Google is penalizing big name sites

Google is penalizing some big-name publications and blogs, including the Washington Post , Forbes, and Engadget. Over two dozen have seen their toolbar page rank drop by a factor of 2 to 4 overnight.

http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/2007/10/24/major-sites-taking-pagerank-hits

 

Google doesn't like to penalize only big name site. Right now there is google chaning its PR Policy so due to this small website are also gone there PR.

 

They aren't really penalizing them, they have just changed the way they calculate PR.

 

they are always changing their ways of calculating PR, so sometimes you win and others you don't.

 

I dunno, there are still a lot of big sites out there openly selling links that have not shown any drops with Google. Couple of examples:
www.notebookreview.com on the front page scroll all the way down on the right. All those links with anchor text are sold and don't use nofollow.

www.daniweb.com on the front page right column under "Advertisements" are paid text links with anchor text and without a nofollow.

If Google were really using a seek and destroy method to penalize sites for selling links there's no way sites like this would not be hit already.

 

Google has PR penalized for sites that are buying/selling sitewide links!

 

They aren't touching sites that sell links. They are going after sites that buy links.

 

I hope my competitor gets hit next

 

You all seem to be making pretty broad statements - I wonder if any of you have actual facts to back up the statements. Too many people speculating about something no one has the facts on except Google.

Unless your buddies with Matt Cutts no one here knows what Google is doing.

 

http://www.phpbb.com/
dropped from an 8 to a 6 )

 

I heard they are penalizing both, they penalized few renown directories like aviva, alive ect for selling links. http://www.adityaspeaks.com/2007/09/28/why-did-google-penalize-over-100-web-directory-sites/

 

pr fluctuations happen prior to updates - fairly normal - see where they are when the update is over

 

Based on what I read, I don't see a trend. I think it is just an algo update that affects many large websites.

 

Google has just changed its PR policy

 

WRONG.

A college that sells 40 sitewide text links went from PR 8 to PR 5! If you understand how PR works... you will know that a drop like that is much greater than a PR5 dropping to PR 2.

This college not only sold TLA, but blatantly advertised they sold them direct. Do you really think they were not penalized???

Google clearly stated that sites caught doing so would have their PR diluted.


How do you catch a site buying links btw? How can you be sure it isn't a competitor buying it for them?

There is no question about a site selling them, especially when they advertise it on the site.

 

So my small site now ranks the same as some major media sites. (PR5/6, depending on what mood Google's in.)

Kewl.

However, I've checked my stats and I'm not getting any additional traffic from search ... I think there's more factors at play here.

 

The first answer is ask Matt Cutts. I have heard rumors that he occasionally flaunts his link sniffing software at webmaster conventions. The second part is I don't think they can always be 100% sure, short of sending a narc in posing as a link buyer. The kids at Googleplex have some amazing ways of reverse engineering almost anything .

I take issue with, Google says no buying and selling links but join adwords and buy as many links as you like...OPPS no I mean AdWords . Are others not allowed to make a buck selling advertising? Is it fair to the webmasters that just got bitch slapped for doing it?

It is easy for Google to make there own law. They have only 1 higher authority, the people (us).


H

 

There seems to be some major changes going on so I'm not too surprised... They're probably starting with the big websites.

 

Its like saying the famous "Save the animal" campaign. If the buying stops, the killing too

IMO, sellers are to be punished first. If there are no sellers there wont be any buyers. Oh well vice versa, its all with the money

 

i guess google must punish buyers.if there is no buyer sites wont be sell links.