If things keep at this pace I might rename this blog to Daily Google Tips. Over the last two weeks we have been talking about Google every other day. This time it is the PageRank buzz again.
Both Problogger and Copyblogger, two of the most popular blogs on the niche, announced that their PR dropped from 6 to 4. Previously other authority blogs confirmed that they lost PR, but the suspect was towards paid links. Given that Problogger and Copyblogger are not selling links, it might be just a readjustment on the PR scale.
Some people are arguing that since the PR drop is not generalized, it must be a slap from Google due to practices that conflict with its guidelines. Andy Beard suggested that the sites that got penalized were either selling links or exchanging them inside large blog networks. This is a feasible explanation given that most of the Weblogs, Inc blogs (Engadget above all) were penalized, and they do not sell paid links either.
Here is a list that I gathered with big blogs that supposedly lost PR on this issue:
- Statcounter (from 10 to 6)
- Engadget (from 7 to 5)
- AutoBlog (from 6 to 4)
- Problogger (from 6 to 4)
- Copyblogger (from 6 to 4)
- AdesBlog (from 7 to 5)
- Search Engine Journal (from 7 to 4)
- Quick Online Tips (from 6 to 3)
- Search Engine Roundtable (from 7 to 4)
- Blog Herald (from 6 to 4)
- Weblog Tools Collection (from 6 to 4)
- JohnTP (from 6 to 4)
- Coolest Gadgets (from 5 to 3)
- CyberNet News (from 6 to 4)
Update: It looks like mainstream websites that were selling links were also penalized:
- Washington Post (from 7 to 5)
- Washington Times (from 6 to 4)
- Charlotte Observer (from 6 to 4)
- Forbes.com (from 7 to 5)
- SFGate.com (from 7 to 5)
- Sun Times (from 7 to 5)
- New Scientist (from 7 to 5)
- Seattle Times (from 6 to 4)
Update 2: After reading through the avalanche of posts on the subject, it appears that this is not a PageRank update but rather a distribution of penalties (either automatic or manual). The theory that the penalized blogs were either selling links or part of a network that used a cross-linking strategy seems to hold.
I have been reading your blog last couple of weeks and enjoy every bit. Thanks.
do you suppose the folks at Google sit in their cubes all day reading these things and just laugh because we’re all looking for the Ark of the Convenant in the wrong pyramid?
thanksss
Here we go again next
thanks you
I think people should not sell/buy links
I recenty lanuched my website and it’s showing 0/10 so I am waiting for google to update his rank so i will able to see where am i
As i know of page rank algorithm It is based on some factors, but in short we can say good website contnt wise and layout wise may have good PR I made my website Holidays In India –
The differences are just variations caused by the update itself.
What can a new site expect to receive from Google in Terms of Ranks, ex: PR 3, PR4..etc
Any comments would be great.
thanks you
Hi,
My PR went from 4 to 2, but i did’t do any paid links.
yeah,my website`s PR is goind down.From PR6 to PR4 .
Wowza… it seems Google is really coming down hard on some blogs… and no one can seem to figure out exactly how that algorithim works anyhow … =( But I guess that’s how Google dominates right? 😉
What is Google doing with its PageRank? My site has just been dropped from PR2 to PR1.
My PR has dropped from 5 or 4 to 0 over the past few months.
However, my SERPS has improved dramatically..
I have text link ads on site, and added a page to advertise on my site – do you think that this could have any effect…?
my PR drop from 5 to 4 last week.
Today it got a free fall from 4 to 0
sad…..:(
is there a new page rank update? my blog’s PR dropped..
I think people should not sell/buy links.
What about those who cant afford??
This is pure rubbish and shows the highhandedness of Google. If Google can sell advertising why cant we sell links for money. Google is doing exactly what Microsoft did. Just that no anti-trust is against them.
It hit me a lot too. My PR is now 0 and a lot of links don’t show up in Google search too. Damn!!
ohh….i’m newbie,,, I don’t have a page rank yet,, please give me advice…
my PR3 has just dropped to PR0 ! I am really sad. Hopefully it will goes back up in no time.
I got hit and dropped from a 5 to a 2.
It is clear that PR updation is necessory becoz it is requirement of better search results….some guys buy paid links and listing becoz of that relevant results hampered.. Indian Exporters Manufacturers Directory
A couple of thoughts in my mind
.) Google is changing the scale. IE. PR 5 will soon be considered a lot more valuable than it has been.
Algorithm of Page Rank already is discontinued
Many of the services of Google also need urgent update, is why Google prefers to buy to other companies of Internet.
That small finder that began many years ago very good, because only era of text, very fast and efficient, that antigüo AltaVista moved my, nowadays became a Giant.
But that has happened with the progress of his so promoted PageRank? By the sight it has not evolved in the same way, as much money and they have not managed to optimize it.
In summary the PageRank de Google or PR simply is a numerical value that it represents the importance that a page Web has in Internet, this value is obtained through the bonds that make other pages Web to your site. (it is a summary of the great roll of his operation) the PR has been that has not evolved as it would wish the user it, many webmasters astute position their Web in the first results search of Google and when we make a search as simple as the task of your primary son of the first results that we obtain is companies doing publicity to their products/services and nor to speak of the swindles that abound by Internet.
What happened with the quality of content? , What happened with the Google that invented an algorithm to benefit the searches from the users? Simply it turned towards the money of the publicity and grew like great company forgetting its roots.
