I got an email message from Kenneth, the guy behind InvestorBlogger.com, informing me that Beyond the Rhetoric now carries a Google PageRank of zero. That can’t be good.
Not that long ago, BTR was a PR5, but then Google went around bitch-slapping anyone who sold paid links. For a while, they assigned a PR2 to this site, but I’ve been further reduced to a PR0. Given the rationale behind Google’s latest efforts, I can almost understand why Beyond the Rhetoric would have its PageRank reduced. I do paid reviews here and I sell paid links in the sidebar. However, that’s not where the smackdown ends.
You’ll notice that Beyond the Rhetoric is located at btr.michaelkwan.com. If you to go beyondtherhetoric.com, it redirects you here. In some ways, Beyond the Rhetoric is separate from my freelance writing business, which you can find at michaelkwan.com (I should really redesign that site). There are no paid links on michaelkwan.com. There are no paid reviews or any other form of sponsorship. Up until the most recent PR update, it was still holding steady in the PR4 to PR5 range. When I went to check the PageRank a couple days ago using this tool, I got the following:
How is it that a site with no paid links and no reduction in incoming links gets its PR lowered so drastically? I don’t understand Google PageRank anymore. The only explanation that I can come up with is that the entire domain has been given a swift kick in the rear end, which kind of defeats part of the point of PageRank in the first place. I thought each page was ranked semi-independently and even if they weren’t, you would think that sub-domains would get ranked independently. After all, if PR is assigned to a domain as a whole, treating all subdomains equally, then all Blogspot/Blogger blogs would have the same PR. This obviously isn’t the case.
What’s even more strange is that Ed Lau‘s blog is still a PR4, despite selling paid links like the rest of us. Could it be that I do too much internal linking? Too many paid reviews? If it were the latter, you would think that John Chow would get a rather massive smackdown too and he’s only dropped to a PR4, despite being quasi-banned from Google’s index.
Am I concerned? Not particularly, but it is certainly disconcerting to see such a huge change in how PageRank is handled. I cannot release the specific details (there was a confidentiality statement/agreement), but Text Link Ads sent me an email too. It didn’t address PageRank directly, but you can tell that they are implementing measures and making recommendations to help work around the recent changes at Google. Is PR dead or do we just have to think about it in a completely different way? Whatever the case, I don’t understand anymore.
Google’s been lowering sites, who use PayPerPost, to a PageRank of 0…
It is odd that michaelkwan.com got a PR 0 too, though.
You could always start “fresh” and move this blog to beyondtherhetoric.com. I’ll help you with the redirects and stuff. Not to mention, you be able to ditch the quite incorrect (reminiscent of GoDaddy) .aspx file extension (technically it’s not a file, it’s just showing index.php). 😛
Matt: I’m not sure about moving the domain just yet, but I’d love to ditch the aspx extension assuming that all pre-existing backlinks can redirect to the appropriate post. Send me an email if the instructions are fairly straightforward.
I’ll work on it tomorrow.
Well, if Google is going to make everyone’s PR zero, PageRank truly won’t matter anyway.
We’re all doomed I tell you.
I think every advertising network and paid links should not take pagerank into considerable since it is pretty much irrelevant now in the results shown.
That is just purely bad luck my friend to get a pagerank 0.
Hey Michael, if you need some help I can give you a great banner price on my PR4 site 😉
Yeah, sorry to break the bad news… I don’t know what’s going to happen yet… A bunch of bloggers are now dumping Google tools, apps and stock… I’m in the process. That combined with the changes in the Adsense program have really turned a lot of people off Google recently.
Kenneth
It just goes to show PageRank is both self serving and irrelevant to actual traffic and influence.
I agree with betshopboy… and I think the discrepancy is much more obvious when you travel abroad, as Google doesn’t rank foreign (esp. non-English language sites) as well… The PR technology is improving but still… There are very prominent sites in Taiwan that just don’t rank well.
Kenneth