Domain age is the number of years since a domain was first registered or first appeared on the web. It's about as straightforward as domain metrics get. A domain first registered in 2005 is 20+ years old. That history carries weight.
How domain age is measured
There are two ways to measure it. WHOIS shows the creation date, which is the original registration date. But WHOIS data can reset when a domain changes registrars or gets re-registered after expiring. The Wayback Machine provides an alternative: the date of the first archived snapshot. This doesn't reset because the archive is permanent. CatchDoms uses Wayback data for age calculation, which gives a more reliable picture of how long a domain has actually been active on the web.
It's worth noting that age alone doesn't tell the whole story. A 20-year-old domain that was parked for 18 of those years is less valuable than a 10-year-old domain that hosted an active business with real content the entire time.
Why domain age matters for expired domains
Older domains tend to perform better in search engines. Google has confirmed that domain age is a factor, though it's one of hundreds. The real benefit isn't the age itself but what comes with it. Backlinks and trust signals build up over years, and that accumulated authority is hard to replicate from scratch.
For expired domain buyers, age is a quick filter to separate promising finds from junk. A domain that's been around for 10+ years likely had a real website behind it. CatchDoms lets you filter by minimum age (5, 10, or 15 years) so you can focus on domains with established histories.