Does the Age of My Domain Affect My SEO?

Remember that movie Big starring Tom Hanks? 

Of course you do. It's a classic. 

Hanks plays a 13-year old wishing to experience the perks of being older. 

Many marketers have similar aspirations for their site domains: wishing them to be older for SEO purposes. But does the age of your domain actually have any bearing on how your website performs in search engines? 

Let's consult Google for the answer, shall we? 

Does the age of my domain matter?

Like most answers provided by Google, this answer can seem a little ambiguous to some.

Matt Cutts, head of the webspam team at Google, answers this question in the short video below.

Hearing Cutts use phrases like “not to worry too much” and “the difference between a domain that’s six months old versus one year old is really not that big at all” means it’s clear that, however small, there is a difference.

What this means for you

If you’re launching a new website, it could take time in order to gain traction in search engines.

Don’t get discouraged. Plan in advance for this.

In most cases, older domains will have greater authority, as they’ve had more time to accrue inbound links and have more pages indexed in search. 

Prior to launching a new site, focus heavily on creating great content and identifying channels and platforms that support greater reach. More eyeballs equals more opportunity for sharing which will work toward increasing your site authority. 

Obviously domain age isn't the only factor affecting your SEO efforts. Fill out the form below and get our full 40-page SEO report.