Domain age

Search engine optimization of websites (SEO) is the constant attempt to peer behind the scenes of search engine operators, especially Google as the most important search engine. It is clear that Google and other search engines evaluate the attractiveness of a website for certain search queries on the basis of various criteria. It is sometimes unclear what the criteria are and it is even more unclear how strongly the individual criterion is weighted. This is one of the reasons why it is necessary to improve your website continously through Onpage Optimization. A question that arises is whether the simple age of the domain is a quality criterion for Google.

The domain age as a quality feature - Sandbox vs. Newbie Bonus

With all the ambiguities in the field of SEO it is clear that Google collects data about the age of a domain. Especially in the early days of SEO, people liked to talk about the sandbox effect. The sandbox effect means that new players, i.e. domains that come into the "sandbox", find it particularly difficult to assert themselves in the search results against the old and established players.
The more recent theory of the newbie bonus, on the other hand, states that new domains are preferred and ranked highly by Google. Thus Google lets old and established domains and websites compete against new domains. The purpose of this is to check the quality of the respective pages in competition, so to speak.

The domain age only as an indirect quality feature

In the meantime, SEO experts are certain that the mere age of the domain itself is not a quality feature for Google. Moreover, the domain age can even have a negative effect under certain circumstances. An old domain is advantageous if it has established appropriate link structures and communities. An old domain that is not maintained, on the other hand, must expect a corresponding "penalty" in the Google ranking.

Onpage optimization and preowned domains

Google appreciates old domains if they are maintained regularly, i.e. if they receive regular updates. For the owner of a domain this means a corresponding amount of work to continously produce new content and other updates. Here it can also be quite meaningful to acquire maintained preowned domains. Preowned domains are domains that already had a previous owner. Ultimately, the quality of the site is the benchmark.

Domains that already exist for many years are also preferred by Google in the ranking. If you bring a new site online, it is often worth taking a look at domain trading places where you can also buy very old domains.

• you can view the history of a purchased domain in detail. Penalties, frequent owner changes and constant ranking changes are detrimental. Then you would rather bet on an alternative.

For further interesting information, visit the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) guide. SEO guide