Register a domain name for an year or more for a niche site?

its a factor in SEO yes, but you dont have to worry too much on that.

you can just get a new domain of your choice and just make sure your site is awesome. fresh unique content. user friendly, reader friendly. etc.

dont get too caught up in just 1 factor of SEO, there are many and not one factor alone will shoot you up to 1st spot.

=)

That's totally up to you. I usually just go with one year so if it's a total flop I can dump it. you do save a bit of money when you register for more than one year at a time though. I have HEARD that Google may prefer domains that are registered for more than a year, but I have NO idea if that is true or not.

yes though i agree that domain age is one of the factors, its not that important that you have to lose slp over it.

i know people, including myself who rank for new domains and beat those 1990s domain.
and they have 100s of 1000s of links. as in 100,000s of links.

its not all about domain age.
its just a small factor.

Depends if you have faith in it or not... if you think you will be using it in 12 months time then go for it if it is in your budget.

Personally I tend to get them for 1yr and then when it comes round to renewal I look and see if it is working and then get it for more years if needed, this is the point I get them for 2 years if I think it is worth it.

Oh my goodness.

i totally read wrongly.

lol

yes get a year will do.

i thought you were asking about domain age.

if its registering then yes 1 year.
after all they all have their pricing where the longer you buy the more cheaper it is per month.

If it is a new domain, I will normally just pay for one year as I will not know whether that domain will still be useful to me after one year.

But for my main domain, I will set it in my domain registrar where it will just auto renew when the time comes.

If you are providing good content and values on your website, it will still bring you results no matter you have purchased the domain for one year or many years

Zack

If you plan to work long term on the niche you have selected, then it may be worth going for 2 year domain registration or even upto 3 year registration. A domain registered for a long term has a edge in SEO compared to the domain registered for 1 year.

And if you are testing a niche, would you take hosting payment on a monthly basis?

Hosting fee (monthly/annual) wouldn't matter (The search engine doesn't pay your bills and they can't see your account statement from your hosting company )

Also, domain AGE might matter (how old it is at this very moment; still speculation though, because an older domain is more likely to already have an established link-profile, and therefore is already pre-ranked somewhat).

But not LENGTH of registration.
My view is Length of registration is NOT a factor in SEO
Unless you work for the big-G, you can't claim to "know" this for a fact, one way or the other; you really have no way of testing this conclusively, since any given domain can only be new-reg once (and therefore split testing for SEO purposes is quite literally impossible). Generating any conclusion one way or the other is tenuous at best.
The time testing this (or even trying to test) should be used working on 'actual' SEO

Reg for what you can afford, with the knowledge that if prices go up, you might save a buck or two by spending a little more now. Same with hosting (annual prices are typically cheaper on the margin).

If you're really committed to the site they YES, register a minimum of 5 years.. This shows the major search engines that you are really committed to making the site work..