Link Blog

Recently, we commissioned a link article based on one of Google's patents applications and are quite pleased with the results and have placed it in the Articles folder of the regular site. Here are a few excerpts:

The first factor mentioned is the date of appearance or disappearance of links pointing to a document. [Note: See paragraph 0023 of the application for a complete definition of the term "document."] Using its own criteria, Google will determine the date when the link was found or when it disappeared then evaluate the time frame looking for a trend. Webmasters should also track this trend and be aware if it shows a steady increase or decrease in the number of links pointing to a document.

The age distribution of a document's links is one area where the discerning webmaster will pay particular attention. According to the patent:

... the dates that the links to a document were created may be determined and input to a function that determines the age distribution. It may be assumed that the age distribution of a stale document will be very different from the age distribution of a fresh document.

Be sure to read the entire article. You will not be disappointed.