Hi all, I read about the benefits of aged domains regarding SEO...many people may believe otherwise. If there are benefits to an aged domain, does it matter if it was dropped? If an old domain was dropped and re-registered, does google see it as a brand new domain or would it know that it was active from say 2002 and give you the same benefits of a non dropped domain from 02? Thanks
If it was dropped once - I believe Google would see that as a dropped domain. So if it was dropped in '02 - and let's say it was registered in 1999 - Google wouldn't count the first three years.
Domain Age is a ranking factor in Google's algorithm but IMO it's not really as important as a lot of people make it out to be. No single ranking factor is going to make or break your rankings when Google is looking at over 200 ranking factors. This is likely especially true w/ domain level ranking factors that affect every URL on the site like domain age, domain trust, domain authority, etc. Domain Age may "appear" to be really important because it typically takes years to build a strong enough backlink profile to rank well for competitive keyword phrases. But if you can do it in months, the age of your domain alone will not likely keep you off of page 1. There are millions of sites just months old ranking on page 1.