Google's PageRank Update Goes After Paid Links?

loveseo · by **loveseo** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:48 pm

Seems like there is a PageRank update taking place now that seems to be impacting sites that sell links. Can't say that we were not warned about this? Danny Sullivan wrote Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google over two weeks ago, and now it appears many sites are getting hit with a drop in PageRank.

Here is a list of some sites, including major publishers, who seem to have taken a hit overnight:

Code: Select all: * http://www.washingtonpost.com/ PR7 to PR5 * http://www.forbes.com/ PR7 to PR5 * http://www.suntimes.com/ PR7 to PR5 * http://www.sfgate.com/ PR7 to PR5 * http://www.statcounter.com/ PR10 to PR6 * http://www.masternewmedia.org/ PR7 to PR4 * http://www.autoblog.com/ PR6 to PR4 * http://www.engadget.com/ PR7 to PR5 * http://www.problogger.net/ PR6 to PR4 * http://www.copyblogger.com/ PR6 to PR4 * http://www.joystiq.com/ PR6 to PR4 * http://www.tuaw.com/ PR6 to PR4 * http://www.searchengineguide.com/ PR7 to PR4

for more info >> http://searchengineland.com/071024-093938.php

It actually looks like this last Google dance was the occasion for Google to enforce the new policy about paid link.

The problem is we see site that really are not spammy site being penalized, and some that should and are not. Google wanted a strong message, it's the case for sure, but with some collateral damages.

The problem is, if each time spammers find a new technique, Google massively penalizes, there will be a lot of collateral damage, and in the end I'm not sure it will be better.

So far though, SERPs and referral do not really seem affected by the drop, so there are some hope this really deals with Link Juice and not with positioning really.

We'll see in the coming weeks.

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Google's PageRank Update Goes After Paid Links?

Google's PageRank Update Goes After Paid Links?

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