Google Slap Dance Continues: The Zero Hour
It seems that Google isn’t done with its updating/penalizing just yet. While most of us thought the page rank update was over, it seems there are still sites that are being slapped for selling text links and having sponsored posts.
Imagine my surprise at seeing Brown Thoughts get dropped from a 3 to 2, to a shiny zero. A quick look at the datacenters confirmed it.
What’s funny is that iWebTool thinks I’m doing fine as seen in this screen shot.
There are quite a few blogs being hit with a zero and more people are starting to notice the ZeroRank Carnage.
So is this a purge or is it a readjustment? An interesting post at the Izea blog states:
“We now know from some of our friends inside of Google (thanks “bob”) that they are now looking for phrases such as PPP, PayPerPost,ReviewMe, Payu2blog, etc. in the text of your post.”
Things are definitely getting interesting.
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November 17th, 2007 04:29
You know I don’t pay attention to these things but I did check after you posted this. All my sites are at 0. The funny thing Is that I only do paid posts on Vegan Momma and that is on occasion.
I think there is something else going on mainly because of the fact that people who have never mentioned Pay Per Post are also at a PR of 0.
However if they are purposely penalizing people for whatever reason I think they have gone too far this time. Personally I’ll do the same thing as I did last time which is nothing.
I’m not dependent on Google PR to monetize some of my websites. Until people actually have that mentality then the big G can do whatever they want to in the Wild Wild West err I mean the World Wide Web.
Opal Tribble’s last blog post..Do You Want To Be A Successful Blogger? Be The Blog
November 17th, 2007 05:02
I’m right there with ya, buddy. Got a me a shiny new zero as well. We should start a club or something.
Mike’s last blog post..Things which start with the letter M
November 17th, 2007 05:11
Big large shinny zero me too
Valentin’s last blog post..gurus way - funny style
November 17th, 2007 05:23
As I’ve said dozens of times, I just don’t think pagerank matters that much anymore. At least one blog I read’s author quite over a PR0 already.
http://www.greenllama.net/blog/2007/10/25/i-give-up-google-wins/
Jake’s last blog post..Getting Up and Going with Wine on Ubuntu
November 17th, 2007 05:38
Hi Baron
How did this blog of such high quality ends up with a shiny PR0? I don’t see you posting no paid reviews?
I’ve seen some newbie blog of less than 3 months getting PR4 or PR5! That’s quite ridiculous!
betshopboy’s last blog post..Bloggers Of The World Unite!
November 17th, 2007 06:09
The only thing I got was a “Data temporarily unavailable”. Guess that means “Nada”
Christine Senter’s last blog post..I?ve reached the 20K mark
November 17th, 2007 06:21
Brown this is sad google is became evil. My blog got PR4 in the last update and in the last few days it dropped to PR3, tomorrow may become 0 we never know
ram’s last blog post..Simple Round Corner CSS Boxes
November 17th, 2007 07:58
This just doesn’t make sense. I’m siding with Opal. If things are truly settling down, then they’ve gone too far, indeed. And if that is the case, then I hope advertisers and the services that make it possible for bloggers to advertise for them will not put so much weight on the PR as a criterion for what defines a quality blog.
Mark’s last blog post..How Domain Shopping Can Make You Happy
November 17th, 2007 07:59
@Opal:
Andy Beard’s got a pretty good post about it too. Hehe whatever it is, it’s going to be fun to watch
@Mike:
Haha we might need to wait buddy. You never know, it could turn to “unranked” haha
@Valentin:
Lol at least it’s shiny
@Jake:
I wonder if Izea’s RealRank system is going to be a hit. It’s all good though, I’m not complaining. As long as I can blog.
@betshopboy:
Oh I have buddy. I’ve done a few sponsored posts. It’s ok. I would like to have a brown bar instead of green though
@Christine:
That means there’s nowhere to go but up haha
@ram:
It seems that it’ll stay at 3. All datacenters are showing you as a 3. You deserve a 6 though
November 17th, 2007 08:01
@Mark:
A lot of people are waiting on Izea’s new ranking system. That should be interesting.
November 17th, 2007 09:10
Hi Brown,
I really think that it’s temporary. There is no way that you and Mike are going to end up with PR0. I think they’re just fiddling around again.
Have a great weekend:)
Christy’s last blog post..USAfundraising.com - Great Fundraising Ideas
November 17th, 2007 09:26
Ok after reading more on the situation I have to say it’s quite frightening! I can’t believe they are just wiping everyone out!
Christy’s last blog post..USAfundraising.com - Great Fundraising Ideas
November 17th, 2007 10:09
@Christy:
Hehe the big G probably wants to send out a loud message. Can’t get any louder than that right? Oh yeah, that’s just the first wave. The real next wave is when they remove “offending” blogs from their index.
November 17th, 2007 10:20
Sorry that you’ve gotten pummeled by Google.
