I wanted to renew joomlabear.com for multiple years, and for a number of reasons.

Firstly because we don’t have any intention of stopping our joomla templating work, and there is no way we will let our website address lapse.

But the second reason, and of greater importance, is the potential Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefit to having your domain name registered for multiple years.

The theory goes that Google looks at how long a domain name has been registered for and gives you a small bonus in ranking if you have invested in a period longer than one year. It makes sense really as this helps to sort the wheat from the chaff, the people who are serious about making a long term commitment to their websites from the many fly-by-nighters and spammers.

Google does not disclose the inner workings of their search engine, Meaning this theory, like most aspects of SEO, is based on the experiences and intuition of processional Search Engine Optimizers.

Google has disclosed little morsels of information over the years, Don’t quote me on this but I believe they have stated recently that there are well over 100 factors they take into consideration when ranking a web page.

Keeping this in mind I doubt the length of registration has a major weighting, and many other SEO factors, such as content relevancy and backlinks, are far more powerful factors in the equation.

I don’t think registering your domain for multiple years will push you straight to the top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS), however I believe it does have a small effect, and every little bit counts, so if you can afford to register your domain for more than one year definitely do so.

If you register your domains at godaddy.com like I do then here’s a little trick that might save you a few dollars – the first one is their slightly cheeky system of giving a different discount if you choose multiple year registration immediately, from the slightly better discount if you select the 3 year option at the end of the checkout process.

Here is the price to renew a domain at Godaddy for 3 years if you select the 3 year option right at the beginning of the checkout process:

Godaddy register for 3 years

Here is the price if you initially choose one year registration, but then upgrade to 3 years on the last page of the checkout process when Godaddy is offering an 8% discount (at the time of writing):

Godaddy 3 year registration - discount

And lastly – and by far the best option – here is the price when using one of our Godaddy Promo Codes – in this instance I’ve plugged “slam30″ into the discount code field in the Godaddy shopping cart and look at the discount on a 3 year registration – 30% off:

Godaddy 30% Discount Coupon

Visit Godaddy here and use this coupon code.

Hope this info may help a few of you – as always I’m interested in other peoples thoughts on th SEO benefits of multi-year doman registration, and always keen to hear about other Godaddy Promo Codes – Many of the coupons listed at the link above were submitted by our readers. Thanks everyone.

Cheers

Big Bear

Important update!

A user has just provided some excellent looking new Godaddy.com promo codes – I have not tested these yet but will on the next domain I register. If anyone uses these and can verify they work please leave a comment:

slam1 – 10% off

slam2 – 20% off ….

slam30 – 30% off .COMs and renewals

If you are thinking of registering a domain I’ve dug up some excellent Godaddy Promo Codes below that will get you a discount anytime of the year! If you use Godaddy regularly you are probably receiving newsletters with promotions every few days. These discounts expire, usually within a few weeks, however my codes below do not expire!

IMPORTANT UPDATE – The codes below are not cumulative with other promotions – as an example  if Godaddy are offering 20% off .com registrations,  which are usually around the $9.50 mark, these will be discounted to around $7.50.

BUT if you add a %10 off coupon from my list below godaddy will recalculate the discounted price from the original $9.50, giving you 10% off $9.50, or just $0.95 – resulting in a price around $8.50. Sometimes it is better not to use the promo code so make sure you check the price carefully at checkout to make sure the big daddy has not already discounted you.

Godaddy have provided us with an automatically updating banner that shows their latest promotion – often this will result in a better overall price.

Check the link below for godaddy’s current special – if the discount is larger than the promo code then do not use the promo code unless you have calculated that the promo code will give you a better price than the one below.

Godaddy Promo Code OYH1 will get you 10% off any Godaddy order.

Godaddy Promo Code OYH2 will get  you a $5 discount off any Godaddy order over $30.

Godaddy Promo Code OYH3 will discount your .COM domain by $2.50

If anyone knows of any other codes leave a comment and I’ll update the list. Enjoy your savings at Godaddy And don’t forget to bookmark this post! Delicious it now!

Godaddy.com