Did you know that the date your domain was registered can affect how much traffic you are getting? Google checks the age of your site's domain name as part of their indexing algorithm, and research suggests that the older it is, the better you will rank. Why? It comes down to trust and reliability. Think about it in terms of physical stores that you pass on your high street everyday. Are you more trusting of the big chain that has been around 10 years or the shifty looking corner shop which opened yesterday? Google thinks like you. If it see's an old domain it assumes that business is good and your site is valuable to Internet users. What You Should Do Now You Know This 1. Whenever you are registering a new domain, buy it for a 10 year period. If Google sees you've only registered it for a year you are giving the impression you bought it on a whim and will probably give up on maintaining your site after 6 months. Purchasing a 10 year contract shows the bots you are serious about your site, and you will achieve a higher rank. 2. Before buying a domain, visit justdropped.com. I use this free service to find niche domain that have recently become available. You get the double-whammy effect of tracking down a quality niche domain as well as inheriting the history and age of the domain. For example, if the previous owner had it registered for 5 years and it has just expired, Google will give you the credit. Remember, many factors go into SEO, your domain age and registration period being one of them. Don't fall at the first hurdle. Register it right.
"registration period being one of them" I do not think this part influences your SERP. As you said, a rich guy registers a domain for 10 years and his site will come to top at Google and surpass the site with 1 year registration?! This is ridiculous!
Purchasing a domain name that has previously been registered will help you avoid the Google sandbox effect and get you ranked more quickly. And yes domain registration period is influencing. A spam site is more likely to register a domain for 1 year, unsure of whether their site is going to make it long term. An already established brand however is going to register it for 10 years.