Age of backlinks

[ZigE]

Does google take the age of a backlink into account? And if so would it be minimal if any for an established site.

[Chris]

Possibly, I do not know of anyone who has tested it, as it'd be impossible to scientifically test, but we do get the impression from Google that this may matter. Not directly perhaps to PageRank, but rather to getting your site over a filter or over a threshold of some type.

However, there isn't much you can do about this. Feel good about having lots of old links, or feel bad about not having them. You cannot control time.

So, regardless of whether or not age matters you should proceed the same way: Get as many good quality on-topic backlinks as you can.

[Generalissimo]

As well as the age of the link, the question could be extended to the age of the site that is linking to you. If google gives added bonus to links coming from older sites I don't know, but older sites generally tend to have more backlinks themselves so they are more likely to have more weight on them.

[ZigE]

I've been tracking sites in my niche, and i've seen one site who is establishing (buying) alot of new high pr backlinks, but still ranks somewhat low (40-50). I'll be watching their site to see, when and if there is any changes.

But you're right chris, in the scheme of things you can't actually control it. It's just nice to try and understand seo issues.

[Chris]

Well remember, context of the link matters as much as anything else about it. There could also be other numerous reasons for links to be discounted, not just age, it is really hard to pin down any such cause with SEO.

[ZigE]

Well now that your mention it, some of the links were completely offtopic.

I'm starting to wonder the significance of pagerank these days, when a PR3 site finds it way to top3, with a dmoz listing & a hundred pr0 spam-url-collecting-site links. Almost no onpage seo. Only thing going for it is a old, well worded domain name.

Google confuses me sometimes!

[Webfu]

As well as the age of the link, the question could be extended to the age of the site that is linking to you. If google gives added bonus to links coming from older sites I don't know, but older sites generally tend to have more backlinks themselves so they are more likely to have more weight on them.

Word.

I think both probably factor in to adding more power. Age of the website you are getting a link from and the date the link was created for you. Its amazing that G keeps track of the date your link was created and the anchor text for the link itself. Wonder how long they have been using this technology.

[andyf]

IMO having links from old aged site is better for ranking such linking site should be on the relevant topic as of your's.
Google loves old sites.

[jono69]

I believe the age of the website linking to yours and the age of the link to be a factor. However you should just keep building links as normal, dont worry about the age of a site. As long as it is a relevant site that holds more weight than the age of the site. The more links you gain today, the more weight they will be given in the future.