Google Smackdown!
Today, Google has rolled out yet another PageRank update - or half of an update anyway. Google’s PageRank is a rough indicator of the worth and authority of a particular site- there are many factors in search results, but all other factors being equal, a site with higher PageRank will be higher in search results, attracting more traffic, than a site with lower PageRank. Although internal PageRank fluctuates constantly, Google pushes out updates to its visible PageRank every few months. Usually, some sites gain in PageRank and some lose. But this update is different.
In this update, PageRanks are going down, big time. Respected sites like Engadget are losing Pagerank, which will undoubtedly result in lower advertising revenue and search traffic. Why? All the evidence points to the fact that they have been smacked down by Google for excessive linking. Yeah, that’s right- they will be judged in the search engines not on their content or relevance to the visitor, but because they link too much to other sites in their network or their advertisers.
Frankly, I think this latest hit from Google is bullshit, and not because of anything it did to me(my own PageRank, unaffected by the update, remains at a solid 0).
Google has long spoken out against paid link selling, which they view as gaming the search results, but penalizing the sites their dubious algorithms detect as selling links is not the answer. If Google can detect paid links, why not punish the buyer of the links, who does not have content that is good enough to generate organic links? Unfairly and selectively weighing down the seller only does one thing: make the search results less relevant(and, of course, steer advertisers away from privately buying links and into the welcoming arms of Google’s AdWords).
Courtney Tuttle has an interesting alternate theory that the selective punishment of prominent publishers is a Google PR(public relations) stunt designed to scare us away from delivering anything but 100% organic links. If the big G goes overboard, the plan may backfire- pissing off your most prominent moneymakers(many affected sites run Google AdSense ads) is not a good way to retain their business.
Overall, I’m getting rather tired of the ways Google is trying more and more to reshape the web to its liking. They already control what content you can produce-they decide what is and isn’t “quality content“, which sites are harmful, and now, who and how you link to. Google is getting too comfortable in their monopoly of search and thus, Internet traffic, which they dole out and take back for often arbitrary reasons. It’s high time Google get a competitor. I’m looking at Powerset- that’s our last stand against the Google behemoth.
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I totally agree that Google needs a competitor, but I don’t think we will see one in the near future. Google needs to update more often its page ranking and back links not quarterly.
I have to agree with you for years google has been failing itself and visitors. The recent PR downgrade had no purpose except pissing off a few webmasters. But when you think about it, google is just full of spam. My cricket site that has 50 pages of content is being out ranked by sites not on the niche, but those sites have 4 lines of content on cricket. how can this be just? its not. Do visitors want this? no, why would visitors want to visit a site about depression, when they search cricket. These problems are happening right throughout the search engine and they need to be taken care of. I totally agree with your post lets keep the good work up of informing the public. Im a subscriber. Keep it up.
Rami
Google updates their PR quarterly, but I noticed lately that Google PR are delayed or not updated… Now I know why, they keep on changing their PR rulings…
So it only means link building excessively will be harmful to our sites… D**N
Yeah it’s been a long time since their last update. I have several sites sitting at a big 0.
You make some good points. But as long as people are AWARE of the monopoly that google holds, then it can’t be too harmful. Otherwise, they’ll think that google is the penultimate representation of the collective internet. It’s like Microsoft… some people think Windows is the very definition of personal computer operation. Using windows isn’t necessarily bad, you should just be aware of other options.
hi, Actually it is shocking to know that a website like Engadget is losing its ranking. I guess google needs a good competitor that when things when come in place.
Good day
I don’t know why you stayed at 0. That’s weird.
I have some barely developed sites with little age that moved up from 0 to 1-3. I can’t understand the GoogleMachine
I agree, Google shouldn’t be judging sites based on their choices of revenue - they should judge sites based on the value they provide to the users. Facebook’s new ad platform hopefully will have an impact but I think it will still be too small to matter.
Well I finally got an update to my PR. One of my sites dropped off to a 0 about half way between the updates, which I cannot understand. My other 3 sites have jumped to PR 1
I am happy that I finally got some sort of rank. I had created my sites right before the last PR update so I got nothing from it. I ended up having to wait this whole time for anything. Glad I got something out of the long wait. It may not be much, but it is a starting point anyway.
I totally agree with you, this PR update was a completely farce. I got my site from PR 4 to PR 2, but it had better backlinks.
My blog had PR 5 before but it went down to 4. I guess one of the reasons why is that I never tend to update it few months ago. But my other blog is now PR 3 from 0. ^_^
What about your traffic after this downgrade? Is still the same?
I am still deciding if i should use Google PR after reading this article and comments from other people. Thanks for sharing the info people!
I get hit pretty bad with some sites.
Same here .. i get hit pretty bad with some site. Let me know if there are any solution to it
Mine went up on three sites from 0 to 3, but they opened right after the previous update and were in desperate need of PR by this point. Still surprised one of those sites went to 3 as i barely did any link building on it.
I gave up trying to understand Google’s inner workings a long time ago.
I agree that Google needs some attention. Google needs to update more often its page ranking and back links not quarterly. Thanks for blogs
Before Google I used the different searching systems! With Google none not to have a look in.
