Google declaring war on blog networks

[ses5909]

Just read about this over at technosailor.com (http://technosailor.com/2007/10/24/google-pagerank-penalties-for-network-blogs/). Basically it looks like anyone who is in a blog network that heavily link to each other, will see some penalties.

Some examples are:

Darren Rowse went from a PR 7 to a PR 4
Aaron went from a 6 to a 3
Engadget went from a 7 to a 5

Daniel over at Daily Blog Tips (http://www.dailyblogtips.com/google-changing-the-pagerank-algorithm/) is keeping a running tab on "trusted sites" affected by this.



Disclaimer: This hasn't been confirmed yet but is very interesting speculation

[Jessi]

:eek:

This is quite the interesting update. I'd like to see if others can confirm it...

[SarahG]

Do you think this means for using javascript blog network widgets (which surely don't affect rankings) or your own blogroll/links? Or both.

[deronsizemore]

It's interesting, but won't matter. These sites are so huge that they could basically drop down to a Page Rank zero in google and it would make no difference. They will still have good results in google and will still have a bunch of direct traffic.

So...way to go Google. Keep wasting everyones time! lol

[adalante]

Interesting indeed, but those bloggers probably didn't even bother checking their PR

[Cedric]

Well can't be so sure about that cuz some bloggers really get pissed when they knew their page rank is dropped. For my goodboygonebad.com , although it has enough backlinks, still it's at PR0, some even speculated that it's because I use too many foul languages in my blog, that's like so premature. Haha, I don't really care what my ranking is, the number that really matters a lot is the amount of unique visitors you get per day, that's the real power. LOL

[deronsizemore]

really matters a lot is the amount of unique visitors you get per day, that's the real power. LOL

Yeah, you're right unless you want to sell some sort of advertising on your site. The sad fact is that most advertisers think Page Rank is the best way to measure the quality of a site so with no Page Rank, no advertisers.

[SarahG]

According to Text Link Ads they're not going to alter link prices despite the PR issues. They'll need to start looking at a new metric though as we all know how inaccurate Alexa can be.

[Cedric]

I think it's really appropriate for them to look for a new metric because so far Google hasn't announce the reason why they drop some of the page ranks. And if they wanna switch their attention to Alexa... Hmm I'm afraid Alexa is waaay to easy to be manipulated.

[malique]

there goes the internet.

i have a feeling google pr would be obsolete in a few months.

[t(-.-t)]

Maybe the quality of the blog networks is decreasing and it's being taken out on all the network's sites good or bad.

[adalante]

According to Text Link Ads they're not going to alter link prices despite the PR issues.

Really? i didn't know that, sweet :D

[fatnewt]

Visible PR has never been a reliable source of information, since it's rarely current even when it's just been updated.

Google has always said it wants to consider spontaneous, non-paid and non-affiliated links to be more valuable than those you can build or buy yourself. I doubt this is a "penalty", but instead a devaluation of the PR spread between sites that are obviously networked.

[t(-.-t)]

Google has always said it wants to consider spontaneous... links to be more valuable
"dude I don't know, I just had this crazy idea and did it. yeah, i linked to that site" :devilhorns:

[WayneSmallman]

Back in July, Aaron Wall discussed how Google really don't take too kindly to rampantly successful social media campaigns and linkbait (http://www.seobook.com/3-ways-get-screwed-social-media-marketing). So much so, Google were removing these people from their index.

So when all of this recent PageRank update downgrade malarkey started doing the rounds, it sort of got me thinking — what if Google are actually afraid of social media's potential to damage their earnings over time? (http://www.blahblahtech.com/2007/10/social-media-to-kill-googles-search-algorithm.html)

"Google aren't so much penalizing Copyblogger, ProBlogger, Forbes et al, they're trying to stave off Social Media. Why? Because while ever people like you & me are finding stuff on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and del.icio.us, we're not searching for stuff on Google — and that attacks at the very heart of Google's revenues."

Now there's a thought...

[ses5909]

It's definitely a different take on things Wayne and I think it would be very possible too.

[SageMother]

there goes the internet.

i have a feeling google pr would be obsolete in a few months.

It's a necessary step. Google can't remain the only game in town. There are enough bloggers to survive, and even flourish, by using statistics other than Google's, if at all.

Good content and targeting you niche effectively is a great hedge against the manipulative efforts of search engines. I am sure many of the networks and advertising service will develop other methods of evaluating and attracting traffic. Google is shooting itself in the foot!

[malique]

would u say technorati/alexa rank would be the next 'pagerank'?

i think it could!

[ses5909]

I doubt it even though advertisers do look at your alexa rank as well. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this mess though!

[samwoodfin]

Maybe Compete (http://www.compete.com/) or Quantcast (http://www.quantcast.com/index.jsp) will become bigger players? 'Though I really don't see PageRank beong devalued too much, too quickly.

[Selkirk]

They're not penalizing linking networks. They are penalizing link sellers.

Search Engine Land (http://searchengineland.com/071007-173841.php): So I pinged Google, and they confirmed that PageRank scores are being lowered for some sites that sell links.
In addition, Google said that some sites that are selling links may indeed end up being dropped from its search engine or have penalties attached to prevent them from ranking well.