Are Old But Unused (not Live) Domains Still Powerful? Options

[stokelake]

Hi,

We all know that google like old domains. But does the domain need to have been live to benefit?

For example, is a domain which was register in 2000 but has never be live, still a lot stronger than a domain which was registered in 2006 but has been live for 2 months?

Many thanks,

J.

[A.N.Onym]

Domain age is just one of the factors. Google also likes page age, link age and such. That's what should matter most and to the people.

I don't think just domain age will get you through the sandbox effects. You'll need trusted links, great content and patience anyway.

If it is a good domain, you may very well use it, too.

[phaithful]

When people talk about Old Crusty domains they are usually referring to sites pre '98.

'00 is a fairly old domain in the perspective of the internet, but for there to be any real value it would have to had some content on it.

If it's simply been a parked domain all this time, my experience shows that it's not really that much better than starting off with a new domain.

If you're looking to purchase an old domain simply to get out of the "sandbox" / "trustbox" then look for one that has links going to it still and has had content on it for some time through archive.org. That will increase your chances... but "buyer beware"... some old domains are being resold because they've been blacklisted or have been part of spam schemes and those domains are worse off than a brand new domain.

If you're not doing churn and burn type of stuff... go with the domain that is more easily brandable and represents your service or product best.

[webuildpages]

Like A.N.Onym said

Domain age is just one of the factors. Google also likes page age, link age and such. That's what should matter most and to the people.

It's more than the date that the domain was registered.
I believe (and it's in a google patent) that Google Dates Pages/Sites when they find them.
So the first day that google found the site through following a link to your site is more what is probably in Google's eyes your creation date (plus google is a register, so they know when your domain was bought)...but more importantly, they know when the first person linked to you...so if you owned a domain for years, but there was never content/links to you, the start date is more like the date they first found you.
I also believe (and google's mentioned in a patent) that they record the date that they find any new link to your site (as well as the text used in that link). So if you have an old site, but there's only been 10 links to it over 5 years that might not be worth much....not nearly as much as a site that has a good history of "a natural resource page link growth".

Some people think that they can buy any old site and wa-la, they're out of the sandbox...but it's not that simple...if an old site had a history of people linking to it with link text of things like "how to cross stitch", "learn to sew" or "stitching tips"...then you change the content...and suddenly the new links to the site are things like "viagra" "online drugs", "cheap drugs"...then the topic of the site has clearly changed, and that old history of people linking to the site isn't worth much to your new topic.

That google patent that covers a lot of this is "Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data" Rand did a nice summary of that patent here.