over at the beginning. i.e. registered 2001-current receives the boost while registered 2001-2003 *gap* 2007 will not.
I doubt that Google keeps a huge history database of registrations of all websites or pays someone for access such a massive database. Age has more to do with how long it has been in Google's SERPS than when it was registered... and is just one of many criteria used by Google to rank sites. Focus on content and backlinks.