Michigan Blog - Featuring Michigan Shopping, Travel, Business & People

Google Does it Again!

Panic throughout the Internet - not only in Michigan! PageRank is dropping randomly on websites. Big names like the Washington Post have been hit - as well as little guys like some of our clients.

Some big-name bloggers are arguing that since the PR drop is not generalized, it must be a slap from Google regarding practices that conflict with its guidelines.

Some have suggested that the sites that got penalized were either selling links or exchanging them inside large blog networks or link exchange circles.

Here is my take on what has been happening regarding PageRank and the recent drop on many websites. I have studied our client base (which is approx. 15,000) if you count all of the members in directory.

Google "don't like" bought links. This includes affiliate programs like LinkConnector and Blogs that charge for links. This even includes Press Distribution systems that charge for links. Google also doesn't like the link exchange programs.

Lot's of complaints are circling - but this is no different than what has been preached by Google for years and years. Don't try to artificially inflate your page rank. Period. Don't buy links. Buy advertising, if you have to - but don't try to trick Google.

Work hard for three years to build a business and you will be repaid. This is the same game in the offline world. No Get Rich Schemes exist anymore on the Internet.

The Blog world has had a free ride for a while and in some cases, many bloggers have created large incomes just linking back and forth to each other.

I am happy to see Google coming down on some of these sites.

Labels: Google PageRank Drop, Search Engine Optimization