PR Update: Google penalizes sites for text link ads
Google has officially taken Page Rank away from sites selling Text Link Ads on their site. This site, however, to the astonishment of myself, has jumped from a PR 0 to a PR 3 after only 2 months of blogging.
My main site, which has 1 Text Link Ad on it was looking good for a jump to a PR 5 from a PR 4 but was bitch slapped to a PR 3. All for $12 a month. Of course that amount fluctuates monthly, but that has been the norm for the last few months. My other sites have remained the same.
The Page Rank purge wasn’t only for sites selling text link ads. Some sites were hit for deserving it, while others are being speculated to being hit for being involved in social bookmarking groups. I haven’t heard enough about that to know, but I do know the advantages of using social bookmarking to drive traffic. When I make a post, the traffic here rises form about 30 visitors for the last 24 hours to about 1- 200 hundred. Not astronomical by any means, but still a substantial increase. Check the sidebar of this site, and see what the Firestats sidebar stat counter has to say when you get here.
What does this mean? It means Google is serious about not letting anyone profit on the transfer of Page Rank through back links selling operations. It really amounts to ca$h. Everyone is signing up for these programs because they pay, and they aren’t paying Google… So, if Page Rank is the drug, and Google is the dealer, is selling text link ads like stealing from your dealer? I guess so. I’ve never heard of any dealers sitting by idly while their stash was being robbed. Now that they are finding the PR sellers and stealers, they are promptly kicking them in their Internet balls, ie their PR rank.
For those of us that see the web as an opportunity to enhance our income by doing things we love and writing about them, it is a nice break from the standard 9 - 5 job and we can dictate our own schedule. Most people don’t make enough to live on, but I would say most people can pay for the costs unassociated with blogging or website management like hosting and .com name purchases. We also might be able to take a sweet vacation or by a new toy that wouldn’t have been available if we pursued other hobbies.
There is a lot of power we give to Google by using them. It is our choice, and I personally find many of their tools useful (Analytics, Maps, Webmaster Tools, Adsense, etc…). It is a shame though if I should be penalized for making a mere $12 a month for doing something that isn’t illegal … Time will tell what scars or issues I will encounter in the future regarding this. I really assumed they would go after the bigger guys only but it just goes to show how much even people that follow this news religiously know…
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Comments
We can all assume now why it took so long for Google to release the latest PR update. They were working night and day to catch the profiteers. Thing is, most people just want the money. Why doesn’t Google make a Text Link Ad program that pays more then the others? People don’t care where the money comes from… And that way Google can rationalize PR transfer through paid link$.
:S
I think in general this move might make sense, as those paid links do abuse the algorithm, so for Google to offer paid links beats the whole point of trying to make a search engine algorithm that would yield the best result. BUT, the way Google is doing this is outrageous. Some people make a lot of money from paid links, and that would be a problem for a while, but I trust the people will find the way to go beyond that. It’s a bit like the hacker/virus vs. anti-virus/security companies. The later can win a battle or two, but never the whole war.
You’ve got some nice articles running lately, and this is a good post.
I am personally overwhelmed by how Google is enforcing a change in how things are done in the web. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something quite like this before, either that Microsoft doing the same in the OS area. I believe in general Karma and honestly can’t believe they’ll be able to get away with something like this for long. Manual penalties? at least with Adsense they let you know what you’ve done and give you time to change that (3 days), but in this case - it’s all speculation based with rumors running around and general chaos. The whole way Google is doing this looks like bad news.