Does Link Age Matter?

• How important is the Age of a Link?

Answer: The general consensus of our researchers is that 'Age' matters for links as well as for sites. The difference in the consensus is that nobody disputes whether an older site is better off, ranking-wise, than a new(er) site. However, whether an old link provides more juice than a new link is a matter of current debate among professional SEOs.

Regardless, in the spirit of giving you strategy that can only help, but never hurt, we will tell you that old links are more desirable than new links—here are three reasons why:

1. If it isn't already a ranking factor today, it will likely become one in the near future. Therefore, you should attempt to secure your links now in order to give them an opportunity to age. We have every reason to believe that Google will place increasingly high value on older links because:

2. It tends to neutralize or delay the effectiveness of purchased links (which Google has publicly stated they hate), thereby discouraging their use. If new links don't credit a site with much link juice, then they are less valuable for the purchaser and less revenue to the linking site which is, in all actuality, a competitor to Google AdWords.

3. Real links tend to stick around for a long time. Google knows this and therefore it makes sense for them to track this metric and factor it into their ranking algorithm.

So, there you have it—our definite maybe with heavy emphasis on the definite!

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