I know google likes older sites better than newer ones, but I'm not sure when the clock starts ticking. Is it when I bought the domain? Or when the website was first indexed?
The clock starts ticking the day Google index's your website for the first time. Most people think that it starts the day they bought the domain name, they get all excited because they bought it a year ago and are just now getting around to using it. Bad thing is since it has been sitting idle with no content on it, the search engines do nothing with it. Buy a domain name and put something up there, a few pages with some type of content or something. Get it spidered so the "age clock" will begin to tick. Steve
Agree, the age of the website will begin when it is first indexed. Although once the site is indexed, even for the first time, an aged domain will help to contribute to the site's indexing in a positive way. So it can be of benefit to buy a domain registered years ago and establish a new website with it.
Yup...count from the first indexed day. Otherwise Google has no idea that the domain existed back then. Just imagine if it worked that way...you could make a fortune as a registar cheating the registration system by sticking old dates in etc.