A domain is worth what a specific buyer will pay for the use they have in mind. Age and link numbers help you argue the case. They do not make it.
1. Start with the use, not the age
Ask who would buy this name and what they would do with it. A short brandable name suits a new company. An exact-match phrase suits a site targeting that phrase. A name with years of history suits someone who wants the links or the audience that came with it. Each buyer values a different thing, so write down your most likely buyer first.
2. Check the age at the source
Age means the registration date in the registry record, not the date a seller says they started. Look the domain up through the ICANN lookup and read the creation date. Then open the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine and check the name was used continuously. A domain registered in 2008 that lapsed in 2014 and was re-registered in 2019 is a 2019 domain for most buyers' purposes.
3. Read link numbers as claims, not facts
Domain Authority (Moz), Domain Rating (Ahrefs) and Trust Flow (Majestic) are each a company's own estimate. Ahrefs says outright that DR is "not a Google metric". Quote the number together with its tool name, and prefer the count of referring domains, which any index can report. Our guide to backlink numbers covers each one.
4. Find comparable sales you can point to
Look for sales of similar names: same length, same extension, same kind of word. Public sales lists from domain marketplaces show asking and sold prices; use sold prices and note that asking prices are not sales. If you find only two or three comparables, say so. A thin range is still more honest than a precise number with nothing behind it.
5. Adjust for what you can verify
- Clean history. Wayback shows no spam or hacked-content periods. Raise your price.
- Hidden risk. Past gambling or pharma content, or a manual action, lowers it. See how to spot a penalised site.
- Renewal and transfer. Registrar and expiry date matter to the buyer; a domain that expires next month is worth less than one renewed to 2030.
6. Write the range down
State a low, a middle and a high, and the reason for each. Buyers who see the working trust it. Buyers who see only a number negotiate against it.
Want a second opinion? Our free valuation shows its working and says when it has too little data to give a range.
Sources
Facts checked against these pages on 2 October 2026. Valuations and checklists are guidance, not advice.
