Aged Domains vs Keyword Rich Domains

[navaho]

I have been buying up loads of aged domains recently in an attempt to concquer the masses in various markets.

The domains that I am buying up are PR4 + and are upwards of 6 years old with .edu / .gov backlinks and are "on theme" in my target markets, my question is...

1. Does anyone have data on how well aged domains perform against new keyword rich domains?

2. I use hosting in the market that I am targeting ie US market >> US hosting | UK Market >> UK hosting, does anyone have any opinion or test data on what influences a domains ranking ability in a given market...IP location seems to work for me but I need more opinion on this.

NaVaHo

[mostphere]

Hi,

Well, I can't reveal my sites are but these sites are using aged domain, and it win against the rich keywords domain. By implementing small SEO efforts the sites rank very well above those websites with rich keyword domain.

It also a good way using hosting where your business will be, it will faster the site load and actually it will perform well in the term of SEO. I once used US hosting but my target market is in one Asia country, and in my experience, my site not even showing.

I hope my experience will beneficial for you

[tonyscott]

Originally Posted by navaho

I have been buying up loads of aged domains recently in an attempt to concquer the masses in various markets.

The domains that I am buying up are PR4 + and are upwards of 6 years old with .edu / .gov backlinks and are "on theme" in my target markets, my question is...

1. Does anyone have data on how well aged domains perform against new keyword rich domains?

2. I use hosting in the market that I am targeting ie US market >> US hosting | UK Market >> UK hosting, does anyone have any opinion or test data on what influences a domains ranking ability in a given market...IP location seems to work for me but I need more opinion on this.

NaVaHo

No Data on the comparison, I don't know how you would easily compare that? but a new keyword rich domain can get ranked on the first page of Google if you do the keyword research right.

I'm in the uk and had read that having uk based hosting (servers) would give uk sites a ranking boost. I tested by moving a site from my uk hosting to Hostgator, there was no difference in rankings.

Tony

[ExRat]

Hi Navaho,

Does anyone have data on how well aged domains perform against new keyword rich domains?

Yep. That's one of the projects I've been testing for the last three years. Based on your criteria -

PR4 + and are upwards of 6 years old with .edu / .gov backlinks and are "on theme" in my target markets

...if I had to place a wager on it, I'd say that you'll probably be delighted with the performance of them in comparison to 'freshies' (unless something changes drastically).

You'll probably find that Yahoo are particularly keen on them and send decent buyer traffic too.

I've found that age is possibly the most important factor and that your last point (on theme-ness) doesn't always matter. I've completely changed the theme on some domains and they've still performed - some of them had new 'themes' that had a connection with the keyword in the domain, whereas others had none - but still performed OK.

I've also found that some inexplicably fail, whereas others inexplicably succeed. It's not an exact science, so play the numbers game in order to try and collect your own data and form rough theories.

Hope this helps.

Hi Tony,

I don't know how you would easily compare that?

As I mentioned above, I have found that it's not an exact science - there are too many variables that can't be kept identical as a kind of control to compare against. But by looking at the broad picture over a high quantity of differing experiments over a period of time, you can get a decent idea.

[nitin22]

With me, any given day I go with keyword rich domain. I have a seven month old keyword rich domain that gets 4 K unique a day.

Had couple of old domains with good PR and backlinks. Put my content over there, got indexed fast and started ranking. One day probably some snitch complaint me over and in one swift go, big G banned all my old domains.

[navaho]

Many thanks guys, this gives me a rounded barometer on expectation! I also understand from Keith Baxter that on aged domains you can build links like a Demon...any opinions on this?

[CliveG]

An "old" domain name can give you a significant advantage over a newer one. I have a client who has asked me to beat a competitor in the search engine rankings. I have a reasonably free hand except for the domain name itself. I can get to #2 in the major search engines but cannot knock the competitor off the #1 spot. The competitor's domain name is many years older than my customers. Apart from that we are not doing too much different except that we have many many more backlinks.

[Kelly Verge]

How important is domain age?

I have a site that I made back in August 2007 for the 30DC. It was one that fizzled, but once I threw up some Adsense ads it made more than the domain name fee, so it's just been sitting out there growing moss.

On October 24, Google decided that it was weathered enough for a boost in the SERPS. It moved up SIGNIFICANTLY for several keywords, including #2 for a VERY high-traffic 2-word phrase that is included in the long-tail that I was targeting.

The only thing different from October 23 and October 24 (that I could see) is that the site aged beyond some threshold.



P.S. as soon as I saw the jump, I updated the layout using things I've learned in the past two years to increase conversions and I switched to a better product to promote. It's making consistent daily sales. Now I'm adding to the site, going after other keywords and adding backlinks.