Does the age of your website really make a difference?

So you have a brand new website that's been optimised for the relevant terms, and you still can't get a good ranking in Google search results? This could be due to the age of your website.

The age of a website certainly does seem to have an effect on its rankings, especially in Google (although Google have been known to deny this, it is in their patent application). It may simply seem that Google is the main culprit because it is by far the most widely-used search engine, especially in the UK. The age of a website can have a lesser effect in other search engines.

In our experience, a site that is less than a year old is often ignored, while the content of a website with an address that has been registered for several years is far more likely to get 'noticed' by search engines, and will be checked by search engine spiders more frequently. The time a site spends in this "sandbox" has varied over the years and seems to be on the wane.

Why the age of a website is a factor in search engine results

Why is this? One reason is that Google gives websites a 'Page Rank' - a score out of ten which reflects how reliable the site's text content is perceived to be. The more trustworthy Google considers the information on a site, the higher the Page Rank. Naturally, a well-established site with a track record of providing useful and reliable data will score highly over a younger site, where it is harder to prove that visitors to the website have found the information to be useful and relevant to the site's topic. So the age of a website definitely affects its Page Rank, and with good reason.

Another reason why a site may be judged on its age is that Google is trying to ensure every website it lists is legitimate, trustworthy, and is going to be around for a long time. This is to avoid listing the many 'spam' websites that tend to pop up on a short-term basis in order to make money from the web. Google feels more at home with a website that has been in existence for a year or more. Such a site is likely to be viewed as more substantial and consistent, and its ranking should increase as a result.

Problems can arise as a result of this website age policy. One of our clients had a very well-established site which had been in existence for many years and, as a result of SEO work we had undertaken on the site, enjoyed high ranking in Google search results. Through no fault of the client, their Internet Service Provider 'lost' the website for two weeks. As we were not working for this particular client on a full-time basis we were unaware of this problem. Although the website was restored, enough time had elapsed for Google to now consider it a brand new site, and it no longer appears in the top search engine results despite the optimised content of its pages. As you can see, it pays to check on your site on a regular basis, and contact your ISP as soon as any problems occur.

The only solution to the problem of a site being judged on its age is to have an existing website which is several years old. If you don't already have a site, then it is well worth considering purchasing an established domain name from our affiliate programme.

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If you are taking a long-term view and are buying domain names, read this article by Jerry West of Webmarketing Now - it has good information on the subject.