Do links hold there value after 12 months?

[Entrusteddev]

Hello, We need to find out if links that we setup, which are older than 12 months hold any value? Do new links hold more value than old ones and therefore should we let the old links become inactive? If we do let the links become inactive after 12month will that effect the PA/DA of the site?

[NakulGoyal]

Andrew, to answer your question in simple words, yes...aged links help. Now, the way I am looking at it, there's also this bigger problem. Imagine scenarios below. Website A.com has 10,000 natural links. You add 50 Rented Links. Now, 1 year later, "naturally" your natural links should grow. Also, with the nature of the Internet, some of those 10,000 links will be lost...sites expire...people loose interest in their websites/blogs, clean-up efforts and other reasons. So gradually you are both gaining and loosing links on a regular basis, which is natural. So if the 50 rented, essentially 50 anchor text links are gained and lost after 12 months or so, they give a clean indication of something going on. The risk is there...on a scale of 1-10 of affecting your link profile, the risk maybe 3-4. Imagine the above scenario for Website B, which only has 100 total natural links. And you add 50 Rented Links and those links disappear after 1 year...that's a much higher risk compared to the above scenario. The risk in both situations is 2 fold. A. Loss of PA/DA B. Potential Issues with Link Profile. Does that make sense ? I hope this helps you make decisions.

[Syed1]

There is no research that cites that links lose or gain value with age, but I believe both are equally important. A lot of people who buy links will lose it after a certain period and if a lot of such links are lost, Google can detect something (if it hadn't already!) and would remove juice/ demote accordingly.  As the links age, the trust to those links increases as well.

New links are very important as well as it gives signals of 'freshness' of the quality of the content/page that it hasn't become obsolete with time.

[KeriMorgret]

When you talk about letting the old links become inactive, do you mean these are paid/rented links that you are letting expire? If you could define what you mean by inactive, that'll help us answer the question better for you. Thanks!

[JGar-28032]

Hey Andrew,

In fact, the more a link has aged, the better. It's a sign of stability to have a wide range of dated links pointing to your site. It shows that your site is continuously and consistently sought after by others (people referencing your material, etc.).

It is still important that you continue to build links though, as you don't only want to have old links. If you haven't gotten any new links to your site in a long time, it can be a sign that your site may have gone stagnant.

So, the old links are good, but keep building them.