Comments on: Does Domain Expiry Date Really Matter?

By: Stark

Stark — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:05:37 +0000

Yeah, I recently had to renew 4 domains that I have no intention of getting rid of, so I decided I might as well get them for 5 years. It’s actually cheaper anyway, and with godaddy you can always find a nice 10-15% reduction promo code so it’s better to save more on a big purchase then a tiny one

I wonder how much Google takes it into consideration though. For example, one of my domains I’ve had registered since about 2001, and every year I was just picking it up for 1 year at a time (I know, not very business savvy). So even with my domain being only a 1 year registration, it’s been owned by the same person for 6 years and has never not been registered…

They must put a lot more weight behind that I would think…

By: David Airey :: Graphic Designer

David Airey :: Graphic Designer — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 15:02:22 +0000

I’ve seen this metric used in the Website Grader tool. As you say, it can’t hurt. Especially if you know you’re keeping the domain name, as I am (davidairey.com)

By: April @ Natural Health Remedies

April @ Natural Health Remedies — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:57:50 +0000

I don’t understand why co.uk are only for 2 years either. It seems that if you buy or renew using a US registrar such as godaddy you can register it for basically as long as you like.

With the co.uk domains I own I’m just going to continue using my current UK registrars as it doesn’t seem worth changing. I’ve checked my competitors and can’t find a single one which has been registered for more than 2 years.

By: Bret

Bret — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:04:56 +0000

I’ve considered renewing my domain for longer than a year for the simple reason that it’s one less thing to keep track of each year. The SEO benefit, however, is a bit of a mystery and probably very difficult to confirm. I did notice, however, that at Website Grader SEO Tool, they factor in the domain expiration when they attempt to “grade” your site. I’m probably going to renew my domain shortly and add a few extra years. I’ll keep track of the original Website Grader score and try to do a little before and after comparison. Stay tuned.

By: Dean

Dean — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 23:05:03 +0000

No idea - I’ve looked on Nominet.org.uk’s site to find a reason but there isn’t one - that’s just the way it is.

By: stark

stark — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 22:05:46 +0000

Interesting, I didn’t know that. What’s the reasoning behind such a short registration time?

By: Dean

Dean — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:35:07 +0000

.co.uk domains can only be registered for a maximum of 2 years so we don’t much choice in the matter

By: Nursing Student

Nursing Student — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 03:17:28 +0000

An interesting idea, but I think it’d be hard to say for certain that it helped. But, what can it really hurt?

By: stark

stark — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:08:15 +0000

Yeah, I completely agree. I think Fuzzy Future is up around the end of this year, so I’ll probably renew it for multiple years as well. The only thing it really hurts is the pocketbook if you’re short on cash, but really not that either when you think about what you save in the long run anyway…

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:07:38 +0000

Thanks for picking this up.

As mentioned I just renewed my domain for 5 years, I will keep an eye on possible consequences of that, although I think it will be really difficult to isolate that effect.

Personally I think its something like this: I have nothing to lose, but maybe I will gain something, why not try then?