By
Rick Vidallon, President, Visionefx
Rourk Public Relations’ Strategic Partner
Google
recently filed United States Patent Application 20050071741.
As part of that patent application, 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."
Herein
lies another opportunity for you to reach search engine
supremacy. Domains registered for longer periods give
the indication, true or not, that their owners are
legitimate. Google uses a domain's length of registration
when indexing and ranking a Web site for inclusion
in their organic search results. To prove to everyone
that your site is here to stay, register your domain
names(s) for more than one year and increase your
chances of boosting your search ranking on Google.
If
you are a company, why would you want to deal with
renewing your domain every year? Not to mention that
you often get a discount for purchasing a domain for
a longer term. Google has just given you another reason
to look long term.
In
addition to Google, other major search engines also
consider the term of a domain registration as a small
part of their algorithm, which is used to determine
organic rankings of a Web site in their search engine.
The
search engine business model provides the most relevant,
valuable, and useful Web sites to their visitors.
Web site owners who have a long-term business plan
and domain registration usually fit this mold.
Some
Web site visitors also check how long a domain is
registered as part of their own due diligence to determine
the legitimacy of a business or company by doing a
look-up on http://www.whois.net to find out if your
domain expires in less than a year.
Registering a domain name for a few extra years is
a sound investment.
Inspired by this insight myself, I just added five
additional years of registration to my domain http://www.visionefx.net
now set to expire in the year 2011. I plan to be around
until then and hopefully much longer. What about you?
Rick
Vidallon is President of Visionefx, a Virginia Beach
Web design company based in Virginia. They provide
services to national companies as well as small to
medium businesses throughout the United States. Rick
can be reached at (757) 619-6456 or www.visionefx.net.
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