Domain Renewal Commitment - An Easy Google Brownie Point

Recently, Google filed a patent to protect the search engine's technology. As patents are public record, this technology was finally unveiled to the search engine community. We learned a few valuable pieces of information about the inner workings of this search engine giant. One piece was somewhat surprising.

In United States Patent Application 20050071741, 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."

What does this mean? Essentially, Google and other search engines use the length of time that you have your domain renewed for as a measure of your website's longevity and credibility. Search engines are constantly bombarded by fly-by-night websites of little or no significance. These nuisance websites (regarded as search engine spam by Google) typically have domain names that are registered for only one year.

You can send a clear message to Google and other search engines by simply renewing your domain name for a longer period of time. Since the Google patent release, Page 1 Solutions recommends domain renewals of two or more years. I typically recommend a five-year domain renewal period. This gives you an impressive domain expiration date and ensures that when the nuisance sites begin renewing their domains for 2 years instead of 1 (which is almost guaranteed), your site will still stand above the rest.

Jonathan Fashbaugh
Page 1 Solutions