No matter what Google does, people would always find ways to tweak the system. Thats how things are, there is always smarter ones. But there could be some kind of warning at least, so people could change the strategy.
Another thought. It seems like this PR change don't effect traffic from Google. If that is true the reason could simply be that Google suspect that some sites are selling links and lower their PR to stop them from selling. Google play safe and lower PR for all sites that are in fact selling links and also for those who in some way are related to sites selling/buying links?
If everybody is seeing this you shouldnt worry because your competition will get the same treatment as you... so there wont be any major changes in rankings..
This update will likely take days (or weeks) to complete so you are only seeing a tiny part of the picture. Google and other search engines also stated a long time ago that they frowned on link exchanges. I don't think a universal downgrade of PR is going to be a big deal, Google probably just wants it to be 'valuable' again and at the same time it should discourage folks from buying and selling high PR links because there won't really be any left.
I have to agree to this. It seems reasonable. I'm just hoping they've found a fair way to do it. So...would you like to remove links with me?
I wonder if google will make a statement about the PR reduction because if they don't I can see there being 1,000,000 re-inclusion requests from folks doing this-that-and-the-other-thing to their sites and then asking for the PR back!!
Hello... Well Dave E your an seo master... so let me ask this... How much is a PR7 link worth now? Triple ? quadruple? If anything the price of PR just sky rocketed ... Your thoughts... thx malcolm
what is happening is a good thing and should have happened long long ago quality whitehat websites that have been competing for SERPs for many years being pushed out of the way by crap websites and directories because they can afford more high pr link backs. The whole PR system in its current state is a complete joke (and completely represented in the useless serps google have been providing over the last 6 months) - anyone with half a brain and a big enough budget can buy there way to pr7-8 then make there money back with link sales. this is not the way Google designed the PR system to be used, hundreds of thousands of webmasters have completely abused the system (hell, look at hostgator and there PR8, 700000 review websites and coupon websites, wtf, ITS A HOSTING COMPANY! now with the same PR as MSN !!!! W-T-F) to everyone who has bought and sold links, now loosing pagerank HAHA tough luck. go cry somewhere else. all the crap directories and mfa blogs etc, make me wanna gouge my eyes out. to all the websites loosing PR in the crossfire - I'm sure you will receive your true pagerank whenever google get there act together and finalize whatever the hell they are working on. I wish you all luck.
Actually I still have 3 other websites which also still remain at PR5. I am closely monitoring any movement. All else being equal (ie: all these sites have advertising, one way or another), I am not sure what exactly is the criteria for the downgrade.
I can't believe that i read this whole post about speculation on a Google penalty, and not one person suggested that it might just be an update of some sort. Obviously, Google is doing something with their page ranking system, tweaking the algorithm, changing reporting times, and maybe a complete overhaul of some sort. These sites that were just "hit" are probably being run through the system because they get the spiders first and then maybe the pulled the algo or are tweaking it before the unleash it on the whole index. Who knows ? But to chalk it up to a penalty is unfounded hysteria. Let it work out for a while and then try and figure out what it really means.
So, we know that PR is updated on a constant basis, so the question is, has anyone of these sites seen a drop in search traffic? If not, then why are we even talking about this? I've seen at least of the blogs say they have seen no decrease in traffic, so this change may finally prove that page rank has little effect on search results. I would see an argument that page rank relates to authority, but all of these discussions is certainly not worth it on the authority argument alone.
Jill over at highrankings.com has an interesting take on what Google is doing and I think she might be right: Many folks are reporting no change in SERPs even with the much lowered page ranks so the above could be a distinct possiblility.