How much weight does domain age really carry?
-
One of my clients competitors launched a new site in January 2014 (totally new site on a domain that had previously never been used). The competitor has very few backlinks (only double digits), most of which are directory links (dofollow and nofollow). Their authority level is good but not as high as others who rank on top pages with them and their on-page optimization is lacking in a few areas.
For all intents and purposes, the site should not be ranking where it is from what I can see. However, it is literally skyrocketing up the ranks faster than I would have ever imagined.
The only thing I found that this domain has going for it is age (roughly 4 years). Does this carry more weight than I think it does?
When compared to my clients site, we have more backlinks (similar mix), higher DA and PA and better on-page optimization for the same keywords. However, our domain age is only a little over 1 year.
-
You can also use Google Alerts to both monitor your competitors website changes, as well as general mentions of them on them web.
Mike
-
Great question! You can always do a site search on Google or use Screaming Frog (best recommendation). You can use Screaming Frog and and keep an eye out for new pages.
Doing it manually can be time consuming but you can always use their content as a basis for new content ideas within your client's site.
-
Thanks Hillary
Any tools you recommend for checking their site size and growth rate or just a manual inspection of their site for fresh content?
-
How quickly are they adding new content to the site and are they using Twitter/FB/Pinterest/G+ as a resource for getting their URLs crawled more frequently? That's worth checking out.
-
My thoughts as well. I didn't expect age (especially in this situation) to play a large role. The site in question is climbing fast against everyone in the competitive landscape. OSE and AHREFS are not showing any new links (or at least none that they have picked up yet).
What else should I be examining? There has to be a reason for the push.
-
In my experience, I still consider it to have some weight, but not enough to beat out a better resource that is producing better content and getting more links.
I don't think age is a top-level factor to consider, but it has enough weight to get a leg up on a property that is similar in status.
The difference between a 4-year domain and a 1-year should not be a factor in this case. Something else is in play, and it sounds like it's time to dig even deeper.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Unsolved I have lost SEO Ranking while removing www from domain
I have lost search SEO ranking for 4-6 core keywords while removing www from domain switch.
On-Page Optimization | | velomate
Referring domain: https://cashforscrapcarsydney.com.au/ Earlier the domain was in the format: https://www.cashforscrapcarsydney.com.au/ But when I checked the search result, search engines had not yet crawled to the new format. Let me know if the server change or any algorithm hit might cause it. Also please share the feedback on - does removing www from the domain losses keyword ranking. Helpful replies are needed.0 -
Redirecting to new domain
Hi, I switched my ecommerce site to a new domain, how can I get my new site indexed aneast art building links when my oils site is still indexed?
On-Page Optimization | | GTCarter11870 -
Two different domains with the same content
Hi all, I just figured out that my client has two different domains with the same content, so the site will be penalized by Google: www.piensapiensa.es www.piensapiensa.com Should I do a 301 redirection from one domain to the other one using the htaccess file as usual chosing one of them as canonical? redirect 301 piensapiensa.es www.piensapiensa.com? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
I noticed that my company owns a few exact match domains that are relevant to our business. Is it worth doing anything other than just redirecting them to our homepage?
It turns out we own a few exact match domains that are relevant to our business. Is it worth doing anything other than just redirecting? (We have owned these sites for a long time, over 15 years.) The keywords are moderate to low in traffic and moderate to high in competitiveness. (Right now they 301 to our main site.) I know exact match is not as valuable as it used to be and that there are mixed opinions about microsites...
On-Page Optimization | | Linda-Vassily0 -
Should sub domain blog have www or non www
My main site has htaccess rewrite condition to force www. I just added a blog on sub domain and have it www.blog.domain.com Is this setup correctly or should it be http://blog.domain.com or does it make a difference? A colleague just pointed that out and said it should be non www for blog or any sub domains. Thanks for any clarification.
On-Page Optimization | | anthonytjm0 -
Multiple Years Domain Registration
Is there benefit to registering a domain name for multiple years from a SEO standpoint?
On-Page Optimization | | lbohen0 -
URL length does it really make a difference
I am currently working redevloping my site, I have terribly long URL's according to SEOMoz, can someone cover the real benefit of my editing my URLs, and then putting in all of those redirects. Should I edit old material? My site has been in wordpressformat for a couple of years now.
On-Page Optimization | | copykatrecipes0 -
Redirecting to a keyword-rich domain URL
It's best practice to choose a domain that has keyword in it. But if someone has just launched a website and the domain name does not have keyword, is it better to purchase a new domain name that has a keyword in the name and redirect existing domain to the new domain? Will that help SEO? (This just launched website does not have any traffic or links yet.)
On-Page Optimization | | Amjath0