Domain Age: Does It Matter In SEO And Ranking?

As a small business owner, your primary concern is how to enter a market niche and fight for customers on a level playing field with the big boys in the business. Of great concern in the eCommerce industry is the effect of domain age on rankings and SEO. Newbies may feel that; already-established enterprises get relatively favorable rankings. Being a mainstay also brings better perceptibility with search engines as opposed to their counterparts who are just entering the fray. But is that true? Does domain age matter? How much does it matter, if at all?

Domain age, according to whois data, is the period from when the domain was first registered. However, Google considers the age of a domain as first registered with google upon crawling, or when google first saw a link to the domain. Google’s Matt Cutts relates the same more accurately here.

So, what is the effect of domain age, according to Google, on rankings and SEO?

All factors considered, it is easier to rank for and push for a keyword on an older domain than on a new domain. For instance, a business that has been around for more than a decade and is a key player in the eCommerce industry is automatically perceived to be more reliable by search engines than one that is just getting started. It is, however, important to note that great content and the ability to get those inbound links is what does the magic with regards to accumulating authority for your new domain. That is what will give you the results in the long run. Search Engines want to show the most relevant results to their users. The content that appears on the first page of results must satisfy the user. With that in mind, consistent content will improve your perceptibility score with search engines; until then, sites that have been around longer and are consistently producing great content will always be up there.

As a small business owner looking to conquer the eCommerce industry, targeting competitive keywords will do you more harm than good. It is much better, to begin with, less competitive terms in the first few months before entering the more competitive realm, with some real authority. Register your domain here to get started. In business, the greatest milestones are achieved in many ways but a blink of an eye.