Is There A PageRank Penalty In Your Future?
PageRank Update Is Here For Some
Word is trickling in that some websites are now having their Google PageRank updated. While this move had been long awaited, it isn’t the change that most webmasters were expecting. Indeed, the update seems to be targeting mostly one kind of site — those which openly and actively engage in the selling of paid links (and/or website reviews). Are you a paid link peddler? If so, you could be in for a nasty surprise — a -1 (even -2!) drop in your PageRank.
Several Websites Take A Hit
I won’t go into detail covering what others are discussing so well, but a drop in PageRank has been reported by Andy Beard and aired by Rob Watts and elsewhere. Andy first mentioned on Sunday the hit his site took and then followed up on Monday with information he learned from Danny Sullivan about the penalty.
The news is ugly: some sites which were previously ranked (at PR6, for example) have been dropped by as many as two rankings with this “special” update. Impacted sites include those with paid reviews (PayPerPost, ReviewMe, et al) and/or paid text links (Text Link Ads, Link Adage, et al). It isn’t clear just how widespread this penalty is being applied, but I have seen it on two other sites besides Andy’s.
The Second Round of Bloodletting
Google’s PageRank update had been expected to be exported to the Google Toolbar in late July or early August of this year. When the update failed to show, it became apparent that Google was holding back in order to apply a long threatened PageRank penalty to certain sites.
In April 2007 Google’s SEO Czar, Matt Cutts, put out the call for people to report paid in a bid to help Google expedite the process. By September 2007, reports that paid link directories were the recipient of the first round of bloodletting came in when Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) dropped for the Aviva Directory, Alive Directory, and others. Rand Fishkin (Randfish) followed up this news when he shared his reasons why Google penalized what he considered to be the bad directories.
Internet-Wide PageRank Export Pending?
With the paid link directories getting whacked by the SERPs and other sites hammered by a drop in PageRank, will an internet-wide export of PageRank to the Google toolbar be far behind? My guess is that we’ll see the long awaited update kick in before the month is out.
Once the dust settles the net result should be interesting, especially if certain smaller and less visible sites outperform some of the larger and well known websites. We may not like what Google is doing, but PageRank is their tool and they are, by far, the largest search engine provider in the world.
Has your site been penalized? What is your opinion about this topic?
Matt | Linking Strategies, SEO Tools
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt their Google PageRank updated. While this move had been long awaited, it isn t the change that most… it on two other sites besides Andy s. The Second Round of Bloodletting Google s PageRank update had been expected to be exported to the Google Toolbar in late July or early August of this year. When the update failed to show, it became apparent that Google was holding back in order to apply a long threatened PageRank penalty to certain sites. In April 2007 Google s SEO Czar, Matt Cutts [...]
I think some people put too much emphasis on pagerank. Just make a good site, write good stuff and people will come. That’s how my site has lasted nearly seven years (not that I write good stuff ;)).
Angela, clearly SERPs is more important if you want your site to get noticed when people are searching for key terms.
Good content and longevity do help and 7 years is “forever” when it comes to the internet. Congratulations!
[...] after reading Matt’s questions on the possibility of facing similar penalties for yourself and Rob Watts’ passionate and very valid demands from Google for transparency of process and [...]
Matt, This is an exceptionally well written post. Thanks for organizing the information for us here.
Thank you Marty for your kind words.
I wrote this article for certain customers of mine too, especially those who have considered various link buying schemes.
It looks as if we’ll have to explore different avenues to avoid link buying (or selling) penalties.
The PR changes I can live with. Dropping sites out of the index? That’s just wrong and is making Google look stupid.
[...] First off if you haven’t caught up on the buzz of paid links and pagerank penalties then check out this great article, Is there a PageRank Penalty in your future? [...]
You have some interesting speculations here. I wonder how it will all play out. It would be nice if folks got a warning before being penalized … but I guess that’s not realistic.
Laura, Google’s contention is that they have been warning people. They don’t do it directly, but through Matt Cutts’ blog word regularly gets out. I think it was back in April that Cutts announced that some sort of penalty was forthcoming.
@Matt: The problem with MC being the mouthpiece for Google is that usually only half-truths are ever extolled on his blog.
Also, quite often, red herrings are thrown to the ravenous mob, and from there hysteria and paranoia grow.
The feeling in the community at the moment is that all followed links (relevant, paid, whatever) are evil. Why should people be made to feel like that?
The penalties are a joke, and that reflects, most poorly, on Google. Are they going to penalise themselves -2 PR for their own very obviously shady advertising practices?
Google advertise sites selling PR; they also allow advertisers to use trademark names in their keyword anchor that don’t belong to them (and are currently being sued by several large corporations for that one); they also allow newly penalised sites to “buy back” their #1 rank through the sponsored listing section.
Google should lose 3 PR points right there. That’s 3 indiscretions that are FAR WORSE than a handful of paid links on a blog or website.
If Google is setting the rules, then they should be leading by example. I think most people don’t take them seriously whilst they continue to engage in dodgy advertising of a greater magnitude to everyone else.
Dan: When the ruler sets the rules, do they have to abide by these same rules themselves? I know, stupid question.
I’ve thought the same things about Google, MC, and there entire way of doing business. “Do No Evil” is a nice tag line, but is it accurate?
What is unfortunate is that there isn’t a viable alternative to Google and their PageRank. If there were, then I doubt we would witness what is going on today.
Eventually, Google may be hit with a combination of suits involving copyright infringements as well as being a monopoly. There does come a time when a company becomes too big that it eventually incurs the wrath of consumers and government alike.
I just don’t see that happening in the short term.
Hi Matt - no penalties on my blogs (yet). In fact, i have seen a nice bump in google traffic.
Michael
Michael, I don’t see you doing anything wrong on your blog that would incur the wrath of Mighty Google. You have that honking big skyscraper AdSense unit, just what Google loves. Give Google what they want and all will be okay!
great post, thank you for sharing
[...] PageRank Penalty — Yuck, not another article about PageRank! Actually, I wrote three of them this month, but I’m only highlighting my warning article. Unfortunately, I believe that Google already had the penalties in place so if you took action back when I posted this article on October 9th it probably did you no good for their most recent update. [...]
[...] PageRank Penalties, Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google, Is There A PageRank Penalty In Your Future? [...]
I’ve read many blogs on this topic but I think yours is one of the best. Although there are many contentions each with their own definition but I believe all this really counts. Really Coool….
I’m surprised after reading your blog entry here. I think Google has been very serious about serving the community with webpage which are truly good and deserving. It’s really a good move to filter out the ones which they consider as cheating.
PageRank is dead! PageRank penalty is made manual! I’m sure.