could PR loss be caused by too many old links?

should I start a new campaign

[annej]

I'm trying to figure out why I lost about 1 PR point across the board. It doesn't seem to have affected how my key words do in SERPS but it does concern me. My impression is that this is not something that happened to a lot of people so it's not an overall Google adjustment.

I'm curious about a couple of possibilities. One is that a have a good number of links from related sites but most I've had for some time. The other is that there might but be a devaluation of older sites as mine has been around since 1996.

Any ideas on this?

[MHes]

>One is that a have a good number of links from related sites but most I've had for some time.

This makes sense. If people are not continually linking to a site then Google may think the content has gone stale and devalue it. Are you getting new 'quality' links in consistently?

>The other is that there might but be a devaluation of older sites as mine has been around since 1996.

Why? There is no logical reason why old sites are no longer relevant.... unless they are no longer attracting links :)

[peewhy]

I think PR is going into retirement and banished into room 101.

[walkman]

at least for now since everyone was/is after it. A year from now when SEOs are chasing something else, Google will bring it back.

"I think PR is going into retirement and banished into room 101."

[peewhy]

Yep, something will come along to keep forums busy and drive us mad.

[steveb]

Old links won't be devalued. But apparently you have just been "standing still". The old links are still great, but perhaps you need to get some new links to keep apace of your previous PR.

[robster124]

Old links are valued more than newer ones.

- SEE "SANDBOX"

[annej]

I just saw a thread discussion this article
[wwwcoder.com...]

They seem to think Google might be valuing pages that are freshed up regularly and to prefer incoming links if they are coming from newer or updated pages.

Whatever I do need to do some work on getting new related links. I haven't actively done anything for 2 or 3 years.

[WA_Smith]

How many old links are 404? How many old links removed a link from your site after you linked to them (or after they were sold to a new owner)?

Getting above the newbie class of create links to create traffic requires addressing these questions.

PS if my answer seems hard Its because I am trying to answer these same questions.

[richardmasoner]

Any ideas on this?

With sales of links from high PR sites, link exchange schemes (DP coop, link-vault, etc.) and perhaps increased use of SEO, I think there's some overall PR inflation occurring. Those who don't participate in these exchanges may lose a little as other related sites gain PR.

Just a hypothesis that I haven't yet tested out.

RFM

[shri]

>> Whatever I do need to do some work on getting new related links. I haven't actively done anything for 2 or 3 years.

That is way too long a wait. Would humbly suggest that, once you've reached a good comfort level, you revisit the serps every 2 or 3 months and seek out a new link or two.