Register Domain Names For Longer Periods
Author: Chris Costa
Go Daddy.com Encourages Longer Domain Name Registrations
I noticed today when I was registering a domain name at Godaddy.com, that they encouraged me to register for multiple years (see below), citing a portion of the recent Google patent application. They are correct in that longer registrations would more likely indicate that its a legitimate web site, but it will take more then a multi year registration to get good organic search engine rankings!
Yet it does makes sense to register your domain names for multiple years, especially if you plan on keeping the web site and especially now that Google has made a reference to it. I would suggest a length of at least 5 years.
FROM GO DADDY:
As part of Google’s recent patent application, Google made apparent its efforts to wipe out search engine spam, stating:
"Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith."
Domains registered for longer periods give the indication, true or not, that their owner is legitimate. Google uses a domain’s length of registration when indexing and ranking a Web site for inclusion in their organic search results.
SEO is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion and pay per click.