I really hope that this is just them tweaking stuff and not the end result of some mad PR demolition spree.
AntiBarbie’s last blog post..Holier than thou.
November 17th, 2007 10:23
Many says that it is a atk against PPP…review me shall be next
Check your realrank here (not sure if it is the same as izea)
http://www.realranker.com/index.php
Rice Blogger’s last blog post..Google Pagerank Movement again
November 17th, 2007 10:23
@AntiBarbie:
I’ll just gun for a 7 next time haha
If I’m at 0 then there’s no way to go but up right?
November 17th, 2007 10:29
@Rice Blogger:
That’s an interesting tool. Thanks for the link!
November 17th, 2007 13:24
No matter what the PR says about your blog, it will not stop anyone from dropping by for all this great content.
clara’s last blog post..Top Lipstick Brands Test Positive For Lead
November 17th, 2007 14:54
@clara:
Thank you for the great compliment!
November 18th, 2007 11:06
I know my slap is coming soon.
Snoskred over at Life in the Country (http://www.snoskred.org) is launching a Google Walk Away so if I get smacked I’ll be reading back on a lot of her posts and implementing a NO GOOGLE policy. Will have to keep Gmail though!
November 18th, 2007 12:16
Damn Baron. Not you too?!
Seriously, with hand edited rankings like this, it is not far to say that PR is going to be irrelevant.
My site is still sitting in a pr3 but maybe because I don’t participate in PPP. But just a question baron. Do you even participate in PPP?
I haven’t notice anything fishy or paid posts on your blog.
I’m interested to see how RealRank will go.
November 18th, 2007 17:27
@Forest:
Haha. I hope you can avoid getting slapped buddy
@McBilly:
I’ve been slapped for doing sponsored reviews. I just don’t do them often that’s why you haven’t seen them. As for PPP specifically, I’m a member but I haven’t done any posts for them
November 18th, 2007 22:12
Very informative posting! I’m glad I found it.
Carmelo Lisciotto
November 18th, 2007 22:53
Thats bad buddy. I am going to check mine right now. I think Google should tell us what exactly does it want from our site.
Madhur Kapoor’s last blog post..Resize images with High Quality Photo Resizer
November 19th, 2007 00:03
This makes it official. I heart Google.
Bush Mackel’s last blog post..New Design
November 19th, 2007 00:18
I just noticed my site dropped down to zero too. Hmm. Google dropped me from 4 to 2 and now zero. Google has punished me for the $20 I make with text links and the three sponsored reviews I’ve done (not for PPP, so it’s more broad than just PPP).
I agree with Clara - this site rules no matter what PR says.
Angela’s last blog post..Angela’s Annual “Christmas Sucks” Post
November 19th, 2007 05:39
@Carmelo:
Glad I could help
@Madhur:
From what I can tell, they want all paid text links and links in sponsored reviews to have nofollow.
@Bush:
Big or small heart?
@Angela:
They dropped you too? They’re busy going after us little guys heh. Thanks for the compliment!
November 19th, 2007 11:03
My WGM blog which only has 26 posts and has paid links is still a PR4 but Revellian which has NO paid links at all, like yours dropped twice, on Nov 8 & 10th.
We should start a movement or a petition asking Google something:
They should have to tell you exactly why any drops occur and EXACTLY what to do to avoid it. Nobody knows for sure why and that should be illegal.
PR is unimportant to us because were not depending on natural searches to be found. Is being found through natural searches the most important way to be found or make an impact? NO WAY. Google wants it to be, that’s why PR exists.
Technorati is a much better engine to find blog articles than Google anyway. There are many more better and well organized blog listings than Google.
PR really only matters if you are making a lot of money. That money doesn’t come from natural traffic anyway.
I know for a fact that TechCrunch and ProBlogger get WAY more traffic from MyBlogLog than from Page rank. I think most bloggers find most sites through referrals and word of mouth.
I am proud of my PR0…I operate exclusively on google free searches and for bloggers, that’s something to be proud of
Bobby Revell’s last blog post..Blogger Buddies Are Awesome
November 19th, 2007 11:12
@Bobby:
I think my of 0 as “PR0 - yeahh” haha
November 19th, 2007 21:52
i’ve been slapped to a zero as well, screw google, now I am seriously considering boycotting them if they keep this up
November 20th, 2007 01:31
See what kills me is that all these people have zeroes including me but yet they are not looking at their stats. PR will just affect how much you can earn beacuse people mainly look at PR but the stats are still the same if not increased even with a PR 0. So really we have not lost any readers.
blueyes’s last blog post..Stocking Stuffer Ideas
November 20th, 2007 04:27
@Jamaipanese:
I have a feeling you’re not the only one buddy
@blueyes:
Those are both true. Traffic remains the same if not better and the readers are still there. I like looking at the stats .. probably a little too much hehe
May 18th, 2008 16:15
Well, it is not the first time I think. I experienced this before..