Google PageRank and Ranking Penalties Being Dished Out Like Crazy

which probably means that the advertisers were more interested in any PR juice they could get, rather than the traffic from their adverts.

 

How is this a penalty to sites that don't sell links? No penalty at all. It only affects those who are selling links....

p.l.u.r.

 

There are several sites affected that do not sell links. For example http://andybeard.eu/ claims not to sell links and was affected.

 

That site has an advertisement on the front page saying "HIRE ME a post on this blog is $130".

 

My PR5 travel site was downgraded to PR4 about a few weeks ago. I thought that was it, but shockingly at this very moment, there are some DCs showing PR3.

After seeing a lot of reputable sites being downgraded from PR7 to PR5, I have a feeling that PR3 is the new PR5 for whatever reason that Google has. Some observations:

- websites that do not sell links (OK, let's assume they tell the truth) still got the downgrade
- (some) websites that obviously sell links do not get the downgrade and still remain at the old PRs
- websites that do sell links get -1 or -2 PR downgrade

To me, it looks quite inconclusive. My best bet is that the change in algorithm on determining PageRank, or some sort of ranking normalisation that put PR3 of today = PR5 of some months ago.

Trust me, everyone feels their website is worthy of higher PageRank, including yours truly. Everyone says they have PR9/8/7 back-linking to them, and yet, their PRs still went lower.

 

DEAR ALL -

VISIBLE PAGERANK HAS NO EFFECT ON YOUR TRAFFIC AND SERP RANKINGS - IT DOESN'T CHANGE THE SITE'S RELEVANCE, TRAFFIC OR VALUE OF CONTENT.
Your visitors do not care about your visible pagerank, and neither does Google Search.





Cheers

 

Yes, that is correct. Assuming my website finally settles down at PR3, it is very unlikely to affect my #1 position in Google SERP on 2-3 keywords.

That being said, I will need to see in a few weeks on what happens.

 

Wrong! Your visitors may not care about PR but google does! I am sure you know google cares about its products and services.

 

Page rank is not the be all and end all. There are other things to worry about, such as providing a site that users like and use.

 

That's the reason for my wording "claims not to".

Note that he was talking about the visible PageRank figure. That does not affect Google search. Only their internal number will, and that's at the moment over four months ahead of the toolbar number.

 

Exactly, PR is one of many parts of huge algorithm google uses to rank sites....

 

Visible PR is a consequence not a reason

 

problogger, forbes, washingtonpost...that's cheered me up, at least I'm in good company

It's looking more like something went wrong at google than a 'link sales' penalty has been dished-out. Either way, page rank is quickly becoming even less interesting to look at than it was before.

 

I've taken a couple of hits like this recently. Was a PR6 then dropped to a 5 and am now a 3. I'm not really that bothered about PR but the 3 was a shock. So far I'm not seeing any drop in traffic from the G and over the last few weeks Google traffic has been increasing and as long as that keeps happening I'll continue not to care about PR.

 

At the beginning of this year http://www.statcounter.com/ was still PR10. Then they dropped to an 9 and most recently to a 8. Now they dropped again to PR6.

 

Wow, 10 to 6? Maybe Google's doing this on purpose to kill the competitors of Analytics...?

 

Well spotted
Mind you....their vast number of back links were forced by making any sites that use their counter to add a link to their homepage.

So its understandable. I just dont get why legit sites have been punished. My best PR site is still at a 6 so I have fingers crossed it wont get hit (doesnt sell links tho or actively build them nowadays as its aged)

I think Google is taking its dominance to a new level
GOOGLE IS THE INTERNET not a good position for any one company to be in..... monopoly springs to mind (and revenue generating of course)

 

That sort of makes sense - except I have a personal blog, with no advertising apart from adsense, and is read by a small band of regular readers, which has remained a page rank 5.

Which means that Google now apparently thinks my personal blog is the equivalent of the Washington Post in authority and content, just because it has no non-Google advertising and the Washington Post has. Which is patently nuts.

But I wonder if they realise such anomalies are springing up which make a nonsense of pagerank as guide to authority.

 

teatree it is likely that the update is not complete. I would wait at least 3 or 4 days and see where things stand then.

 

I was cursed by G. My site dropped from 3 to 2 and now, 1 within a month. Like it or not, PR is used by sites like Payperpost to determine the value of your post.