Use of Established Domain Name

[Rickwood Portpatrick]

As well as running busy B&B, I have an unpaid job as a board member of a recently established Destination Development Organisation (DDO)for our area.

We are looking to set up a new website for the DDO on a fairly limited budget. My team have been offered an exisiting (local) tourism website to take over and alter rather than start off from scratch with a new url.

The benefit of this approach, we are told (by amateurs),would be that the existing site has been in existence for 9 or 10 years and as such has good google ranking for relative searches which search terms would largely be in common with the new site we are looking to build.

However, does any status with google in ranking heirachy attach to a particular url or does it attach to the site itself i.e. if we were to commission a completely new site to be built and transfer this existing url would the google ranking of the old site be transferred with the url or would this benefit only be retained if the site structure and content we were taking over was largely retained and merely amended?

I hope someone can throw some light on this,

 

[ScottJ]

I have seen first hand sites continue to rank as is when a site has been completely changed, if the terms are not competitive then this would be more likely to remain but a gradual morph/change would be preferred. The weight & ranking is more to do with the domain & backlinks than the content but on page text has some weight, you should ensure the top keywords are still mentioned & used in the new copy & title tags.

 

[McVicar Marketing]

Hi Fred,

To add to ScottJ’s great advice, it’s absolutely correct that search engines will prefer to see a gradual change rather than a wholesale swap.

As well as keywords, it’ll also be important to ensure that in-bound links are still active and relevenat – linking in and out of a website is one way search engines verify that your website is as relevant as its copy suggests.

Also – I’m sure you’ve considered this, but will there be any issues for current users of the existing website which you’ll be taking over? As per, it’s important to consider your audience, and how their needs will be met. That might be as simple as a note on the home page to let everyone know of the change (especially if the content still delivers the same information/service as this website had previously).

And as a footnote: Google recently changed its algorithm. Worth ensuring that your new website takes these changes into account (a website developer will be able to action the practical detail when rebuilding your website).

All best,
Inga

 

[stugster]

DA (Domain Age) is a heavy factor Google use when ranking sites. My Easy PC Scotland website ranks first for "Computer Support Edinburgh" and the age of the domain is a massive contributing factor towards how well it ranks in Google.

 

[iMS]

DA (Domain Age) is a heavy factor Google use when ranking sites. My Easy PC Scotland website ranks first for "Computer Support Edinburgh" and the age of the domain is a massive contributing factor towards how well it ranks in Google.

Domain Age really isn't a heavy factor at all in terms of how well a website will rank.

In fact, it's probably one of the least important factors to consider.

To prove it, how come you see so many new websites overtaking websites that have been around for a long while purely on content and seo alone?

 

[BioOutsource]

The few points which i want to escalate having a slight experience as a digital marketing consultant and have successfully handled over 8 marketing projects majorly focused on SEO and increase website visblity and online presence.
First of all if you have "Fairly Limited Budget" then i don't think you can buy an existing domaing running for SIMILAR PURPOSE, if you buy a domain previously dealing with gambling or Pornography it will take you ages to reposition your domain in search engine view point. A relatively less effort may be required for domains previously used for other buinsses.
Secondly, an already running domain will cost you more then a lot, because no domain name is actually the company, so its more like you're acquiring a company.
Thirdly, if you buy a domain name which was just registered in 1998 and being used for nothing other then parked for ads, then trust me its not gonna help you anything.
My suggestion is, get a genuine and relevant domain name, and if you can extend your budget slightly more then "Fairly Limited" it could be a one time investment can i believe can yield more benefits. Moreover not mentioning the fact that your domain will be spotless from any bad track record which is extremely important. So get a domain, hire a designer and get it marketed properly. You'll have much more benefit with ease

 

[Stephen Donnelly]

My suggestion is, get a genuine and relevant domain name, and if you can extend your budget slightly more then "Fairly Limited" it could be a one time investment can i believe can yield more benefits.

