Page Rank from down to 0. What's up with that?

18 years ago

I call that the "Google Penalty" and from what I have been hearing, it comes about because webmasters are buying and selling links. Google really frowns on that sort of thing.

You are not the only one that has had this very thing happen. I have a current product that can help people, but I am developing several more that can assist webmasters even more.

I haven't added content to my site in I don't know how long...and my site, for all practical purposes, sucks. lol. However, on this last update it went UP a ranking, instead of down.

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mmurtha

18 years ago

Aww ... don't feel to bad about it. I've seen several sites with PR 4-5 go down to 0 that were a couple of years old or more this update.

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2 replies

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swollenpickles

18 years ago

Yeah, it's probably been flagged by google as either buying or selling text links or doing paid posts. I had a blog I used for payperpost stuff and it got google slapped a while ago.
You can read up on the google policy here:
Why should I report paid links to Google?

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1 reply

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Ricky Parker

18 years ago

Ryan,

Unless your bar went grey don't worry.

PR is useless nowadays.

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3 replies

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Angela V. Edwards 18 years ago

Originally Posted by Ricky Parker

Ryan,

Unless your bar went grey don't worry.

PR is useless nowadays.

Not everybody believes that. There is a way to maintain and/or gain page rank without buying or selling links.
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- Ricky Parker 18 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards
  
  Not everybody believes that. There is a way to maintain and/or gain page rank without buying or selling links.
  
  I go by what I've seen and tested. And it's been 100% for myself and many others I know.
  
  Not to say it has not been different for others still.
  
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- 12holger34 17 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards
  
  Not everybody believes that. There is a way to maintain and/or gain page rank without buying or selling links.
  
  I think PR is a factor. You need it for organic results on Google. Sometimes it happen, that a PR3 Website is above of a PR4 Site. But what counts is the quality and the quantity of inlinks of a website for search engine results.
  
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Ryan_Taylor

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Ricky Parker

Ryan,

Unless your bar went grey don't worry.

PR is useless nowadays.

I think it still helps with selling ads, as everyone wants to have their ad or backlink on a high PR site. Whether PR is important or not, I think the belief is still there.

Not a huge deal, just kind of disappointing.

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1 reply

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Ricky Parker

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Ryan_Taylor

I think it still helps with selling ads, as everyone wants to have their ad or backlink on a high PR site. Whether PR is important or not, I think the belief is still there.

Not a huge deal, just kind of disappointing.

I agree totally it helps sell ads. Hence why they jacked everyone who was selling.

It was one of the main selling points for link sellers.

Low or no PR ='s no sold link. Googeee wins again!

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derekwong28

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Ricky Parker

Ryan,

Unless your bar went grey don't worry.

PR is useless nowadays.

This is not true for many people. He would be worried if he earns money by selling links.

From what I gather, Google is coming really hard again this time. Brace yourselves for an extremely hostile update that may be worse than the one in Oct 2007.

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Ricky Parker

18 years ago

Originally Posted by derekwong28

This is not true for many people. He would be worried if he earns money by selling links.

From what I gather, Google is coming really hard again this time. Brace yourselves for an extremely hostile update that may be worse than the one in Oct 2007.

That's what I said right above. They did it to f*%k people using PR as the main basis for valuing link sale price. And it worked.

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TeamGlobal

18 years ago

Hey Ryan,

The same thing happend to me last year. I suspect that it was the text links that I was selling.

I logged into Google Webmaster tools and found that they wanted "no follow" tag in links out to other websites so that sites did not pass pagerank.

I added the "no follow" tag and submitted my site for reconsideration in December 15, 2007. My pagerank still sets at 0 and I've heard nothing from Google's staff.

I would think that if someone corrects a policy violation that Google would make the appropriate correction of the imposed penalty.

Interestingly enough my traffic didn't suffer at all through all of this and I'm still on Google's first page for a number of competitive keywords.

All The Best,

Tony

Thanks
1 reply

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Ryan_Taylor

18 years ago

Originally Posted by TeamGlobal

Hey Ryan,

The same thing happend to me last year. I suspect that it was the text links that I was selling.

I logged into Google Webmaster tools and found that they wanted "no follow" tag in links out to other websites so that sites did not pass pagerank.

I added the "no follow" tag and submitted my site for reconsideration in December 15, 2007. My pagerank still sets at 0 and I've heard nothing from Google's staff.

Hey Tony,

Thanks for the insight. That's a bummer!

Interestingly enough my traffic didn't suffer at all through all of this and I'm still on Google's first page for a number of competitive keywords.

But that's good news!

Thanks
1 reply

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freudianslip27

18 years ago

How discrete were you when selling adspace? I'm curious if you used any of the big text link brokers, or just managed it yourself and G still nailed you.

Matt

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dburk

18 years ago

For the record I would like to say that I've never heard of anyone being penalized by Google for buying links. As far as I can tell this does not happen.

You are quite likely to get penalized for selling links, especally if you sell them for the purpose of passing page rank. Google will strip you of your link juice if they detect this.

