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Posted in Blogging | Google link sales PageRank penalization
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As the most acute readers may have noticed already, Google seems to have dropped the PageRank of my blog’s front page and all inner pages to 0. I can only hypothesize on the reasons behind it, but others who have met the same change have thought the reason is link sales. That might be the reason here too, but frankly I’m surprised they even noticed me.
My blog does sell advertisement (I disclose it), and I do not use “nofollow” on them. Apparently Google does not like it, but it’s my blog. Of course, they are quite right in that it’s their index; they are free to remove sites from it, if they see fit. However, I will not surrender in this.
It’s Not My Job
You’ve probably heard the joke about Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody; and the important job that they couldn’t get done (here’s a version). Well, this situation is a bit like it, except it’s between Google and us publishers.
Google seems to think it is our job to label advertisement in the way Google wants us to(rel=”nofollow”), and probably also would want us to take care about their index health in general. At least I seem to remember that it’s their job to bring quality search results to their users. Similarly it’s their job, not ours, to notice paid links and determine whether they should affect rankings or not.
Many bloggers have recently had to choose whether to add nofollow to their links or not. Some have determined that link sales make them more money than Google traffic, like John Chow. Others have opted for traffic, because Google is such an important source of it for them, for example Search Engine Guide.
The reason I blog is not money, so I don’t have to make it a business decision. I can keep my stance that it is not my job to tell Google which links are what. That said, almost 90% of my traffic comes from sources other than Google, so even if they dropped my traffic to zero, my loss wouldn’t be too great.
Lets see what else the big G has in store for me. Please share your ideas on whether my choice is right. I’m open to criticism, if you think I should have made a different decision. Although I’m not planning to change my position, I am open to hearing arguments.
by Sutocu | November 21, 2007 
I agree that Google should try to solve the problem algorithmically. But if they decide to do otherwise most people can only follow, its their index after all.
Don’t be to concerned. My PR have gone down in nearly all of my sites. Yet at the same time, my SERP rankings have improved, more traffic and increasing income.
I haven’t yet seen a traffic drop either, nor a SERP drop. I see that as the next logical step though.
You may be one of the few exceptions, when you get 90% of the traffic from sources other than Google. But, this is my belief that today, the situation is that we need Google and not the other way round.
That might be true, but I think alternative ways to search are becoming more popular. I don’t mean Yahoo! or Live Search, but the new social media and other similar services.
Never surrender!
did we give up when the germans bombed pearl harbor? no! don’t give up.