Completely agree with this. Domain age isn't that important, certainly not a heavy factor. Focus on content and get a new domain. I presume the sellers are asking for more than the cost to register a domain. Save the costs and use it elsewhere.

 

[Mike Lewis]

does any status with google in ranking heirachy attach to a particular url or does it attach to the site itself

It attaches to the site.

In the first few days or weeks after you create your site, you will continue to benefit from the ranking of the old site. But that will soon evaporate as Google gets round to re-indexing your site. After that, your ranking will depend on how closely your new content matches the users' search terms (which is how it should be).

You might continue to get some on-going benefit from existing external links to the URL, but that is less important that the content of your own site, and in any case would only be of benefit if the individual page addresses were the same as those in the external links, which is unlikely.

Mike

 

[aviemorebusiness]

Yet again, the problem with SEO and anything Internet marketing related, is that it is subjective. I have read with interest the replies above, some I wholeheartedly agree with and some that are just mis-information and people 'guessing' based on their own previous experience. Ultimately you have to, and probably have already as this post is quite old, done what felt right to you at the time (would be interested to hear what you did do in the end).... but from a known relevant information point of view, yes the age of a domain name is a big help in your quest for Google recognition. Apart from anything else think of all the websites linking to that domain, particularly for a community based website, and with the best will in the world no one regularly checks the links on their own website to make sure they all work. Think of all the 301 redirects you would have to put in place and all the 404 errors you will have if you ditch the domain completely.

To keep things neat and within your control, as long as you can get domain registration access and can be confident that you 'own' the domain then the advice should always be to keep the domain name. It is only one small part of the overall Google ranking of your website but why lose something that Google has already put in place, just seems ludicrous to me that you would be advised not to use it. Yes Google will come back and visit the content on your site, and again contrary to what someone has suggested, the fact that you will be changing the complete look, feel and probably content of the site, Google will love this - as long as it is relevant content and is not a completely different subject. i.e. Google would not be happy if all of a sudden the website cocacola.com started using the site purely to sell Fanta - hope that is a relevant comparison! Google love new code, Google love new content, etc etc - they will just rank the page even higher if you take the existing domain and update things regularly. The more often you update the more likely it is (although there is no definite rule book) Google will revisit the site.

Anyway, as I said, I would be interested to hear what you did do in the end as we are part of the DMO here and also the local Business Partnership and Business Association and this topic of conversation has come up more than once!

(K)

 

[Jeff Hardy]

Yes.... Domain Age is important factor in site promotion.

 

[Content Chefs]

As well as running busy B&B, I have an unpaid job as a board member of a recently established Destination Development Organisation (DDO)for our area.

We are looking to set up a new website for the DDO on a fairly limited budget. My team have been offered an exisiting (local) tourism website to take over and alter rather than start off from scratch with a new url.

The benefit of this approach, we are told (by amateurs),would be that the existing site has been in existence for 9 or 10 years and as such has good google ranking for relative searches which search terms would largely be in common with the new site we are looking to build.

However, does any status with google in ranking heirachy attach to a particular url or does it attach to the site itself i.e. if we were to commission a completely new site to be built and transfer this existing url would the google ranking of the old site be transferred with the url or would this benefit only be retained if the site structure and content we were taking over was largely retained and merely amended?

I hope someone can throw some light on this,

If you transfer a domain (i.e. it's ownership with nominet or the relvant registrar) and then completely re-work the site content, Google will likely see this and consider it to be a brand new website under new ownership.

Hence any advantage from the age of the domain may be diminished a little. However as ScottJ points out, the domain will likely have numerous backlinks to it from other websites - these will continue to add gravitas to your ranking as long as they continue to point to relevant content. For example if you rework a website then it will no doubt have a different link/url structure to the old one. This means the old links will point to places where there is no longer content. If you can re-create these pages in your new design or 301 them to new pages you have created (that are relevant to the link) then you should still gain some benefit from it.

If you don't change the domain ownership, then it's probably not as relvant... In any case, google takes a while to update these things, so you may see some benefit for a period of time regardless.