Google: the term for which the domain is registered does not affect the ranking?

At the meeting of our round table dedicated to search engines, spoke about the latest report from Google , domain registration data, and their impact on SEO and search ranking .

It is correct to say that the domain registration period does not directly affect the ranking in the Google search results. Google doesn't consider domain registration age in its ranking algorithms to determine a site's relevance and authority.

However, the term of domain registration may slightly affect the ranking in the context of other factors:

Trust and Stability: Domains that are registered for a long time can give the impression of stability and trust to users and search engines. This can be considered a positive signal that the site is not created temporarily or for fraud.

Long-term approach: If a domain owner registers it for the long term, this may indicate that the site and its content are meant to be a long-term project, which may increase its credibility in the eyes of Google.

A long registration period can reduce the chance of an accidental loss of a domain, especially if its registration is renewed in advance.

However, it is worth emphasizing that the contribution of domain registration age to rankings is very small compared to other more important factors such as content quality, link authenticity, site architecture, mobile optimization, page loading speed, etc.

On this occasion, the employee of " Google " John Mueller at the specialized webmasters support forum (Google Webmaster Help), in a topic devoted to this issue, said that Google search engine would not check the duration of domain registration, quote:

A huge number of top-level domains do not tell the date when their registration expires - how can we compare them with domains in which this information is specified in whois? This is a very difficult task. Even if we were able to collect this information, how on the basis of this we can compare two sites that are in all other parameters at the same level. If one is ahead of the other by a year (as far as I know, the minimum period for which you can register a domain), is it possible to take into account such a “long” period when comparing sites?

But let's look at other facts. Earlier this year, Danny had a conversation with another Google employee , they discussed many different issues related to domains / links / CEOs, etc. According to rumors, which registrars probably dismissed, domains that are registered for a long period have a distinct advantage in SEO , so Danny specifically asked the question: “ Is it true that the term of domain registration matters? ” To which Matt replied:

As far as I know, more than one search service has not confirmed that it uses the term of domain registration as a ranking factor. It is too problematic to use this indicator for comparing sites.

But that is not all! Immediately after talking with Danny , Matt voiced more of his thoughts on this in a video clip that was posted on YouTube on the Google Webmasters Channel (Google Webmaster Central Channel).

If you don’t have time to watch this video, then in short, Matt said: “ I can say one thing, don’t worry about this [the domain is registered for], we don’t take such trifles seriously. ”

He also refuted the rumors spread by domain registrars: “ this is all nonsense, we didn’t say anything like that ” then he told about “historical information” which may or may not become part of the Google algorithm. At the end, in the form of a summary, he said: " create good content and you should not worry about the lines on which your domain was registered ."

So, we have three fresh and ambiguous answers to the question of whether the period for which the domain of the site is registered influences the Google ranking factor. All three answers were not strictly negative and categorically did not sound like: " No, it does not matter, in general! "

And if John was not surprised, then at least he caused a smile, how can a company that asks for complex mathematical equations to recruit employees is difficult to read whois domain data?

Nevertheless, we will not deviate from our main topic. As with most issues related to CEOs , you and I must specifically decide what we agree with, but not.

Google specifically says that domain registration data does not matter much for them, no matter how minor it is that it practically does not affect the overall picture of the ranking.

A few years ago, I interviewed Jon Glick , he once worked for Yahoo , and he confirmed that the period for which the domain is registered is still taken into account by search engines, but this is just one of the signals that search engines want to get in order to have a clearer idea about your site.

Doesn't work in SEO resemble the work of a scholarly researcher?

You must always know exactly what and where you can apply to get the maximum effect.

My intuition, based on what I’ve learned from Google, suggests if you have a large and popular web site : a lot of traffic, a lot of incoming links, a lot of fame, etc., then it’s absolutely unimportant on which lines your domain is registered, even let for a year.

But if you have some kind of TOS, with G-content and G-links - in other words, if the person and karma of your site is terribly ugly and your resource can be mistaken for spamming - in this case, one-year domain registration can really play crucial role.

Every SEO factor does not exist by itself in a vacuum.

Any SEO factor , if it somehow worked for one site, it also works for another site, but only at its level, if these are multi-level sites, then search engines do not serve them equally.

For example, if the CNN.com domain is registered for a period of one year, it is unlikely to somehow affect the ranking of the pages of this site by search engines, a site like intellect-Secrets.com is another matter ... if the search engine sees that this domain is registered for the same period, then questions may arise, and what else does this Jimmy do.

the period for which the domain is registered - can be another myth in SEO. For Runet, of course - not relevant. Although there is one thing that is important, which I singled out as a headline, which very accurately reflects the reality of SEO " every SEO factor does not exist by itself in a vacuum ", this applies to all factors, only their sum can give a plus or a minus.