PageRank Is Back
There have been many times where I have discussed the topic of losing Google’s PageRank on I’m Blogging That. And while it took me a bit of time to decide, I made changes to my blog and asked that Google reconsider.
On the 18th, I cleaned up my blog a lot. I deleted sponsored posts from PayU2Blog, added the no follow tag to a lot of extra (non-paid) links in my posts, and added the no follow tag to old posts from PayPerPost.
The no follow code is rel=”nofollow” within your link structure.
In addition, I considered what I really wanted to do with my blog and any changes I wanted to make that I previously hadn’t done because I didn’t want to mess with PageRank. With that, I changed my permalink structure to be more “search engine friendly.”
What I did not do was disable my do follow plugin but I did remove the huge list from my blog of do follow bloggers.
After making these changes, I submitted my request to Google for reconsideration. What does this take? Just a simple login to your webmaster tools and filling out a form. What they do ask is that you admit wrong-doing according to their terms. This in addition to spelling out for them what you did wrong and how you have no corrected the situation.
There is where a lot of bloggers are having trouble. Few people want to admit that they have done wrong. But this is where you decide if you’re going to be a blogger of fame or money and who’s terms and games you will play.
If you want to play Google’s game, you admit that you were wrong because according to THEIR terms, selling links is wrong. Or you play by the game of sponsored post companies and you see how far you get with no PageRank.
No one can make the choice for you as to where you’d like to lie in the grand scheme. And I’m sure that there are many ways to keep doing sponsored posts and keep your PageRank. But that’s a blog post for another day.
Just remember, PageRank or not chances you haven’t lost traffic. And maintaining your blog is done for you and your readers. Above all think of those 2 factors before you make any changes. From making that choice you’ll decide where you want to line up in the grand scheme of where you want your blog to be.
Whatever you choose, good luck!
November 29th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt There have been many times where I have discussed the topic of losing Google’s PageRank on I’m Blogging That. And while it took me a bit of time to decide, I made changes to my blog and asked that Google reconsider. On the 18th, I cleaned up my blog a lot. I deleted sponsored posts from PayU2Blog, added the no follow tag to a lot of extra (non-paid) links in my posts, and added the no follow tag to old posts from PayPerPost. The no follow code is rel=”nofollow” within your link structure. The [...]
November 30th, 2007 at 5:07 am
In this world, there’s always a lot of different kinds of people. Some like money while others preferred honour. Many of them may have admitted their mistake but they actually do not know what’s going wrong with their blog. So they have some problems answering to Google’s questions. Haha! Hope that everything’s fine with you and all the best!
November 30th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Derrick » I’m not sure it’s a question of money or honor. It’s about following your own path for your blog and doing what’s best for your own personal circumstance.
As for me, I simply made a choice as to where I want to fall in the grand scheme of blogs. For where I’m going and for the time being, having PageRank is right for me.
We may never know what’s happening with Google, for the short term now that PageRank is back I guess I don’t have to care.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Personally, I don’t think I did anything wrong by taking paid posts, nor about using other forms of advertising. Then again, Izea/PPP are also working on making it so that the “nofollow” is available for the advertisers that prefer it, so maybe Google will follow suit, and not completely require it.
Anyways, Tag!! You’re it :)
http://sarahsmidnightfantasy.com/tm2ts/2007/11/30/i-was-tagged/
November 30th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
WeeHoo!!
I’m stoked that you got it back. While I understand to each their own when it comes to their choices and how they do things I’m glad you went this route.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Sarah » I don’t actually think I did anything wrong either. But according to the terms of Google, it is wrong and I can accept that like every other company, they have their terms and they want them followed if you’re going to use their services. Fair enough. I’ve chosen to play their game.
Izea is working on a lot to make things better for bloggers who want to earn money. I cannot disagree there and for this reason I’m certainly sticking around to see what happens next.
Mindy » Thanks girlie. I’m glad I choose this route too. In the long run, I think it may work out better for me.
December 1st, 2007 at 5:00 am
Thanks for this informative post. From a PR 4, my blog has been reduced to PR 0. It’s disheartening but I’m glad that there is still a chance to regain the PR. I will think it over and check out the links you shared.
December 1st, 2007 at 11:25 am
Rach » You’re very welcome. I agree with you, it’s disheartening no matter how irrelevant PageRank may be it’s something that as webmasters we work for and to have it stripped is a hard pill to swallow. Whatever you choose to do, good luck!
December 1st, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Do you actually know that google have specifically given you your pagerank back, or are you just assuming that? I ask because I know of one blog that went from PR0 to PR2 to PR1 and back to PR0 over the course of the last month which implies to me that there’s a lot of tweaking of algorithms at google’s end. Also, some blogs sat at PR5 or above at the start of the latest PR review and have since dropped somewhat.
