Weird, weird, weird... Age over links?

[jstcrzyengh]

I found something very strange out today. About 4 months ago I relaunched an older one of my sites, just put the old content up and let it sit. It had been down for about a year. Well, recently I have been receiving a LOT of inquiries on it so I decided to go check it out. It is a PR5 on EVERY SINGLE one of the pages. Here's the kicker, there are 0 backlinks! The site was developed back in 2000 or so and was never put through the google link campaigns. There is only 6 pages total for the entire site.

Only thing I can think of is that "Age over beauty"? Unfortunately, I can't use the traffic from this site, but I know how to sell it if I optimize it so I am going to give it a shot adding a slow pace of links to see what happens. Anyone have any ideas why a site with 0 backlinks has a PR5, it ranks top of 2nd page on Yahoo, 329 on Google, but I assume that is due to 0 backlinks...

Just thought it was weird

forgot to mention it was a PR2 prior to this latest update

[sundancerz]

whats the url?

[jstcrzyengh]

Well, honestly, I prefer not to post links to my sites on message boards. For obvious reasons.But needless to say it was WEAK design and only 6 pages of very light content. I am making some on page tweaks tonight to see what happens. PM me if you want to know it though.

[jeanboucher]

Google's Aging Delay for New Domains
By Scottie Claiborne

You've Got To Pay Your Dues

Many site owners and SEOs are worried because their new sites that
rank well in Yahoo and MSN aren't doing well in Google, and they're
blaming it on the "sandbox." The current theory is that new sites are
somehow being penalized for obtaining too many links, too quickly.

Is There a Sandbox?

Is there some sort of link analysis going on, some sort of threshold
that will get links to new sites discounted? It sounds like a logical
possibility. However, many of us who don't buy volume links or
participate in linking networks are seeing the same ranking delays.

New resource sites with a few good relevant links are taking just as
long to climb Google's ranks as the instant link pop sites. I think a
lot of people are confusing the sandbox with an "aging filter" that
appeared earlier this year.

6 Months for Results in Google

I haven't seen any brand-new sites with new domains appear at the top
of the search engine results pages (SERPs) since early in 2004. There
seems to be a delay of about 6-8 months. I've checked with many site
owners and SEOs and I haven't found anyone who's gotten a brand-new
domain ranked well in Google. If there's a magic bullet, no one's
spilling the beans.

What happens is that, as new sites get indexed, they appear for some
obscure queries; they may appear at the top for a week or so, but then
they drop to the bottom of the SERPs for several months. The page
shows a PageRank in the Google toolbar, as well as backlinks.
Everything else works fine but it just doesn't rank well for any terms
in Google. Many times not even the company name.

If you have a brand-new site that isn't ranking well, stop driving
yourself nuts wondering what you are doing wrong! Stop tweaking and
changing things, trying to influence your rankings; until the site has
been in the index a while, it doesn't seem to matter what you do to
it.

Why an Aging Delay?

My own theory is that the age factor for new sites is Google's answer
to mini-networks and other multi-site strategies intended to
artificially inflate link popularity. Many people divide what should
be a single site into multiple sites in order to capitalize on the
links that are exchanged between them. Others build a series of small
sites that are only designed to add link popularity to the main site.

By delaying the ranking of brand-new sites, the mini-network strategy
becomes more of a long-term strategy than a quick jump to the top.
Site owners who might have started new sites are going to be more
inclined to add new content on existing sites in order to avoid that
delay.

Plan Ahead for New Sites

If you are launching new sites for clients, make sure you set the
expectation that it is likely to be 7-8 months before the site
achieves any real results in Google.

We used to keep a site under wraps and launch it once it was
"perfect." Now it makes sense to get a few pages up for your new site
as soon as you complete them. The sooner Google is aware of the
domain, the better.

As soon as you have a domain name and have the hosting set up, put up
a temporary page and link to it from another site in Google's index to
start that clock ticking.

Subdomains May Avoid the Aging Delay

Pages on subdomains are generally treated as part of the main domain,
making them a possible workaround. If your client has the option of
building their site on a subdomain of a site already indexed instead
of a new top-level domain name, let them know that this may avoid the
time delay.

Paid Placement

If search engine traffic is critical to your success, get your site
out there and linked to as early as possible and plan to run an
AdWords campaign for a few months until the site can be established in
the editorial results. Yahoo and MSN do not have a delay built in, so
focus your early optimization efforts on these engines.

Don't worry, Google will eventually give your new site the respect it
deserves -- just give it time.

[jstcrzyengh]

Well, while that is true and all let me give you the background for my sites.

I purchased them in 99 they were up for four years years, they all went down for the period of one year. The site I am working on to rank has a bunch of links it ranked #1 on Yahoo, MSN, and Google at one time for a keyword with 2.5 million results. Four months ago I relaunched the site I am trying to rank with a new site and relaunched my old site content for the other site. The old content site with apparently 2 BL's now has a PR5 ranks 329 for its keyword. The site I want to rank has a PR3, index of 1040 pages and doesnt show up in Googles serps and I am 21 on Yahoo... Im about to give up

[Johan007]

Sandbox is not when loads of sites link to you. Its when a domain possibly using the same key words link to you using many pages (like a footer link).

[awall19]

sandbox is when site has inadequate authority in the eyes of Google, which forces the inbound links to need to age before giving them full credit

[Johan007]

... yeah that sounds better without getting technical.

[Lucky Bastard]

Interesting topic.

To add to it, is an age of a site based on domain age,or age since Google found a page to spider?

ie. You could own a domain for 2 years but not host a site for it (ie.page not found error), would you consider that to be aged in G eyes, or not because there was no
"page/site" to spider?

[awall19]

>is an age of a site based on domain age,or age since Google found a page to spider?

I would say the right answer would be age since building a quality linking program

[gregorym]

6 Months for Results in Google

Agreed, especialy since florida update....but only for competitive markets. I had sites skyrocket on less competitive market in less than 3 months.