Matt Cutts, Google’s Head of Search Spam, answered a question when someone asked him.
"I have been in business for over 14 years with my domain, and see much newer domains passing me. Any algorithms to protect older domains/sites in business from newer sites with more spam?"
Many owners of older websites are facing this issue.
Matt said that he has heard this before. This can apply to new sites as well when they try to rank above old sites. The problem is not exclusive to older domains.
Google tries to show the most relevant and latest (recently updated) websites in its search results. If you have had a website for many years then you do need to take another look at it. Over time things change, specially technology, which changes at tremendous rate. New styles, designs and better interfaces have come out to provide a better user experience.
So bring your design up to date.
And what about your content? Most new sites add blogs that provide them with ongoing updates, always leaving them with fresh content.
Update your content on a regular basis
Matt says that users will not be too happy landing on a site that looks outdated. If a user lands on a site and it looks old and has same old content then there is nor reason for them to come back. This even applies to the old sites that may still be ranking well. Act now to keep them there.
Rankings are not permanent and are constantly changing with the changes in the algorithms but sites with fresh and most relevant content have a better chance to rank high. Matt says,
“Just because you are a domain that is well established, or has been around for a long time, doesn’t mean that you will automatically keep ranking.”
