What On Earth Is Going On With The Latest Google PageRank Update?

Everton | Oct 24, 2007 | Comments


It’s been a very long time since I’ve written a post while I’m at work, but Andy Beard just pinged me about a story he’d just posted, and I just had to write something I’m so stunned by the post.

Over the last couple of weeks, Google has apparently been penalising sites that have been selling text links by reducing their PageRank, although there’s been no official word from Google to confirm this. In the latest move, a number of sites including poor old Andy’s have been hit by another wave of Page Rank reductions.

I know you’ll be as stunned as me when you see how many A-list sites have had significant reductions in their Page Ranks:

A few search and money related sites as examples

There are some massive sites in this list. I’m convinced that it can’t be just because they are selling text links, as I’m sure that the number of text links that a site like autoblog might have sold, wouldn’t warrant a Page Rank reduction from 6 to 4.

Andy has hypothesised that the reductions might be because the reductions are because the sites are part of blog networks i.e. are interlinking and passing on Page Rank to non-related sites.

Here are the Google guidelines

Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

If this is true, then does this mean bloggers now have to be careful about what sites they include in their blogrolls? I’m starting to think yes, as how can Google tell if a link has been paid for or not? I think the rule of thumb now should be, if the link is unrelated in any shape or form to your site’s core topic, then don’t link to it unless you use nofollow. Clearly other ‘blogs’ won’t be treated as being relevant any more.

I wonder what the policy will be about other sidebar content like BlogRush widgets, various other buttons & badges, site meters etc? Do bloggers now have to frantically spend this evening adding nofollow to everything?

It seems PageRank is no longer a measure of how relevant your site is (was it ever?), it’s now a measure of how well you abide by Google’s rules.


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About the Author: Everton is based in London and has worked in the internet and mobile space for over ten years now, and before that worked in corporate strategy and consulting. He has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University.He also writes for Windows 7 News, Windows 8 News and One Tip A Day.

  • I have to defend the opposing view. I have been commenting on blogs for the last month and a half saying this was coming. If you take TLA's easy money or participate in links schemes, you do so at the expense of your site's relationship with Google. Their business is making sure that pr and serps mean something, and paid links and link schemes undermine both. I for one am much more concerned about my relationship with Google than I am getting easy money publishing non-relevant text ads, because in the long run, Google is responsible for about 2/3 of my traffic and will make me far more money.
    I noticed Google removed about 2000+ links from my site last week in Google's Webmasters Tools. I imagine either forum links, blog comment links, or both, are about to become worthless. I can't blame them, why should I get authority from pasting my signature all over the web?
    I know people don't like this, and are going to grumble about it for a while, but think about it. Google is building a better web. Which side of the fence do you want to be on?
  • @michael

    I'm not too concerned about selling links, as that's been debated to death now. But what about getting penalised for cross-linking? Do you think that penalising a site as big as Engadget so dramatically (even if it does include selling links) is justified?
  • e.g. should I be worried about linking to so many non-related sites in my post ;-)
  • I understand how people are going to be up in arms over this, but is anyone surprised?

    We've all done things to manipulate our site's authority, I'm certainly not innocent. I don't sell text links or participate in link building schemes, but I have thousands of forum .sig links and blog comment links. I will continue to use both even if they're worthless now, because forums create a lot of my traffic, and I have grown to like frequenting blogs and commenting.

    Is Google going too far? Probably. Yes. But they let us get away with murder up til now. It will balance out and they will relax their guidelines a bit, but some long-used seo techniques are probably done for.
  • Is Google going too far? Probably. Yes. But they let us get away with murder up til now. It will balance out and they will relax their guidelines a bit


    Lets hope so. If they are going to start compiling all non-relevant links then the pain is going to continue for a long time, especially if you've been a 'good' blogger and leaving your sig all around the web.....

    One potential side benefit. I'm still a 6, so maybe I'll start stealing some of engadget and friends' traffic ;-)

    I for one am not going to change my behaviour. I never understood Google's alogrithm before, so why should I suddenly act different???
  • Well, these sites shouldnt be surprised by this drop..

    Just look at http://www.autoblog.com/

    The bottom like 20% of the long page is about *55* links out to other unrelated sites in their network. For all intents and purposes they are paid links.. to themself. True, a company can plug its own stuff all it wants, but this seems a bit extensive.

    Google cannot tell if a site is selling links. Impossible for them to tell. But it has always maintained that linking to bad sites hurts you. How can you be a 'highly respected' site on topic X when you link out to unrelated stuff 55 times on your main page alone. It makes sense in all honesty. I doubt it was 'penalties' per say, but likely a change in the algorithm...

    Kinda weird that the pagerank update still isnt a proper update....
  • Thats to bad. What if you were to buy links, would you also be penalized.
  • Richard -> Nope, but you probably wouldn't get any benefit either.

    Google/Matt Cutts have stated time and time again that outside factors cannot *hurt* you, they can only fail to help you.

    If buying links could get you penalized, I could launch a smear campaign, buying only the worst links I could find, and link to my competitor. It would be like a reverse googlebomb.

    It makes me kind of want to rethink using tnx.net, since the site quality for those links you are placing on your site is absolute garbage. I'll probbaly keep it up on one of my lesser built up sites.. just for giggles..
  • Whatever their motivation behind doing it, they're rattling a heck of a lot of cages at the moment and they're not publicly explaining their reasons behind it. Another case of Google FUD.

    Let's put paid links to one side, if, as has been suggested, that it's down to an aggressive outbund linking policy, why not say so?
  • >>I wonder what the policy will be about other sidebar content like BlogRush widgets, various other buttons & badges, site meters etc?

    Blogrush is Javascript, so you won't have to worry about it affecting SEO - probably the only thing John Reese did right about it - so far. I'm still hopeful about their v2 release.

    >>It seems PageRank is no longer a measure of how relevant your site is (was it ever?), it’s now a measure of how well you abide by Google’s rules.

    I believe you've nailed it there - bang on.
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