Domain Age

[Rover]

Does anyone know how to change the age of a domain? I have heard of two ways to go about it. #1- You can become a registrar and simply change the registration dates. #2- You can purchase an expired worthless domain and do a 301 direct to it. If anyone has ideas that would be great. Please, no posting about how site age doesn't really matter because it makes a big difference.

[Clinton]

How would changing the reg dates affect SEO if the SE already has a log of the site's first registration?

Also, I don't understand your second method. I can see how that affects apparent Page Rank, but not reg date.

[ScottJ]

I am a registrar for UK names and there is no such facility,

I thought the main benefit was the age that Google knew about the domain/site, ie register 2 domains, block one from Google and put a small site on the other with a few links, the one with the small site has age in Google's index and that adds measurable weight, the one blocked is as good as a fresh reg?

Either way not heard of the actual date being something that could be changed, as Clinton said doing a 301 passes benefits from an old/aged site or domain but that doesn't in any way change the first registered on date.

[dschall]

You cannot change the whois creation date of a domain.

You can attempt to make a new website appear older by changing the domain the site is on:

- You have an existing website widgetsite.xyz with Reg Date of 1/1/2010
- you purchase oldwidgetdomain.xyz with Reg Date of 12/31/2000
- you change all references on your site widgetsite.xyz to oldwidgetdomain.xyz
- 301 redirect widgetsite.xyx to oldwidgetdomian
- webmastertools has a change domain name section
- to some, it will appear that your site is older

this is a thinly veiled method if the idea is to sell this "old site" as a little due diligence at archive.org will show the sites real history.

Not all old domains are created equal...it is also possible in doing this you could end up using a banned for past crimes/filtered domain name.

[Rover]

Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure if the 301 would change the site age and it looks like it probably will not. What I have seen are brand new domains that appear to be ten years old. There is some software that automatically inserts data into archive.org to make it look older than it really is. Doesn't it make sense to become a registrar and then you can buy new domains and make them appear old? Dschall, when you say to some it will appear older does that include Google?

[dschall]

when you say to some it will appear older does that include Google?

I was referring to newer webmasters who may only check whois data. As for goog, I have no idea what they see, but if I had to guess I would think they look for old links to a domain more then they would care about the regdate.

[Rover]

But if you buy a lot of new domains and change the ages, then you can link to yourself and rank quite well.

[grynge]

Rover is probably correct in theory, there is a hole in the verisign dns server system that would allow a rogue registrar to change dns settings, so in theory if you can change the dns then you could possibly change other details as well. The bug won't be patched until the 1st quarter of 2011.

[Clinton]

Huh! If this were true it would be not only big news but the basis for some massive frauds.

There is some software that automatically inserts data into archive.org to make it look older than it really is.

That's a completely separate issue and a different fraud. I can't believe this is really happening. Could you point me to the software or the pages you feel have fake age in the wayback machine?

[Rover]

And how did you find out about the hole in the verisign system? Do you think Google knows about this problem? Don't you think the hackers will plant a backdoor at verisign?