Bill Slawski has unearthed a new patent from Microsoft which points to their interest in domain age, when it comes to ranking.

For some time now, it has been accepted that older domains are treated with greater trust by the search engines. This makes them easier to rank in the search engine results. New domains, in contrast, are presumed guilty, until proven innocent. This proof will usually come from time, once they age a little or incoming links from other trusted domains.

This is a mechanism to stop spam in the search engines. Domains used for this purpose are usually considered disposable and rarely make it through 1-2 years without getting flagged. Therefore any domain older than this period, often referred to as the sandbox, is more likely to be trusted from then on.

This new patent application from Microsoft adds another twist, by also ranking domains based upon the ages of domains which link to those domains. As usual with Bill’s work, this is essential reading for anyone involved in the domain or SEO/SEM industry. For domainers, this patent shows added value in your old domains, which should be reflected in the price.

However search engines are always looking for ways to stop trust being bought, rather than earned, so attempt to find ways to wipe the slate clean after domain expiries, purchases or swaps. They have been largely successful in implimenting this policy on expired gTLDs (COM/NET/ORG/INFO/BIZ). Country code domains (ccTLDs) are harder to police, as these Registries do not yet offer automated access to records.

These attempts has been strongly criticised by those who sell domains or web properties as they believe domains, like any other business, should not be penalised for changing owners.