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

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:

• http://www.autoblog.com/ PR6 PR4

• http://www.engadget.com/ PR7 PR5

• http://www.problogger.net/ PR6 PR4

• http://www.copyblogger.com/ PR6 PR4

• http://www.joystiq.com/ PR6 PR4

• http://www.tuaw.com/ PR6 PR4

A few search and money related sites as examples

• http://www.searchengineguide.com PR7 PR4

• http://www.searchenginejournal.com PR7 PR4

• http://www.johnchow.com PR6 PR4

• http://www.quickonlinetips.com/ PR6 PR3

• http://weblogtoolscollection.com/ PR6 PR4

• http://andybeard.eu PR5 PR3

• Vlad PR4 PR2

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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