Thread: Does the age of an incoming link matter?

Nealrm,

My understanding of it is that the age does matter. The longer a link has been established the more value it has. Link values can decrease but not because of age (age only helps it out) - they'll decrease if the "voting" sites PR decreases. Hope this helps.

HH1 Golf would probably know for sure.

I believe that links lose value over time that is why continuous link building important.

The age of the links is a factor with Google. That's why in most cases you can't build 10,000 links in a month and get to #1 for a competitive KW, even if the links are relevant and credible. Some people theorize that this applies especially to new domains and is part of the fabled Google Sandbox.

I have seen a few exceptions to the rule, but those sites involved very heavy viral marketing both on and off the web (i.e. a new television show, etc.).

Keep in mind that part of the age factor is the time that it takes for the search engine to find the links. Depending upon the crawl rate of the linking site, that could take a while. Crawl rates are a huge issue with Google right now.

It seems to be the consisence that the older a link is the better. My next question is "does the age reset if you change the anchor text??"

I bought an old domain exactly for this reason for google but as have yet to start proper work on it (still in planning) I don't have the results yet, however I have done some work for some companies that had extremely old domain names. They had never had any SEO work done before and once I got involved the sites flew up in the SERPs.

New domains take alot of time to get going in G, but with an established domain results are far more likely to appear quickly and with alot less stress!!!

The second hand domain market is very much alive and as there are so many domains for sale there are some great bargains on domains.

If you are looking for a quick fix (not that I do this) - I would recommend purchasing a second hand domain.

There is a lot of talk about old domains, new domains, link aging etc. but the bottom line is: it's about traffic. Don't think about linking as a way to get a higher ranking in Google. Think about linking as a way to get more quality visitors to your site. The ranking will take care of itself. Google knows who is visiting where and the frequency of visits. A link that brings no traffic will be discounted. Links that bring strong traffic are considered highly relevant. Following this rule will get you a much better ranking with Google than gathering loads of links or paying too much attention to PR etc.. It's like the car parts store linking with the used car dealer, or the dentist linking with the toothpaste company. Both bring each other traffic.

Right, but if your ranking on Google is at the top then the traffic will come automatically. This is why we fight to get to the first page of keywords to get the extra traffic.

Originally Posted by PEscobedo

Right, but if your ranking on Google is at the top then the traffic will come automatically. This is why we fight to get to the first page of keywords to get the extra traffic.

Depends what you are ranked for and the content in your site. If your site has little content and you rank highly for a mediocre search term it won't help you much. If you have a site with a lot of content you will find only about 5-10% of your traffic comes from the top keyword. 90-95% comes from low competition key words found in your text. I manage the SEO for about 12 real estate companies and the stats show ranking highly for a single keyword is not the way to get good traffic. Stuffing the home page with key words is likely to hurt your overall traffic numbers in the long run.

Originally Posted by PEscobedo

I believe that links lose value over time that is why continuous link building important.

I've always heard the opposite - that old "seasoned" links are the most powerful.

I think that continuous link building is important because old links tend to disappear when you turn your back!