Registering domain for more than 1 year.

[Shawn]

As a standard, I've always registered domains 1-year in advance. Why pay more now? Why not just renew them when it's time?

Anyway, I heard a long time ago from somebody (it wasn't a forum, but can't remember from who) that Google considers the years in advance a domain is registered when calculating ranking.

Now, this sounds like a tin-foil hat theory, but it makes a lot of sense. This wouldn't be a major ranking factor, of course, but it sounds beneficial to include this in a ranking algorithm. Spammers would have to shell out tons of additional money to pay for registration years in advance -- and with the nature of most spam sites, if they do in fact achieve good rankings in the search engines, they usually don't last for too long.

So, I know Google looks at WHOIS -- is the domain registration apart of it?

[KLB]

I don't think anyone really knows for sure outside of Google, but considering the fact most registrars offer multi-year discounts I find registering my important domains for five years at a time just good business sense.

[rpanella]

I have heard this theory before, and while there is some sense behind it, I don't beleive that Google uses the expiration date of a domain in its rankings.

There would simply be way too many false positives since a majority of legitimate sites are likely renewed for a year at a time. Also, with how cheap domains are, it wouldn't be hard for a spammer to register their domain for several years assuming this was true.

Of course, if you have a serious site and are planning on keeping it for awhile, it couldn't hurt to renew it for the next few years just in case.
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R60/2 (http://www.bmw-tech.org/wiki/BMW_R60/2)

[Todd W]

I don't believe it for a second...

[paul]

I used to wait until the last minute to renew since it seemed like an obvious cash flow management technique. However, the Registerfly disaster has me thinking I should never allow domains to get closer than six months to expiration.

[MaxS]

I have also heard this theory.

I have yet to see a sound argument made, though. While there is some sense behind it, I still find it somewhat hard to believe.

[Selkirk]

While I'm sure google doesn't penalize sites that are registered year to year, I think it entirely plausible that they may trust sites with long term registrations more. I think google values stability in the WHOIS information. They mention this possibility in their patent Information retrieval based on historical data (http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20050071741&OS=20050071741&RS=20050071741).

[rpanella]

Good point Selkirk, but just because they have a patent doesn't mean its currently used in their rankings. With how cheap domains are these days, the expiration date would be very easy to manipulate in order to gain "trust," so I can't really see them placing any signifacant boost on it, if any at all.
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Jugalettes (http://juggalos.org/)

[Todd W]

So do you think they also trust sites that have RDNS setup too? I mean how far can these theories goo.

There's to much other important stuff to work on than to worry about these small things imho ;)

-Todd

[rpanella]

wrong thread
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Marijuana sativa (http://strainindex.com)

[Cutter]

Up until recently I didn't want to register my domains for so long figuring I would forget about it competely... but I've changed my point of view. I don't care what Google thinks, its just a good practice if you think your domain is valuable. Any possible speculators or someone looking for a drop catch is not going to even look at your domain if it expires in 2015. If it expires next month, yeah, there could be some eyes looking to snatch it up if you slip.

[mobilebadboy]

I never do anything based on what Google may or may not like.

But I do not register domains for more than a year at a time for the simple fact that I test. I test all the time. I may put up a site for a year, maybe two, and if nothing results from it then I may drop it. Why pay for extra years that I'm not going to have the domain in use.

Or I may simply change my mind on a project and never start, Now I've paid 2+ years for a domain I won't be using.

Even then, my (first) 6-year old domain is still a year at a time.

[paul]

But I do not register domains for more than a year at a time for the simple fact that I test. I test all the time. I may put up a site for a year, maybe two, and if nothing results from it then I may drop it. Why pay for extra years that I'm not going to have the domain in use.

Or I may simply change my mind on a project and never start, Now I've paid 2+ years for a domain I won't be using.


My problem with that approach is that things change over time and a name for which I couldn't find a use may become valuable. This has happened often enough I am getting VERY reluctant to let domains expire. I install wordpress and make a few posts, or add a couple of pages of static content. If I can figure out a way to generate $0.52 per month I figure the domain is paying for itself. In the meantime, the site gets indexed and aging filters start running. Sometimes, the site even starts picking up a little traffic.

Obviously, this depends on the domain. It isn't going to work for last years hot electronic toy :)

[chromate]

Not sure about the ranking theory, but it can't do any harm, so I reg my new domains for 5 years min. Anything to help a new domain off the starting blocks.