Google is the King and will remain that way. Yahoo is 2nd and they are a joke, as far a search.
I agree, Google needs a competitor so that they have something to worry about. I don’t necessarily agree with their approach of punishing excessive link building because the penalties can affect innocent websites but I haven’t thought of a better way so….
Google PR is just bullshit. I have a PR5 website which is nowhere to be found on Google, and a PR2 website which is ranking on Google. Nice!!!
I agree, google should update more frequently. Many sites are losing their pageranks. It is quite upsetting. I hope soon another competitor comes along. In the meantime, I guess we will have to put up with google and its pageranks
I think Google shows too much information and should not show the information, so that if links are created naturally, the site should be rewarded.
BTW - Didn’t Google’s activities really create the buying and selling of links?
Weirdly enough. My strong sites have dropped in PR and my weak sites have increased in PR. The previous algorithim was worthless and this one is even worse. Im not sure what google are doing here, i can only think that they are purposely trying to annoy webmasters. Because everything they seem to do is wrong or not accurate. This new PR update, well its a degrade for nearly everyone.
Andy
Google is really freaking me out, i dn’t know why but i think it may be a conspiracy
My blog went up from 0 to 4, so I’m very pleased with Google
Yes, me too, my site went up from 1 to 5, not bad
It is very hard to compete with Google in searching. It has some problems now, but this is realy grea system.
I hope that Google will no be an future Windows.. because if the do, we’ll be their slaves
Eventually webmasters will realise that a near-monopoly on search, no matter how well-intentioned the company is, is bad for their business. Witness the squeaks when Google has a update; they could easily turn to screams.
[heh, heh, heh]
Google is starting to scare me :/, I mean they will control like 50% of te Internet very soon
Some people (also myself) might start to think that Google PageRank is completely biased. And seriously I have no clue about how its working anyway.
1. Google PageRank means Google thinks your site is OK, at least. This is a quick, handy metric for advertisers.
2. PageRank isn’t important at all … Until you lose it.
3. If you want to keep it, don’t link out promiscuously to mediocre and/or unrelated sites.
4. PageRank doesn’t affect SERPs, so it’s not a disaster if it goes down. Just embarassing
Google PageRank ain’t everything, bro. Forget about PR and just concentrate on your writing and blog building. I’ve even removed any add-on or toolbar that showed a PR value. You write well, keep up the good work. Content is King, Google comes second, err last maybe. =p
A lot of gurus will tell you that pagerank really isn’t that important for search engine rankings anyway. I mean all you need is one link from a PR7 site to get a PR3 or something. Also, has it been confirmed that this pagerank decrease was just cosmetic? As in, it only showed up on the Google Toolbar but not internally at Google itself?
oh.. really? but i didn’t noticed that Google are having some PR updates recently this week or the other month? i as i remember its on last oct. 28-29. Perhaps the main PR update again is before the end of the yr this december last of the week.. we should make a move to our website to get high and solid.
soy wax
ngek.. Perhaps Google seems to be dancing again and change their algorithm and SEO trends, mostly webmaster, bloggers and website owners are getting insane again to adopt the ever changing SE behavior.
Panama
I completely agree with your post..google is not the internet god…it is really stupid these days what they are doing!
This a great post but I at least you have a rank still. Google is ridiculous..I wish they did have a competitor!!
Yeah, Google has said this, yet all the corporations and businesses that have payed for seo services still remain at the top. Whatever Google!!!!!!
They gave me a few weeks to think I was safe, but I was busted as well for running sponsored reviews. Months to get a PR3 wiped out over night… Ouch.
Google can be kind of crazy. If it were up to them they would be the only way to monetize your site and who can blame them. But they have a huge monopoly starting. As for the page rank I don’t even let it get to me as long as my position in the serps remains the same. My site lost pr though even though I didn’t increase or decrease my links (that might be why) but I don’t understand that if people are getting tons of links to there site because there site is worth linking to why Google would penalize them for being a name on the net.
Google just sent out another PR update yesterday, my site lost PR. I still rank the same, I usually call this the google fool bar. I only use it to find out if the a site is important or not. It has no effect on my seo.
WE NEED TO REGULATE GOOGLE FROM WASHINGTON
We should not forget that the search engine is still a very new thing in the world - far less than a generation old. The whole field is in its infancy and no one has figured out what the “best” arrangement should be. At this point the Google search engine appears to be characterized by frequent changes of the rules and complex, often arbitrary and short-sighted internal regulations. Very smart, very ethical people are finding it impossible to understand how Google works and are finding their businesses and personal lives are greatly dependent on an unpredictable search engine entity.
Search engines have relatively suddenly come to affect our society in a very powerful manner, both in commerce and our personal lives, and if Google (and any other company with power in this area) appears to be too arbitrary or unfair, they will invite calls for government regulation. Too many people are harmed by the arbitrariness, in my opinion, and it is just a matter of time before effective political pressure leads to the matter being INVOLUTARILY taken out of Google’s exclusive hands through legislation from Washington.
