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Old 03-18-2010, 08:25 AM  
Varius
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 6,890
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.
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