Link Age Factors and Directories

[Dave]

Hi everyone,

I have heard and read about link age factors for IBL's and the bearing it has on creditibility. I do subscribe to this theory, older links are favored more than new links. Other important factors such as relevancy, PR, Location play a role as well, such as index page link is better than 3rd level link. Maybe the higher the relevance the sooner it passes PR or credit. I am by no means a PR hound as I believe it is fairly meaningless, but it still is a factor. My new site is 4 months old www.pro-gift-baskets.com (http://www.pro-gift-baskets.com/) and has a whopping PR 2 on the index and some inner PR 5's. Yet if you check the cache my site is index 2 levels deep every day by Googlebot. But the question at hand is link age. If I have a directory listing and as the directory grows my link is pushed down the page and eventually on to the next page. Say this process takes 3 months, I am fairly certain Google uses the "document" the link is on in determining the link age. My guess is the link age factor is reset. I just wanted some other opinions on this?


Is this a pepper or a red carrot? :ipep:

[clasione]

Hey Dave, you bring some good points to the table and I'd like to comment on them.

I wish I could put the word "definete" in my statement but in search that's not possible.. I can say this, I believe that link age and other charicteristics as you describe, are more than likely a big target for Google and their technology....

Yahoo and MSN, like everything, are not yet ready to handle this to the extent of Google, but they shouldn't be far behind.

Depending on where a link is set in a page should determine greatly how much weight is provided for that individual link. Google must understand that as a document changes with age, it's not neccessarily possible for a link to remain static in an exact location.

Unless ofcource, it's a purchased link space, or a "partner link". If it is in fact a "partner link", it's more than likely a text ad that could indeed remain in an advertising spot.

Now in the event that a link moves from page to page, shouldn't play too much of a role, if anything I hope that it would help as it signifies that the documents are still very much alive and that link is valid and valuable to remain with it's surrounding content, plus the fact that the link still remains from the same source, on the same site.

So after considering many possibilties a link that moves within a site, could in fact mean more to you than originally anticipated, but we can only really guess. As long as you keep accuiring good valuable links to your site, it should outway any possible changes to links you have aquired in the past.

We all lose links here and there, but it's a good practice to try and gain more than you're likely to lose over time. In the end, you'll always have more than you started with....

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and I think it's a pepper.... :lol:

[Dave]

Hey Clasione,


Thanks for the input. I am developer first and foremost so I try to gauge everything from an analytical standpoint. Here are soem factors to consider:

1. Most of the patents from Google I have read always refer the "document" a link is on rather than a domain.

2. Since relevancy can be assigned at the domain level but more likely from the document level. For example a Directory as a whole is not as relevant for Gift Baskets as the actual gift baskets categroy is. Therefore I believe the relevancy is tied to the document.

3. I just learned this through experience, some of you may already be aware of this. My other site which I do SEM for is www.cardsdirect.com (http://www.cardsdirect.com) ranks #3 on a few datacenters for our main keyword "Christmas cards". I am infatuated with indented listings since I believe it catches the eye on a SERP with mostly single listings. For the longest time I have been trying to get a sub page to rank for "Christmas cards" Our www.cardsdirect.com/photo-christmas-cards.aspx (http://www.cardsdirect.com/photo-christmas-cards.aspx) page ranks #1 in all 3 for photo christmas cards and ranked #23 for "christmas cards". I had wanted our www.cardsdirect.com/holiday/christmas/cards.aspx (http://www.cardsdirect.com/holiday/christmas/cards.aspx) page to rank. I started getting IBL's to it and wasnt in the top 1000 until the latest update has it at #11!!!! But the photo-christmas-cards.aspx page is now gone. This all brings me to what I learned, Google will only show 2 pages in the "relevant" list from any one domain in the top 100. If both listings are in the same serp page the higher listing pulls up the lower listing. Hence #3 and #10 show as #3 & #4. This also holds true when viewing external IBL's. Therefore I believe our photo-christmas-cards.aspx still ranks but may actually be 23 and the top 2 shown are actually higher and therefore are the listings allowed in the top 100. Basically this shows me again it is the document and not the domain which are considered.

4. From a programming standpoint I would think it would be easy to base link age from a domain and in some sense more accurate in the case of Directories but I believe Google views only the document. This combats the problem Google is finding with sitewide footer links as spam.

Wow, long winded :eek:

Dave

[bigdoug]

As long as you keep accuiring good valuable links to your site, it should outway any possible changes to links you have aquired in the past.




This is an excellent point! My theory is - get as many backlinks as you can and don't look behind. "Forward for links" :D