One of my sites got smacked down rather badly.
i think google is run by a couple of crackheads
i got hit hard as well
it’s simple, they want to dominate the online web advertising market
what else?
I only say that we don’t bother about PR. As by getting high PR, it does not mean that you may get high search ranking in search engine. So, keep up it with your efforts.
I just took a look at your blog’s ranking using the blogflux page rank checker… It turned up at 4.
I actually thought that Google’s most recent PR would have taken place by now. So it should be literally any time now.
That’s why I’m a little bit in the middle about Yahoo takeover by Microsoft. On one hand, it would give Google the much needed competition, but then again, Microsoft is no angel when it comes to Monopoly.
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My experience says that PR is not much important for ranking..its is one the factor which affect the rankings..but it is not necessary..
Everyone seems so fixated on PageRank. When it comes to the end of the day, you should be concerned about SERP rankings, not that you have a PR 0. You can have a PR 10 page and be making absolute jack. Unless you’re selling links (which is by far one of the not so smart things you can do online) don’t focus too much on PR.
It seems like out of nowhere a penalized site can get its PR back. I would be patient and see if you get out of it after a few months.
I totally agree with you! but at least you have a rank still. Let me know if there is any solution.
We need to find a competitor to eliminate google as the sole authority of judging a sites “Rank”.
With the way things are in the world wide web, Google is still the undisputed heavyweight search engine. Many challengers tried but until now, no one has really posed a real threatening stance against it.
Naturally, all things that the big G does don’t really please everyone. It has its own reasons for doing things that way. But until some brilliant boys come up with a search engine really worth a challenge to Google, we may just have to live with it.
Google pagerank is crap, unfortunately I would still trust the score given by Google rather than any other random stats given by site owners.
I try to focus more on positon, keywords, and traffic.
I agree, Google shouldn’t be judging sites based on their choices of revenue - they should judge sites based on the value they provide to the users. Facebook’s new ad platform hopefully will have an impact but I think it will still be too small to matter.
I agree with you here neomeme. I think that PR is not that important because a site with low page rank can also come before a site with an average page rank in SERP.
I also agree with you that Google should be evaluating sites based on the value of the site’s content. The challenge of course is developing an algorithm that can evaluate a qualitative measure (such as content). Until that point, Google will have to resort to quantitative measures to rack and stack websites.
I agree with your comment. Nice post !
do you also think this this thing is cool?
Yea, I am not sure how much PR plays into SERPs, as I have a PR4 site, and a PR6 site both listing on the same niche….but the PR4 sites is about 6 pages higher on the results….
I think, Google PR plays a vital role in getting backlinks and traffic for high ranking site. For example my site PR was dropped in from 4 to 2, when it was PR 4 i use to get more traffic and but now less traffic compare to previous.
I too agree with this comment, a very good post
A hug Dude
i too agree to this comment
I agree with this comments that google page rank is increased with the more back links of the site.
There’s no argument when it comes to which is the best search engine, Google wins hands down. They have to keep changing their algorithms to combat the millions of people that try to cheat the system, and sneak higher in the ranks. Let’s let Google do what they need to do to stay #1, until they give us a reason not to believe in them.
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I had no idea how much control Google has. It’s kind of scary…
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Google is always tossing things back the other way and mixing things up - i think the best anyone can do is to just roll with their punches.
For example my site PR was dropped in from 4 to 2, when it was PR 4 i use to get more traffic and but now less traffic compare to previous.
How to up Page ranking in google? i see a website have high PR but google index is 0
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Google is screwing everyone over lately.
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good article, congrats
I agree that the google page rank system has become a monstrous beast when it comes to penalizing sites that offer paid links. I’m all for doing the work, but I’d think it’s ridiculous the amount of power they throw around with sites. Good grief, it’s my living they mess with every month.
I agree, google does need some competition, they basically have the run of everything now. Maybe Cuil will straighten them out, but I guess thats an eventual thing. For now we probably have to live with it.
Google definitely needs competition, however, I don´t see it any time soon. They provide such a good service that nothing compares. I still remember the old days when we had to suffer with our searches… Oh yeah and before I forget, great post!!
I think Google should not do that.
Google has too much power over what can and cannot do well in the searches.
I think PR is not important to get good SERP. It’s a Good Article…
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PR not very important to me
i think if you want get high PR is create nice posting in your blog 
the very important is traffic
yeah, Google needs a competitor..
Cuil (pronounced as cool) has got Google nervous though.. lets c what happens..
cheers
always something new with google….thank for sharing
If you rely on google for traffic you are screwed. What if google decides to de-index youe website soemday? Just start thinking of more creative ways to get targeted traffic, it is taek time definitely but it is well worth it in the long run. I found by trial and error that bookmarking sites and comments on topic related blogs bring the best traffic-that kind of people that will keepcoming back to your website for more and more:)
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i appreciate the good advices written in this article
Very funny title!!! i just wanna wish every thing that you have mentioned about the concern of para. .:)Thank you very much for posting this fabulous article. .
I fortunately did not suffer a PR drop. Someone needs to put the smack down on Google… Monopolistic SOBs.
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very Nice Approach