How quickiy do links affect search engine rank

[CharlieBrown]

Hello All

As a newbie I am looking for a little guidance.

My site is fairly new, and since launching it we have worked on the content (updating frequently, adding pages etc) and gaining links.

Google webmaster tools is now seeing a large number of the links as is Yahoo Site explorer.............here comes the BUT

We are still ranking very low for the keywords we are targeting.

The Google Page rank (which i know everyone says ignore) is zero - although i know i am supposed to ignore it, could this be the reason for the low ranking?

Any thoughts or experiences would be great to hear.

Thanks

[piatkow]

I have run a low PR site which was number one on all key searches because of its specialist nature. If you are indexed then it is all down to page design and competition for those keywords. My present site generally comes in at positions two or three because it is locality based in a major city and there were other sites in the niche around before I set it up.

If you are looking at very generic searches such as "widgets" then you have a long hard struggle against established sites. If you are looking at something very precise like "red widget enthusiast clubs in Freedonia" then you need to work on optimising content more than links.

[CharlieBrown]

Hi piatkow - thanks for the reply

We are working on fairly generic competitive searches. The PR for the site is zero at the moment though so will this make the job even harder?

[Robert Charlton]

The Google Page rank (which i know everyone says ignore) is zero - although i know i am supposed to ignore it, could this be the reason for the low ranking?

Google PageRank is being updated constantly. Google Toolbar PageRank (TBPR), though, which is what you see, is generally only updated every few months. I think it's been a while since there's been a major update, but in fact I really haven't paid that much attention to the "schedule". The effects of actual PageRank, though, should be observable before you've seen the green bar move... and PageRank, together with associated trust factors, etc, is a ranking factor, probably not what it was a year ago or five years ago, but important in a variety of ways.

We are still ranking very low for the keywords we are targeting.

piatkow describes the kinds of expectations you ought to have, with the caveat that a lot depends on things like inbound link quality and appropriateness, how good your content is, and how well you've optimized and promoted your site.

Here's a discussion that doesn't address your question directly in terms of numbers, but the topic is strongly related to your question and you definitely should read it....

Does Google "Age" Your Backlinks?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4176006.htm
[webmasterworld.com...]

How old is your site, btw... and, more to the point, how old or new are your backlinks? Is your content unique? Has Google crawled and indexed your main pages? How big is your site? Etc etc etc.

[YouDontKnowMe]

PageRank is less important than it used to be, but it still carries some weight. I mean, you don't have to get to PR6+ or anything like that, but being PR2-3 helps.

[htdawg]

as for page rank is concerned for non competitive searches I have seen pages from a new website rank in the top ten, for more generic and competitive terms once that page or home page of the new website received page rank then it started to rank well. correct me if I am wrong but I still believe that page rank still plays an important role in rankings whether it be a competitive or non competitive term. on the other hand you also have the grace period where google give a new site a temporary boost in rankings for a short period then your rankings might start to decline and as the site ages and you gain more back links then you slowly start to see a rise in rankings for most of your keyword phrases in general.

p.s

for how quickly links affect ranking I would assume once google finds the link to your site it may start right away but since there are so many things that might affect rankings you might not know if a specific link(s) to your site were the cause for a rise in ranking. I might be a minor algorithm change ect... you just cant know 100% for sure if that was it.

[CharlieBrown]

piatkow describes the kinds of expectations you ought to have, with the caveat that a lot depends on things like inbound link quality and appropriateness, how good your content is, and how well you've optimized and promoted your site.

Most links have been created through directories, some blog posts, and some article submissions - but directories have been the majority by a country mile. They are all placed very specifically for our product, with specific anchor text used.

How old is your site, btw... and, more to the point, how old or new are your backlinks? Is your content unique? Has Google crawled and indexed your main pages? How big is your site? Etc etc etc

The URL was bought/registered in Feb of this year - holding page went live in June and the main site live in July - back links have been created since June (end of) - so i guess all fairly young. Could this be causing a delay?
Content is all unique nothing taken from other sites an Google has indexed all main pages. Sit is not huge - about 17 pages at the moment - this is one thing from reading the forum that may be holding us back so we are now looking to build many more pages - using Yahoo site explorer and checking my competition they look to have between 200 & 300 pages. Is this a big thing?

as for page rank is concerned for non competitive searches I have seen pages from a new website rank in the top ten, for more generic and competitive terms once that page or home page of the new website received page rank then it started to rank well

So from this it seems you are saying that page rank at zero could hold us back? In theory when we get a PR of maybe 1 we might see movement? Have i understood you correctly?

Google has found about 130 links so far but there are many more that have been created.

Thank you all for your comments - as a newbie sometimes its like knocking your head against a wall!

[htdawg]

i know it can be frustrating not knowing what works and what dosen't. You do get some traffic for certain keywords right? your main keywords might just be a little too competitive for now since your site is fairly new. It takes time to rank for difficult keywords. as for how long, I usually notice a pattern of up to a year.

[kads]

Hi Charlie

what's important to realise is that your "competitors" and the other websites in your google search results are also submitting their sites to directories, article sites etc. You will need to have more quality backlinks than them overall to rank higher than them.

so its just now what *you* do, but also what you're competition is doing. You will need to do more than them to rank higher in the SERPs.

Just submitting and creating backlinks on its own is only half the story.

Also yes, site size makes a difference - the more quality content you have, the better it is for your SERP rankings.

[cnvi]

CharlieBrown,

All new websites start with low pagerank and low rankings. You are right. Forget entirely about pagerank and dont even look at it. Do watch your rankings for your keywords.

The best way to improve your rankings is to make sure your content is rich and is updated regularly, and GET LINKS - through reciprocation if necessary. Despite what some people may tell you here, there is absolutely zero evidence that getting links through reciprocation (also called link exchange) will not help you. It does help if you do it right and the only way to do it right is to only link with HIGH QUALITY websites in very low volume over a long period of time. If you will follow those simple rules you can get a new website to rank in the top 20 for its keywords within 3-4 months. And you dont need alot of links you only need a few dozen a month just make sure they are highly relevant to your own website. High relevancy is the key avoid links with sites not related to your own.