Domain Registered in 1996 - Does it help?

Does purchasing a domain name that was regged in 1996 help with SEO?

Some details:
Domain name that has been registered by the same owner since 1996
Never had an active site except for a few months of being parked in 2004
Currently doesn't resolve to an active site.

Would starting a site with this domain name give me an advantage over a name I registered in 2004?

 

Probably not enough to make a BIG difference, however EVERY little bit helps.

Good luck,

 

It will depend more in the text in the domain than if its older or not, IMHO

 

I doubt it. Although some people would disagree. Is it indexed by Google or any of the other engines? If so.. it might provide a small difference, but if not.. it shouldn't have any change. I prefer starting with unused domains.. you never know what kind of content was on the domain before, and if it has any SE penaltys that could possibly carry over. (But, if its a better domain (easier to remember, shorter, better matches the site) then I'd say go for it anyway.)


Josh

 

Once registration changes hands, even if first registered in 2,000 BC, you start from ZERO in the eyes of the SEs. If there was a major online following to where you inherit a significant unique visitor count... then it could make a difference.

 

Totally agree. Check http://www.archive.org for a history on the domain. Has it been indexed the whole time without interruptions? If so, that is a good sign and you may be surprised by its rankability. But if there were interruptions, there can be various reasons and one could be that there has been a problem with possible penalties.

If you have been indexed for years without any problems, I'd say that you could have an advantage.

Mike

 

I've bought a domain name that was indexed for 6 years. After the whois and the content changed, this was what happened:

For 4 months the title and description from the previous site were unchanged in Google. Then it changed and right away we started ranking for terms that the old domain of ours didn't rank for. So I would say, yes ... the age and history of a domain have great impact regardless of ownership. What if Amazon.com was bought and the whois changed? They would lose their rankings. Don't think so.


Mike

<edit>The old domain's content was transferred to the new domain.</edit>

 

Sitetutor, I would agree if there was a buyout of all assets. Just a name without customer list and product (sic content) is meaningless. If a major brand is purchased it usually includes all assets/product. For me to buy Monster.com and to try to sell only baby clothes on it... get the message.

 

Loud and clear, seo_am
But I have seen several cases where a domain has been purchased, the content and whois info changed and still the urls started ranking for terms that new domain names take 6 months to a year getting up there for.

So IMO the ownership info has nothing to do with it. I have seen discussions about that in several forums (such as seochat) and opinions were always divided.

The only thing I have seen was that domain names that have been indexed for a long time, take a while for Google to recognize the changes (if there are any).

Especially in industries such as real estate where we have seen the same sites rank for the past few years. I would like to see one example of a domain name that had to "start over" due to change of ownership.

 

Absolutely, there is a benefit if there is any semblance of alignment with the prior content/subject relativity. My point: to buy a URL only because it is "old" without maintaining current registration is meaningless unless there is a following for that URL and/or the product category/content is maintained.

 

OK, but how about urls such as digitalpoint.com which are ranking for anything from "Kansas Mortgages" to "nude male pics"?

Wouldn't that indicate that the age, amount of power of the url is what makes the difference here? Are you saying if someone bought this url and turned it into a site about knitting, the likelihood of it ranking right away for "knitting" isn't there because of ownership change or overall change of content?

Mike

 

in my experience only old links seem to count

an old domain with no backlinks might as well be a new domain

 

Good point, I have thought the same thing about old links being very valuable, but wasn't 100% sure.

 

here is one of the discussions I was referring to (this one from seochat).

See post #9:

so this statement:

would be wrong.

 

I believe Egol, a friend and fellow moderator at SEO Chat, is saying exactly what I am saying. If you buy it in total... not just the name. Backlinks go to pages: some to the index page and others to internal content, if it is a good site, to the internals. To benefit from the purchase in total, it should include the content... not just the name. If you go from Amazon.com current orientation to just baby clothes, you will soon have those backlinks disappear. Again, it is good to purchase an old domain name as long as you can take advantage of what make them strong... not just age.

 

Google will sandbox a domain name, regardless of age, with an ownership change. This is even in their patent - and I experienced it personally with a domain I owned since 1999. I made the mistake of changing registar information and google saw this as an ownership change. While the site wasn't fully developed and wasn't ranking high, it was completely dropped from the rankings. Even minor keywords were not found. Google did not refer a single visitor to the site for almost 3 months to the day. It started ranking in the top ten for many keywords after 3 months - overnight - and without adding any backlinks. Google traffic was then several hundred vistors a day.

If it is a fully developed site then I do not think you will be subject to the sandbox - at least as long as the theme of the site doesn't go through a drastic theme change.

The benefit to an older name is that it will escape the sandbox if there is no change to the register information. Google is wise to buying older, undeveloped domain names- and they flag it with a change in ownership. Not all sectors are subject to the sandbox imo, so it may be a moot point.

If the site is developed, and already out of the sandbox, I don't think age makes any difference.

 

In my case the domain name wasn't dropped at all from the SERPs. Even after ownership has changed. There was 0 incoming links from any sites but the domain has never lost indexing (I guess it once had links that then were taken off at some point). After 3-4 months and overnight the site started ranking for a real estate related term that would normally take 2-3 years for a brandnew domain to get.
Yes, I had added some links, but those were new links.
So my advice is: if your name has been indexed for years without being penalized ... go get it.

 

The sandbox doesn't mean google doesn't index your site, or de-indexes your site, it means that google doesn't count your backlinks for serp purposes. In your case, you didn't have any links so there was nothing to sandbox. My site never lost PR, was never de-indexed, didn't lose backlinks, but being in a highly competitive field, didn't rank without the benefit of its existing backlinks being used in the serp rankings.

 

I would expect it to be helpful if the site was indexed and did not change theme.

There has got to be some benefit even if the domain was just sitting registered, but no-one knows exactly how much benefit there would be...

As long as the name hasn't expired, I would probably rather use the older one..

 

I believe so, too. Or at least the time of being indexed. Even if there is a delay of a few months, once the url gets recognized, it performs well better than brandnew domains would.