Q&A: How does your domain registration impact Search Engine Optimization on your author site?

QUESTION: I've heard that the length of your domain registration can effect how well you show up in search results. Is this something I need to worry about with an author Web site?

ANSWER: It's hard to find concrete evidence on this, but I think you're right, the length of your domain registration can have a big impact on your search engine optimization (SEO). And of course that directly impacts how many people find your site and end up buying your book.

Many factors influencing how much juice your Web site has in search-engine results are outside your immediate control. For example, new domains -- those registered within the previous year -- are often shortchanged by search engines. One theory among experts, Google Sandbox, purportedly explains why new Web sites have a probationary period before they gain visibility.

Why would Google penalize new blogs and Web sites? Certainly a new site is just as likely to have valuable content as one that's been around a while. The answer, according to some experts is that it's the search engines' way of dealing with spam Web sites, which has been a growing problem in recent years. Fly-by-night companies erect Web sites using stolen content, and can make a bit of money with them until their Web host gets complaints about copyright violations and shuts down the site. So spammers only register their domain for the minimum, one year, since they know they won't be doing business there for very long. They don't want to pay registration fees for years in advance when they know they'll probably be closing up shop soon, involuntarily.

How can you take advantage of this? By letting Google and the other search engines know you're not fly-by-night. Instead of paying the minimum registration fees on your domain -- usually $9 per year for the following 12 months -- pay for 10 years in advance. It's an investment of $90, and it can worth a tremendous amount more. Google doesn't have an official policy about this, nor do the other search engines. But anecdotally, bloggers and Webmasters often report a huge increase in search-engine traffic a few weeks after extending their domain registration beyond one year in advance.

After hearing of this myself this past summer, I changed my domain registration on this site to expire nine years from now instead of during the next 12 months. Less than a month later, the traffic volume of folks coming here directly from Google search results went from approximately three people per day to about 85 people per day. Coincidence? I don't think so.