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Google Page Rank Updates, Penalities, and Spam War Escalation

October 10th, 2007

In addition to traffic, links coming in, and how many thousands of spam comments Akismet has blocked – another detail that some bloggers obsess over is Google PageRank – basically a number from 1 to 10 assigned to a web page based on number of links to it from other web pages – and the page ranks of those pages. This PageRank number is supposed to determine how far up the list of Google search results your site appears. Anyhow, back in September there was some mumbling that a Google PageRank update was due, well, that month came and went and from what I gather it never really happened.

But starting this past week it seems various folks have seen some changes, with the overall theme that more sites are being penalized – specifically for selling links – including through well known services like ReviewMe, Text Link Ads, and PayPerPost. As usual, there are folks that think this move is terrible and yet another sign of Google abusing their power. The conclusion is that Google doesn’t like paid links, and if your site doesn’t indicate them with “nofollow” or you’re active on the Internet selling links on your site, your PageRank may suffer.

This may be one instance where my own laziness and procrastination toward monetizing this blog has turned out to be a decent move.

That said, I can still empathize with someone who is trying to run their blog as a business-making opportunity. And from that perspective, it definitely would suck to be thinking you had money rolling in, and then have it yanked out from under you because the rules have changed.

But ultimately, we’re all playing on Google’s school yard, so if they want to change the rules, it’s their prerogative. It just shows how much power Google has accumulated in the online advertising world. A recent HipMojo article suggested that 40% of Internet advertising now goes through the Google.

Spam Wars

On a related note, the spam situation here is out of control – you readers don’t see a lot of it because I’m constantly deleting links to splogs behind the scenes. At 55,000 spam comments blocked so far, I’m amazed Akismet hasn’t exploded. This situation, combined with the Google getting the eyeglasses out – I’m reinstating “nofollow” on my comments and sidebar links.

To make up for the removal of nofollow, if you comment here regularly (you know who you are), I’ll add your feed in my reader, and that increases the likelihood that I’ll link to your blog or site in the body of a post where no nofollow exists. I’m also going to do some blogroll shuffling very soon to get the regular readers / commentators some link love.

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  • A little correction: Pagerank is a number from 0-10 but can also be unassigned :)
  • Mike
    Google is just trying to keep a good search engine. Their method of determining which sites that would be at the top was a good formula - chances are that if more people link to Apple.com with the word 'Apple', then people searching for 'Apple' probably want Apple.com.

    I'm glad that people who are trying to game the formula are being pushed farther down the results list, because I use Google all the time and would hate to see it wither (or become irrelevant) because people are cheating.

    Splogs are obviously trying to cheat, but things like PayPerPost trick good bloggers into doing something similar. Since it's not illegal under US law, Google can't have them shut down...and appealing to bloggers to stop using PayPerPost probably wouldn't do much good, either. So, Google just hurt people outright for using it.

    You should be at the top of the results list if you have the information people are searching for. If you're not providing that information, you don't deserve to be at the top of that list.

    I understand the motivation to be at the top of that list - people clicking ads on your site, when they visit - but I don't think that trumps the ability for people to find what they're looking for.

    Am I looking at this improperly?
  • Oh no! First comment is a splog trackback!

    Google is just protecting their best interests, having the most relevant search engine. It makes you wonder how they tell what a paid text link is and what a blogroll or other link is though.

    As for spam, I'm getting hit quite hard myself at the moment, but doing the behind the scenes work clears it up. I don't see the point in taking out nofollow though, having nofollow won't stop the spammers. If you're using the original dofollow plugin, you could consider swapping to one that removes nofollow after a number of days (so that any spamments that slip through don't get nofollow removed before you can remove them) or another one I heard of recently which removes nofollow after a commenter has made 3 comments or more, so that it rewards regular commenters.
  • Yeah... I think the priority for Google is : relevant search results first. I agree with that.

    Phil - from what I gather on the comments on other sites - there is a human element involved now, as in Google employees looking at a suspect site for evidence of paid links.

    So yesterday, I made sure nofollow was on in the comments, and the most recent commentators sidebar. To balance this out, the links in my blogroll and the "top commentators" sidebar are clean. I think that's an okay balance.
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