I think that the basic problem is that pagerank is being used for advertisers in a way that was never considered by google and is causing unwelcome effects for them. As you say, the value of a site/blog isn’t really signified by the pagerank but the advertisers have basically taken that number and put a monetary value on it which is where the problems came from.
What I’ve seen in some sites that have dropped pagerank (don’t know about yours) is that they’ve effectively been writing straight adverts ie the text is built around the links provided. This includes several big names too: johnchow.com does exactly that in any of his paid posts that I’ve looked at.
However, blogs that have written a general article and used the advertisers link as an example seem (so far) to be OK.
If you think about it, hitting those in the first group is logical for google in that it is quite literally buying a link. Those in the second group are quite different in that, even if that specific link were removed or replaced by a different one, the article would still stand ie it’s a valid in-context link which is exactly what google are after in their search results.
The problem is that google aren’t going to come out and say something like that so it’ll never be entirely clear what exactly they are doing re paid posts.
December 1st, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Arnold » Thank you for your comment. To answer your questions:
I don’t think it’s possible for one to know for sure what their PageRank is going to be with the constant updates that Google is performing. What I know for myself is that I had a PageRank of 3, I dropped to 2 and within a week was at 0. My PageRank 0 lasted a few weeks when I decided to perform clean up on my blog, make changes, and ask Google for reconsideration.
Once I placed my request for reconsideration I was notified that it would take up to a couple of weeks to see the result and that I would not be contacted personally and notified of Google’s decision.
What I do know is that after waiting, my PageRank is back at 3. On the same day this happened for me it also happened for other people who requested reconsideration. The same day, others who hadn’t been dropped to 0 before were finally knocked down.
Because there is so much speculation about what Google is doing, there’s no way to actually know what Google is doing until they make an official word about it. As you may know, that hasn’t exactly happened.
The sponsored posts previously written on my blog followed both methods you speak of. I’m sure that my slap was due to the sponsored posts which I have also chosen to no longer write. What I link to now I’m doing so as my own choice for no payment.
As you said, we may never know what happened and what is going to happen. What I do know is that I had two drops in PageRank and after cleaning up around here my PageRank of 3 is back. With luck, it sticks and continues to increase.
Thanks again for your comment and for coming by!
December 1st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Great post. The PR thing has been a giant pain. I may consider making Google’s changes in the short term.
December 1st, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Stevo » Thank you. I agree it’s been a pain and has caused a great deal of worry for a lot of people.
If you decide to request reconsideration from Google, good luck. It’s a fairly easy process and with luck, your requests will show as quickly as mine did.
December 1st, 2007 at 6:21 pm
You have NO idea how much this post will help me! I was so confused about the page rank stuff. Thank you!
December 1st, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Tori » I’m so glad I could help!! The entire situation with PageRank has been confusing but finally Google has given their official word on the situation.
Read Google’s blog and Matt Cutt’s blog for more information on the situation, what your options are, and how to get your PageRank back.
December 1st, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Where exactly do I add the “no follow” tag? In the links within my post?
December 1st, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I think I’m figuring it out now. Thanks so much for all the links!! I think I dropped from 4 to 0 because of blog ads. I need to figure out the no follow thing.
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:10 am
What Matt says appears to reflect what I’d said about it ie that paid posts in the pure advert style would have problems in retaining pagerank whereas those which have effectively used the sponsor’s links essentially as a trigger for an article idea would be OK.
In fact, the wiki example that he quotes is also sponsored, just less directly. So too is that from the radiological association: after all, they’re not going to promote alternative treatments, are they?
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:32 am
Arnold » Seems as though your assumptions were in deed true. But I still don’t believe that Google wouldn’t punish for any sponsored posts.
Those who I have seen really take the time to review what they are linking to have still had their PageRank removed.
While I believe Google’s statements I also believe that a lot of other information was left out.
For the moment, I believe that the key to remaining “safe” is staying away from sponsored posts until a better alternative arrives.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:01 am
Interestingly, if you look at some of the blogs that don’t do sponsored posts which were knocked down, they look as if they do. Those that I’ve seen which this applies to are effectively sponsored blogs except that they don’t get paid for it.
My guess is that this would apply to general review type blogs quite a lot. Say a tech blog that did a review of stuff that’s just come out. It would LOOK like a series of adverts and indeed is effectively that yet they’re not taking payments.
Paradoxically, you could in principle have a blog that was entirely sponsored but didn’t look like that. A considerable number of personal blogs are probably like that but they’d be difficult to pick out unless you checked out the various links in the posts.
