Google Changing the PageRank Algorithm?

by Daniel in — 378 Comments — Updated — Reading Time: 2 minutes

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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.

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378 thoughts on “Google Changing the PageRank Algorithm?”

  1. I have noticed some minor changes in PR in this month, but i think that is not general PR update, can any body let me know

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  4. Deep – I thought it could be them just lowering the overall value of PR – but how come some blogs are down and some are not?

    The text link selling theory doesn’t add up for me – as quite a few blogs that have been hit in the last 24 hours don’t sell them.

    The blog network theory could have something to it – although some of the blogs that I’ve seen hit are not in blog networks – or at least are not fully participating in link exchanges – and other blog networks seem untouched despite interlinking (like TechCrunch’s network).

    Maris – you’re experience is the same as mine PR is down but traffic is stable from Google. So ultimately for me it doesn’t matter – but it is odd and something I hope Google gives some insight on.

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  5. 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.

    Reply

  13. My website has done nothing in terms of selling links. My only advertising is adsense, and the main focus of the site is selling an ebook about wholesale trade, an industry of which I am familiar.

    And, as far as I tell, I am not attached to any blog farm, link farm, etc. I have about a 1000 + links that are through like minded websites, non-niche specific websites, and signatures from the wholesale forums I am a member of..

    The only change I made was adding 40 pages of new articles, all original content. I did not change anything in the landing page. And low and behold, yesterday I woke up with a PR 3 staring me in the face after five years of holding steady at a PR 4.

    I thought it was just me, and, as it has been stated here, I think that it is an overall shakeout of sites old and new.

    Seems that low ranking sites are getting a boost, while established sites are getting knocked down a peg. I noticed that my competitors are taking a hit as well. Most established sites (even those started in the mid to late 90’s) have fallen from PR 6 to 5, and 5 to 4.

    AS A SIDENOTE, LET ME JUST SAY THANKS!

    THANKS GOOGLE FOR REWARDING THOSE OF US WHO
    PLAY BY THE RULES – BY KNOCKING US DOWN IN PAGE RANK!

    Overall I think this is a lesson. While it is a good thing to have a favorable PR, or Alexa ranking as an overall evaluation for when you want to sell your website, page rank has never put money in my Paypal or bank account.

    I think I’m going to concentrate on my own standard of website evaluation and judge it by it’s “wagerank”.

    I will judge my sites based on the amount of income they produce, not on the PR they receive. Google can give me a PR of 1 for all I care, as long as I get my pages indexed for the niches I pursue, and the keywords that I think will convert.

    INCOME IS THE NEW PAGE RANK!

    Call me Captain obvious, but Google is wielding too much power in the Search Engine and PPC advertising market.

    Someone with a better idea for a unique searching experience, or a niche in the SE marketplace needs to be brought forth. There needs to be a clear fourth, or even a fifth competitor to the current big three.

    Matter of fact, I would like to see 10 new search engines, but that is probably not realistic or even feasible. I would settle for five search engines total, including Yahoo, MSN, and Google. If there were two more competitors, it would tend to even out things a bit.

    Google has 63% (probably more by now – these are 2007 numbers from Hitwise.com) of search volume, followed by Yahoo – 21.40%, MSN.com, 9.95%, Ask.com, 3.5%, AOL.com, 0.54%, and all other secondary SE’s about 1.15%..

    I don’t have anything against Google personally, and I think overall, they have a good product. But, having over 60% of the search volume is just too much power for one company.

    Spliting the volume among a few more SE’s, with each having about 20% of market share would be more to my liking, but, here again, probably not very realistic.

    Also troubling is the fact that Google has the cash to buy up important Internet advertising companies like Doubleclick for 3.1 billion with a “B” dollars, in addition to acquiring Youtube.

    Personally, I don’t have anything against the fundamentals of the “Goog”. I think they have some good products, and I like their Engine. I just don’t like having to bow at their alter..

    The Web is about freedom for the Internet masses. Not being held to one standard of search, or somewhat vauge and arbitrary rules when it comes to being listed in their index, what kind of links you can have on your site, and being banned from the listings without explanation.

    I hope there is someone out there with a small rack of servers just like Google started out with – who just might be the next challenger to the Search Engine throne.

    I hope too, that if this up and coming SE company does take a bit of the market share away from the Goog, that they will stay as humble as their beginnings were. But, I think, just like everyone who gets a taste of success, that eventually, the greed monster takes a hold of us all..

    Thats my Google rant..

    Robert C – The Wholesale Guy..

    Reply

  19. Well, if Google wanted to create a virtual toy that everyone will play with, for sure they did it with the page rank tool. I am not sure if this was the initial purpose of it but, however, I don’t really see it as an important fact in the SEO process. However, I spend valuable time dealing with the little green bar. And yes, I do hope my page rank will increase, or at least it won’t decrease, as it happened last time, although my web sites are not involved in any kind of paid link programs.

    Reply

  23. My site PR has been slapped to ZERO from PR 3 . I’m not involved in paid post yet my site was penalised. This is the second time from 0 to 1, slapped to zero, regain to PR 3 and back to zero.

    Reply

  27. Seems like the blogs PR’s were hit the hardest.

    I’d like to boost my PR higher than what it is. Working on that right now.

    Thanks.

    Reply

  30. Hi,

    I am a new blogger and PR is very important to me. I want to inject ads on my new blog. Can someone answer me if I choose Chitika or Cliksor over google adsense, will my PR be affected?

    Thanks in advance!

    Cheers!
    Metropolismom

    Reply

  31. Although most websites lost their PR after this update but some sites still maintains their PR what does it mean? Quality links or search engine friendly web design and development of sites.

    Reply

  32. Page rank is based on various factors and being from the SEO industry we always emphasis on good SEO techniques rather than pagerank. Page rank may go up and down on a given update but if you follow the guidelines and have done your homework you should not expect a dramatic change in page rank.

    Reply

  35. That sites would be penalized for is an intriguing thought. I run a website on a very marginal topic (opera tenors) and probably since there aren’t too many sites of the same kind, the site was for a couple of years a PR5 site. It then dropped to pr4, curiously when I started with text link advertising, and now that I have a few text links (but not many), my PR all of a sudden dropped to 2. I have more or less the same amount of visitors as before, and good incoming links, so quite frankly I cannot understand why my page rank would drop radically. I maintain other sites with a lot less activity and traffic that are PR3 sites. Doesn’t make any sense to me.

    Reply

  36. Thanks for writing an article on this, i recently read the one on problogger about it however he did not go in to any depth.

    Reply

  38. Some datacenters will still show a 5, but there are many 3’s there, so its changing over time towards the 3.

    Reply

  39. Darren – I think what could have happened is, they would have picked some xx number of blog, ran a random script which will lower the PR on random basis.. but this PR won’t affect google’s internal PR ranking this PR is just to show the people and lower the value of PR

    I personally don’t think having a blog network or being part of blog network should affect the PR..I don’t see anything wrong in having a blog network and linking to all their blogs.. this is bit natural that if a person is having xx no. of things then he is going to list all together..

    If blog network was the issue then it would have affected google’s own blog too..

    Reply

  41. Fortunately, my search traffic has stayed steady.

    I’m still going to clean out some paid links and try to be more `valuable in Google’s eyes.

    Reply

  47. Off Page Optimization & Link Popularity Services, Blog and Article, Press Release, General Directory, Search Engine, Submission Services.

    Reply

  48. Getting page rank has been nothing short of a nightmare for me so far,
    I’ve tried to be selective with my links as to where my mine are going but are still coming up short. Frustrating!

    Reply

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