How does Google React?

[MattBarthorp]

Hi,

I have been wondering why does Google rank older domains better than new domains even if the content and rest of the SEO factors are not upto the mark as that of the newer one's?

[jennifer]

From what I know, google does take some time to update its database.

Yes ofcourse it favors older pages, because a new page even a very good one, will not have many back links or a high PR. There are so many websites to crawl it can take a while for your website to be visited and included in the results by Google.

So if you need your website's presence on Search engines, work on the SEO part, optimize your site well, try to make it Search engine friendly.. etc

Google Bot will index your site, if you give it a bit of time. Patience is the KEY factor here.

[Macdale]

In my personal opinion, domain age is very valuable part in terms of ranking. As because of the backlinks and traffic gathered by a website can increase the chance of topping the search engine result pages.

[Ryan]

Whether Google favours older domains in it's rankings or not, is often the most disputed theory. I don't think it does as the domain registration date alone cannot speak for either quality or trustworthiness of a website. There could be various possibilities associated with older domains like a domain name registered for years but never used, an older domain set as 301-redirect to a new one or a domain name used for illegitimate purposes for years and then sold to a genuine user/company without any change of the initial registration date.

I do think backlinks are a more powerful factor than domain age. Whether rankings are influenced by the age of links pointing to your site is another disputed theory.

[Catherine]

Domain age does have an effect on Google rankings. However, the backlinks and content also matters. I have seen many people who prefer an older Domain name rather than a new one. I think this might be due to the fact that the older domains are already included in the Google database. However, I am not too sure about it. But older domains are much much preferred than newer one's is what I have noticed.

[Raymond]

I think there is something to the domain age, but I think general history of the domain and pages and rate of change and ranking on similar terms means a LOT more.

[Adrian]

Updating the content of the website means a lot more than the age of the Domain name. I don't think that an older Domain name will be on higher rankings in the Search engines if the content of the newer Domain name is better than the older one

[jennifer]

It's not the domain age... it's about old pages, the ones that have a better ranking ofcourse.

Google favors old pages since most of them will have a better ranking when compared with new pages. And just as I said earlier the reason is, a new page even a very good one, will not have many back links or a high Page Ranking.

For MattBarthorp, if you ever meant a domain age, it makes no difference. There are domains that were only registered a couple of months before and now are at the top of the searches due to their popular content and excellent optimization.

Just though I would clarify

[nickgrnt]

Indeed... if the web page content and keywords are well-optimized then it doesn't matters whether the domain is old or new.