And, of course, you have the company blogs which are effectively all sponsored (albeit self-sponsored) yet would be OK in this PR review assuming that they didn’t look like 100% advertising presumably.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:47 am
Arnold » Agreed and that’s where all of this gets very confusing. You have to begin to ask yourself, is it worth it?
Measuring the importance of your blog between taking sponsored posts or having PageRank may not get you far. In the end it’s very possible that bloggers will be out of cash and out of rank.
December 4th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I think that google may well come to regret this downgrading of sites writing paid posts. Even just considering PayPerPost they’re sitting with 100,000 posters right now. Even if only 10% of them are active a loss of $100 each that would be $1 million lost PER MONTH!
When you’re talking that kind of money, I would be very surprised if some law firms aren’t already trying to work out how to contact everyone for a class action against google.
Also perhaps interesting though it may be co-incidence is that my adsense income took quite a jump over the period in which they were doing the PR downgrades.
December 4th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I’m not sure that they’ll regret it necessarily. They do believe that they’re doing what’s right for their business and regardless of how one may feel about the downgrade, business is business.
As far as suing them? Sounds silly, really. Last thing this world needs is another stupid lawsuit.
Sorry about your AdSense, haven’t ever used and can’t image doing so. Usually click away from sites with it as well because for me, there’s no bigger turn off then that nice big fat ad before I can read your content…
December 6th, 2007 at 7:24 am
I have lots of paid post on my blog. If i don’t want to delete these paid posts but I add rel=”nofollow” to all these paid posts’ links, and then I request to Google for reconsideration. Do you think I will get back my page rank? How long google response your reconsideration?
December 6th, 2007 at 7:34 am
I am getting very good traffic from Google, about 25~30% of my traffic. So, it is difficult to overlook Google and say I only want money. There should be a trade-off between these two. Thanks.
December 6th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Eric » I certainly think that you can get your PageRank back if you add the nofollow tag to your links. Google stated on their official blog and on Matt Cutt’s blog that they don’t care if you take sponsored posts but they want the nofollow tag in there. So this method will certainly be enough.
Had I have had that information when I requested reconsideration, I would have done it that way as well and not deleted. But no information was there for me and I had to be extreme to ensure it happened… and it did. The process took about 2 weeks to see that my rank had come back on my toolbar. Good luck!
Manick » I agree, you can’t just disregard Google while they are still the people setting the standards for a site’s “worth.” And while I agree that there should be a trade off, the perfect trade off is still yet to come. If you haven’t done so already, make sure you’re on the list to receive information on the launch of SocialSpark. I really believe that when this system goes live 1.8.08, bloggers will have a better choice to getting cash and blogging while keeping Google happy.
December 6th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Hi Katy. I have another question. Is it all the links on my blog must use nofollow, or just those paid post links?
How about we use Top commentators plugin without nofollow, will this cause the demotion of page rank?
December 6th, 2007 at 10:21 am
I took the lazy way out and installed addnofollow.php as something of a panic measure.
Unfortunately, that has the effect of adding nofollow to everything which I don’t really want to do.
One effect I’ve already noticed is that not everyone is following PPP on this and other sites are rejecting posts with nofollow on them. If that keeps up, that’ll concentrate the paid posts in PPP which isn’t an entirely desireable side-effect of google’s move.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:24 am
And since I have dofollow.php installed (to remove nofollow from comments) it means that I’ll get even more spam comments than I do already!
January 10th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Hi! I’ve stumbled upon your blog and I found that this article is quite interesting. I’m doing paid postings, but BLUR ME… I don’t really get it what is the meaning of ‘nofollow’ or ‘dofollow’… Hope you could help me out. Thanks in advance. Have a nice day!!! :)
January 10th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Just got the PR back after asking google way back on December 4th, so allow six weeks or so for a delay at the moment.
January 10th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Choc Mint Girl » I’m glad I could be helpful. Be careful with your sponsored posts in that you don’t lose PageRank. One never knows when exactly Google is going to hit.
In regards to nofollow and dofollow, I think that question is best answered in a post of its own. I’ll work on this post today so that I can go into it in detail to answer your question and those I’ve received from others.
Arnold » I’m glad to hear you got your PageRank back. Congratulations! Now I think it’s a matter of keeping it and with luck, improving.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Just typed up the “how to”: Lost Your PageRank & Want To Get It Back
However, it has me wondering about those with blogs hosted on blogger and whatnot. I don’t think they’d be able to do the “verify” with the google webmaster tools which is necessary to request the reconsideration from google.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Thank you so much. :)
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