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Is Your Websites Seniority A Major SEO Factor?
Does A Websites Seniority Play A Role in SEO?
I had been doing some research on competitive websites since the Google Panda and Penquin updates and found many on page one of search for the best keywords but they did not follow Panda or Penquin guidelines. Many had way too many keywords, titles that were over 70 characters, etc. But one thing did stand out: Their sites were old. Their websites had seniority over ours.
Many websites had keyword densities that were well over the recommended 3%. Yet their website ranked #1 in Google search. (for a popular | difficult keyword to rank for). Several did not have any alternate text on their images.They too ranked on page #1 of Google for the difficult keywords. A few had no sitemaps. A couple even had very lengthy url’s for their website’s name. It got me thinking: Does seniority play a role in a website’s ranking?
I am beginning to think so. I think a websites seniority is an important factor. And other reason for many people not to give up on their websites or blogs. Too many people quit at about a year or so. Newer websites really need at least 2 years to rank well. (Unless there is not much competition in your niche, or if you are a celebrity) You may rank well in the very beginning. But after a few months boom, down you go. It is an uphill battle from then on. But then one day your seniority starts to creep up and you’ll start ranking. Of course you must be updating your content with quality stuff – not just trash to update.
Is The URL Of Your Website/ Blog An Important SEO Factor Too?
I also tested a few other websites too not just ours. You can ask my friend over at Eurobeads. I had used the SEO Quake to run some experiments. Another important factor we found is to have the keyword in your URL – your site’s name. Something I did not really do here but I’d like to rank for the word Inspire one day. I have a way to go, some of the websites on page one have been around since the 1990′s. It will take time to gain some of my websites seniority there.
I just watched a video over a SEOMoz where they disagreed back in 2011 that a websites seniority makes a difference in rank . (A very informative video to watch too) They believe you can accelerate your website or blog faster and better. An interesting concept too.
Do you think your website or blogs seniority plays a role in SEO?
Does Changing Your Theme Affect Google Ranking & Traffic?
Changing Your Theme?
Will changing your theme on your website affect your Google ranking and traffic? I really hadn’t given it much thought until I thought of making changes after seeing others change their themes pretty often. What I have found is a mixture of answers to this specific question. So I wondered have you noticed any changes when you changed the theme on your website or blog?
Here are some of the answers I found along the way:
I was actually just going to start a thread about this. I switched my theme and my rankings completely tanked. Ive switched back, its been a few days and the rankings still haven’t come back. I haven’t done anything to the site other then change the theme in weeks so I can’t really think it would be anything else.
What other factors affect the Google ranking that could be theme related?
- Fresh Images – Would changing the theme help this one? (a Panda update).
- Image Size - This is an upgrade to how we use the size of images as a ranking signal in Image Search. With this change, you’ll see more images with larger full-size versions.
- Fresh Content – Does changing the theme mean “fresh content? “
- Faster Mobile Browsing – If you changed to a responsive theme would that increase your Google ranking in the speed area? Or if you went from a responsive theme to a non-responsive theme would it hurt your Google ranking?
- Page Layouts – Content must be “above” the fold. If a theme made this better would it also help for page layouts?
- Browser Size Tool – This is how your blog will look under various browsers. If the new theme improves in this area wouldn’t it improve the rank and thus traffic?
I’d love to hear from those of you have changed your theme this past year and if it has affected your Google ranking or traffic in any way.