As much it forgot its past that now cannot produce some own project, I buy to YouTube because GoogleVideos did not do competition to him.
Purchase technology of other projects Web because although it is certain that it sees future in them, same Google does not have it developed.
It must have given Google account of its own weakness that now has a Laboratory as they call to him for own projects. But and what has of their essence? To as much to arrived the weakness from the PageRank that now Google penalizes to the sites of high PR that sells links, or the case of the page of a well-known Alemana company that was penalized by unsuitable practices of positioning Web. Acting as Goliat is giving bad reputation him to Google.
To many webmasters is to them beneficial to work with Adsense, but victims of a repression feel, to the being directed by norms imposed by the greatest finder of history.
Now we asked ourselves, Who is making its work bad? Webmasters or the PageRank de Google? Although it is certain that webmasters are many bad, also are many more if they are good, that they include/understand that to give content of quality to the users it is more important that to fill to its pages Web of words that position them in the finders.
What is failing in the PageRank? As lack would claim to my grandmother him to it to be more human, he is incredible that the heart of the finder, does not have the greater budget of investigation and development.
Hay Competition at this moment? Lamentably next as Yahoo and MSN do not approach which the user wishes and for that reason the Monopoly of Google almost is guaranteed.
Inevitably the users little by little could emigrate to another finder, as flock of doves, if this were more cash in the searches, but at the moment Google does not have competition, although personally I have seen some other finders with very interesting characteristics.
They already say: It does not have bad lasts one hundred years, nor body that resists it and in Internet the years are months
thanks
Gawd, mine had gone to N/A too, I hate the fact that they have to reduce our PR’s just because we monetize our blogs. What’s the catch anyway? They do the same thing, too I guess on their `other’ websites perhaps. Damnn, it makes me go all crazy
my site pr 0 🙁
I’m really disappointed that my PR dropped from 2 to 0. I know it’s a relatively new blog, but I just don’t know why Google wouldn’t want people to earn from their blogs.
I’m not selling links, but i have a PR3 now, from PR5.
Why?
The thing is… I am now having trouble finding stuff or it is taking me longer when using Google. Sites that used to rank for their domain name are no longer showing up if you use spaces in between words in the domain name when searching.. If I am searching for something named “the white cat” and there is a website at thewhitecat.com, it should show up with minimal effort from the webmaster.
It may be time to start using Yahoo or some other search engine as my starting points..
Google must not stop link selling
Because google must think webmasters
Google is not identifing correctly selling sites…
i never sold a link from my site ucables.com, but this summer i put a link to my new girlffriend website about real estate: ibizaloft.com to help her to get some traffic and from october i lost my pagerank from 5 to 0.
i have send some messages to google to reconsider my site, but i have not received any response after 2 months. My traffic decreased 20% and continue decreasing. I have removed this link already from my site.
I think google should try at least to contact with owner before to do this type of action.
Why not decrease rank of payed links from adsense too?
Some years ago, when google was created we love google because, all service that offers was free, and contributed to the original internet spirit to share all, with easy and simple way.
Actually google seems to be corrupted and bad directed for the money.
Sorry my bad english i hope you can understand me.
Happy Xmas!
Page rank has all the hype these days out in the web-world. It seems that we’ve relied upon Goggle for so long to tell us where we stand with our peers that we’re unable to divorce ourselves from the Googlemonster now that we’re unhappy with the way it’s treating us. It’s all the buzz on blogs across the web all because Google redid the algorithm by which PR is determined and a lot of `important sites lost rank.
PR is not relevant at all.
Why do people worry about PR still?
Relevance is all important so SEO guys are making money for old rope.
I thought pr ranks doesn’t matter as long as you write your blogs and make research out of it. I was wrong. They were asking for prs. Link with me please.
It seems like the battle-field is changing constantly 🙂 get the idea of this post – [www].fatalic.com/page-rank-panic-trust-your-eyes/
Looks like Statcounter has got their PR 10 back, they have put a NoFollow tag on their textlinks in the “Recommend” Menu item.
After that they probably requested a reconsideration request to Google like Joost de Valk did:
Thanks for visiting averyone!
Yes they are updating again.
My website just went from a PR 4->PR 2
Today (just now) it went from PR2->PR0.
Life is hard.. 🙁
Are they updating again? What about your side bars – do you get penalized for having links back to archived posts…posts that you have made already?
Tomson, we all wish it was a mistake. 🙁 When are they updating again?
This is ridiculous. Main site of the domain dropped from pr3 to pr0 (no link exchange or selling, static text), but the subpages containing we directory (no link exchange or selling) raised from pr2 to pr3. Crap content over normal text? Is this really an update or just a mistake?
I think people should not sell/buy links.
What about those who cant afford??
My site, ultimate-reviews.net, dropped from PR6 to PR4 as well. I have never participated in link exchanges and am very confused as to why I was hit so hard.
The recent page rank drop can be seen as both a disaster and oppotunity.
Disaster for those that experience the page rank drop while opportunity for SEO firms offering website optimization services.
Instead of looking back and frowning about what might happen next, I think the best step to take is to further improve on your back links and further optimize your web page.
Ok, so if we get kicked in the balls because we are buying and selling links, but not for having advert banners on our site, how on earth are we suppose to get in/on search engines??