After listing to WebmasterRadio.fm ‘s GoodKarma 
(recorded 1/11/07)
- Hosted by : Greg Niland , Vanessa Fox
- Speaking about PageRank and Paid Links
During the last week of Oct 2007 Google did a very large page rank update. This left lots of Webmasters (myself included) what was going on? Word is out that the big “G” was/is trying to shake up the paid link industry. I have been hearing that lots of sites experienced a dropped if they were hosting paid links; this was later confirmed confirmed by Matt Cutts.This not only affects the site selling the links apparently, but has caused wide spread changes via a ripple effect. Staring from Host of said paid links to the other sites that have links on those same pages in a legit exchange of relational value. G is trying to get the real value of a vote to a quality web page/site. This doesn’t really seem the right way to handle it.
There have also been reports that YouTube (which is owned by Google) bounced from a PR8 – to PR3- then back to PR8 . Authoritative site “New York Post” has been dropped down to a 5 and this started two weeks before this big shift in the Google ranking system.
- Page Rank what is it.
It is one signal in a vast many that Google uses to rate sites on how site is doing. It is not the TRUE PR of a site. The Google Tool Bar updates every 3-4 months. TRUE PR is going on behind scene with all the signals, all the time. But nobody in the general population has knowledge of what Google is looking at.
- Why should I care about PR?
It’s worth more during negations when selling links, when your marketing your site to others. If you approach another site owner and your PR is 3 Often it is perceived as being “small time” where 6+ gets more respect and possible more leverage in the deal. It does vary from person to person an business to business.
Greg mentioned he pulls shortcuts when building his sites and he hasn’t yet been penalized for it. He is holding steady with no change in ranks at all after this paid link shake down occurred.
Vanessa Fox does bring up that PR doesn’t change your traffic.
So to buy or no to buy?
If there is a Valid way to buy links from valid sites, then there is no harm. Matter of fact it’s good for marketing and getting traffic. Also you get a benefit when you have lots of links pointing at your site. We all know this, and hopefully gain a supplementary link from a nice high PR site. Google is going about it the wrong way and should look at it as marketing. Neither of the hosts, nor myself think that buying links blindly is a good idea. Buy the links for the traffic or banner swap, good business for all parties involved so why the smack big “G”
—> and what about all those links on your user generated site(s)?
Use of the “no follow” tag doesn’t really seem fair. Scenario: People are posting to your sites in masses but all the links go to porn, pills etc, sites. Those links count as weight, and bad for you if your site isn’t about porn or pills….These links can get pull in to the n supplemental index. Basically, you block user generated content and then possible still get bagged for it later. So, it still is going to suck for you.
—->The fix:
Useless “no follow”: to stop people from doing that make sure all those posting are sent to a directory that you can block through a robot.txt file. (good idea Greg!)
And always Manage your user generated content well. Don’t forget there are auto-bots that push thousands of links to porn, pills, and lots of other stuff you do not want to be associated with.
What about directories?
Vanessa Suggest that you apply to editorial directories (like Dmoz) but doesn’t like many others. If it is human edited then then cool, but if it’s nothing more than link farm then the line gets real fuzzy. But go with the gut and if you think you can get the traffic then do it, but if you are doing it for the PR only, think twice.
Greg’s take was if they are willing enough to take your money and still refuse you, then that would meet his criteria of a good Directory (like Yahoo 😉 ) But if every body is let in based on paid submission only, then you have found yourself in a bad directory. You know he makes a very good point on this. Why pay to enter a link farm full of the above mention sites you want nothing to do with. Human edited directories that care about what is in there is the right way to go.
Side note:
- There was poll taken over at Digital Point Forums where they ask how often do you check your page rank? and the choices were:
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- After an Update
- I never check my PR
The results: over 50% of people check it either Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
Pretty staggering.
I personally lost rank on many of my sites. Traffic seems up on a few, but I was sad to see my little green bar go down a notch or two. Oh well, what are you going to do? Just keep on doing, posting, linking, growing and learning….and keep a eye open for the next PR update what what changes it will bring.