This has flipped the axiom "Buyer Beware" on it's head. When it comes to paid links and Google, it's "Seller Beware". You can still sell links safely as long as you include the nofollow property.

Of course, if your sole purpose of purchasing a link is to get link juice, you should rethink your strategy. Link juice is given by Google and it's not a website's to sell.

When purchasing a link, your only consideration should be the traffic that you gain directly from that link.

Ironically, a paid nofollow link can often be worth more than a dofollow link. This is because the site selling the nofollow link (for traffic) is not in jeopardy of losing it's own link juice.

Google's primary business model centers around the purchase of links for traffic. They do not want to discourage this concept. You can confidently buy links for traffic, without a threat of penalty from Google.

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Angela V. Edwards

18 years ago

There's a TON of evidence of Google penalizing people for buying and selling links. You are giving out incorrect information.

Google Penalizes Newsday.com For Selling Links | WebProNews

Google's PageRank Update Goes After Paid Links?

Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google

Straight from Google's Matt Cutts:

Text links and PageRank

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Information about buying and selling links that pass PageRank

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dburk

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards

There's a TON of evidence of Google penalizing people for buying and selling links. You are giving out incorrect information.

Google Penalizes Newsday.com For Selling Links | WebProNews

Google's PageRank Update Goes After Paid Links?

Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google

Straight from Google's Matt Cutts:

Text links and PageRank

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Information about buying and selling links that pass PageRank

Hi Angela,

All those links you posted support what I have said. Thanks again, for posting them.

I have challenged members of this forum, as well as other very popular forums, to present a single case where a website was penalised for buying links. So far, not a single credible case has been produced.

There are several reasons that it is very unlikely that you will ever be penalised for buying links. Some of you already know the reasons why.

Angela, I respectfully challenge you to provide a single case where a website was penalized for buying a link, and to make it interesting I open the challenge to all the members of this board.

Find a credible case and I eat my words and issue an endorsement of your search engine savvy.

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TeamGlobal

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Ryan_Taylor

Hey Tony,

Thanks for the insight. That's a bummer!

You're welcome Ryan. You may want to try the "Reconsideration Request" within Google Webmaster Tools. Just because Google has not acted on my request doesn't meant they won't act on yours.

Originally Posted by freudianslip27

How discrete were you when selling adspace? I'm curious if you used any of the big text link brokers, or just managed it yourself and G still nailed you.

Matt

I used a big text link broker, but it didn't seem so obvious. Perhaps it wasn't Google themselves who found it initially. Anyone can report a website selling or buying paid links through a "Report Paid Links" form on Google Webmaster Tools.

All The Best,

Tony

Thanks

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Ryan_Taylor 18 years ago

Originally Posted by mmurtha

Aww ... don't feel to bad about it. I've seen several sites with PR 4-5 go down to 0 that were a couple of years old or more this update.

Sounds just like my blog. Damn, they caught me. How did they know I was selling text ads? Was it the giant Text-Link-Ad widget on my sidebar - lol.
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turbohips

17 years ago

what the hell this happened to me as well but I've never paid for any links.

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dburk 17 years ago

Originally Posted by turbohips

what the hell this happened to me as well but I've never paid for any links.

Hi turbohips,

As I have asserted in previous posts in this thread, you are not likely to be penalized for buying links of any kind. However, if you have been selling links based on the value of your PR then you are very likely to have the PR stripped from your page.

Google is fine with buying and selling links as long as your not selling PageRank value.

The only likely reason your PR would be valuable to you, is if you were trying to sell it. It's not yours to sell, it is controlled by Google and they assign it only to those who are not selling it.

Seeking PR for your own page is the modern day equivalent of a miner staking a claim on a Fool's Gold deposit, it looks like real gold, it might fool young naive folks, but it gets your nil from the real marketplace.
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turbohips

17 years ago

I haven't bought or sold any links. I only use it as a sales tool for my potential client. I basically say see look at my site, it's ranked well etc. That's an easy way to convince them to purchase my SEO offerings. I have submitted a request to Google for a reconsideration on my PR so we'll see how that goes.

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dburk

17 years ago

Originally Posted by turbohips

I haven't bought or sold any links. I only use it as a sales tool for my potential client. I basically say see look at my site, it's ranked well etc. That's an easy way to convince them to purchase my SEO offerings. I have submitted a request to Google for a reconsideration on my PR so we'll see how that goes.

Hi turbohips,

Unless your potential clients are fools they should know that Google doesn't rank listings in the SERP by PR. You should be showing them SERP rankings and actual traffic and conversion results., toolbar PR is not meaningful unless you are selling text links.

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specters

17 years ago

It takes about 120 days for google to update PR rankings again/

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turbohips

17 years ago

Yes my clients are not SEO savvy so this sale tactic works wonders. It can also hurt sales if they have a Google toolbar and think that little green bar on there shows a 0. I do understand that the PR has nothing to do with SERP. Keep in mind that I do this for a living lol.

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debra

17 years ago

If you sell links like in the case of Text Link Ads or something similiar...set these links inside an iframe.

Other than that...for those that have had little impact on the rules of big daddy...only sell link space to those that are well themed within the content of the "page" that the link will be placed on.

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