In a recent discussion on X (formerly Twitter), someone asked if the age of a domain name affects search rankings.
Google's John Mueller responded by stating that domain age does not impact search rankings.
For years, SEOs have believed that domain age was a crucial ranking factor.
However, this belief stems from a misinterpretation of a patent, which actually focuses on identifying spam sites rather than promoting legitimate domains.
The patent uses domain data to catch throwaway domains used by spammers.
Mueller emphasizes that domain history information is used to find spam, not generate a ranking signal.
The patent also discusses using DNS history and the age of backlinks to identify spam sites.
Overall, domain age is not a factor in search rankings.