Author: Kabir Bedi

If you have been into content creation for a good amount of time, chances are that you would have some good strong links in the past. But do you think you can count on them forever?

Search engines like Google generally don't place importance to age-old links and renders them stale. Google's Matt Cutts recently answered a user-submitted question:

"Websites lose back links due to other websites going out of business or closing (GeoCities, AOL member pages). Does Google remove back link juice that once came from these pages?"

And the answer is - Yes!

He says that in order to prevent things from going stale, Google uses the current link graph instead of an all-time link graph. This means that if you have got a number of significant links in the past, say a couple of years back, that doesn't they are continuing to benefit your content there.

What is Link Velocity?

Link velocity is the speed at which new links to a web page are formed. It helps Google ascertain the credibility of links to a web page and thereby the reputation of the web page as such. For example, when a web page rapidly gets new links to it, the link velocity is a bit too fast and it hints about a spammer trying to manipulate the results by creating an appearance of user trust. However, with the advent of social media and rise in bookmarking, embedded links etc., link velocity has significantly increased.

How to create New Links for Old Content?

Even though your content may be old, there are still ways you can induce it with a fresh lease of link life. Here are some tips to update your old content so that it continues to benefit you as far as search engines are concerned:

Write More Content

One of the ways you can support your old content is by writing new content and linking to the former. When you write articles or blog or anything that even passingly mentions something that you have written about earlier, make sure you link to the old content. This will make people reading the new content go back to the old one and read about it.

Encourage Content Sharing

Social media has made content sharing a great deal easier. Post your content on platforms that facilitate content sharing and bookmarking. Also, place content sharing buttons on your blog and website so that readers can easily post the content to their networks.

Streamline the Templates

Make sure that your old content is presented in the same template as the new ones and has the same features. This will encourage a feeling of identification and also make it seamless for users to transgress from one content block to another.

Update Old Content

Browse through your old content and determine their relevance in the present time. Have you written about anything that has changed now? If so, you should consider adding a post adding a fresher perspective. This will not only give you a chance to update content on the page but also users wouldn't negate the content as outdated as they will be provided with the latest information as well.

Leave Comments On

By not closing the comments, you can leave the discussion open for more users and this can further help to keep your posts relevant. People might still add to it and link to it based on their comments. But do remember to keep a check for spam!

About the Author:
Kabir Bedi works as a senior web consultant at LeXolution IT Services, a premier web design company that provides its clients with a range of web design & development, websites maintenance services and internet promotion services. He has extensive experience of working on the web and advises clients to create a strong online presence. "