Assuming that a site is not sandboxed anymore, so let's say the site is also at least a year old - how old should a link to this site be before Google assigns a good/"normal"value to the link? Or: how old should a link be, for Google not to discount it (assuming that the site is not sandboxed)? What is your experience?
I think google needs to know about a link for a month or two before it really has any impact in your rankings. New links seem to not take effect right away, but down the road, the effect is noticeable. That's my observations, at least. I think there are ways around this too.
Since Google only does Link Count updates every 90 days the link will need to be at minimum 90 days before it is shown to be counted by Google. However Google knows of the link when it crawls your page. one note: Reciprocal and Bought links will probably not have any value with Google due to abuse and canceling each other out in regards to recips...I vote for you ...you vote for me = 0 to Google or 1 + 1 = 0 My opinion and I could be wrong if the world is perfect today.....
You're kidding, right? Google may only update public link counts every 3-4 months, but I'm 110% sure that internally links matter in between that time frame.
Google will recognize a link fairly soon after its put up on a website. Notice that your SERP will increase before the link is ever counted as one of your links... Why this happens i dont know. But it doesnt take long before google recognizes the link as normal/good value.
Yes, backlinks definitely make a diference long before it is included in Google's count of the number of backlinks to your site. In my experience it seems to vary a lot - sometimes as little as a week, sometimes a month or so. Can anybody shed more light on this?
Well I counted links for clients at one time each Monday I would checl all three and for most of a year Google counts only really updated every three months while Msn & Yahoo link counts changed weekly. I gave up the practice about 4 months ago.. Heres an article that will help explain links valueless propositions http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Google-O...Helping-To-Achieve-Front-Page-Google-Results/ Hope it helps Peace
Hate to say it, but this article is bunk. It makes a lot of false assumptions and makes conclusions from those same assumptions. I'd bet the person who wrote it went to some dude and said "I want a million links that say viagra linking to my site" - and a month later he wasn't #1 for viagra and came up with this. Links have been the #1 way to improve your SERPs for a long time. You don't get a million real quick, but you do it slowly at a measured pace.
lorien1973 - I agree - the article is making specific claims based on general assumptions. Sure, if your site really shoots out from the average (like when you add say a thousand poor quality links in a day, it will get penalised. But good link building is the best way to get good search engine results. I don't think it takes 3 months for links to count (google will only show you backlinks after about 3 months with the link:site.com search, but i am positive that the links start to count long before that).
Okay great well I wrote the article and no I dont dabble in link building millions of links.... I am glad you all approach things with such open minds... makes it easier for me to stick a clients site on top of yours in the future Anyway the point was what some of you said ...that natural one way link building over time will win over pointless reciprocal link building... As for counting in Google, I'll quote myself again. You'll see the latter is acknowledgement of the previous quandry. What I mean by this is that there is a matter of time between indexing a document and scoring it for it's value. They do not happen hand in hand otherwise there would be no aging delay or need for trust rank....now the question is how long of a time is it between indexing a page and then scoring it on it's merits?? Peace
I think i should use terms that are clearer - my claim is this: a link to your site, makes a difference in your postion in google search before it is actually showing up in the link:site.com search. Yes, Google knows of the link before showing it in the link:site.com search, but ALSO - Google uses the link to determine relevance of your site BEFORE it shows up in link:site.com. My question is - how long in your experience and opinion does it take for Google to start using the link in determining relevance (without discounting it heavily)
This is totally wrong. Just because google only updates publically every 90 days or so, doesn't mean it does so internally. Nor does it mean new inbounds only count after the update is complete. That's silly.
It was 3 months for my brand new site. I don't think it was sandboxed at all because I was getting organic traffic within 3 to 4 weeks.