Why do many people believe that domain age matters?

[samiaseo75]

For almost twenty years, SEO specialists have believed that domain age matters, that it is even an important ranking factor.

This idea may have evolved from a patent filed by Google called Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data.

The patent mentioned domains in relation to self employed data historical data. However, the patent did not actually say what the SEO specialists thought it did. Their interpretation of the patent was 100% incorrect.

The patent has an entire section titled Domain-Related Information, where domain-related information is used to identify spam sites .

Identifying spammy websites is not the same as awarding bonus ranking points if a domain has been registered for a long time. The patent states that it uses domain data to catch expired domain names used by spammers:

"People who try to trick search engines (spam) often use expired domains and try to get as much traffic as possible before they are discovered. Information regarding the legitimacy of domains can be used by search engines when scoring documents associated with these domains."