I think one point that's important, but not yet touched on in this thread, is "link velocity".
Basically, if a site is showing continued growth, Google believes it is becoming more popular and wants it to rank higher. On the flip side, if Google sees a site get tons of new backlinks in one burst, they may feel it's purchased backlinks/attempt at manipulating the rankings.
Basically, take two sites:
Site A:
Week One: 5 new backlinks, 1 dropped backlink (+4)
Week Two: 7 new backlinks, 2 dropped backlinks (+5)
Week Three: 10 new backlinks, 3 dropped backlinks (+7)
Site B:
Week One: 50 new backlinks, 10 dropped backlink (+40)
Week Two: 20 new backlinks, 5 dropped backlinks (+15)
Week Three: 8 new backlinks, 2 dropped backlinks (+6)
IMO, Google sees Site A as a site on the rise, while it sees Site B in comparison as a site losing steam.
This explains why often, a "hot, trendy topic" which gains a lot of new backlinks quickly, but then fades away, will reach top ranks that also quickly fade away. It just cannot maintain its Link Velocity.
__________________
Skype variuscr - Email varius AT gmail
|