Why Google Refunded My PageRank Slap
November 9th, 2007 by Court
As you may know, CourtneyTuttle.com was part of the mass carnage PageRank slappage gone double slappage turned into a real update that wasn’t really that real. Within a one month period, this site was slapped from a PR3 site to a PR2 to a PR1, and then raised back up to a PR3 during the real toolbar PageRank update. Since I had many more links than I had when I first got a PR3, I, along with many other SEO people, assumed that I had suffered a penalty for selling links.
This assumption was correct, and Google had done their best to thwart link selling, at least the kind of link selling that passes PageRank. Sites everywhere were penalized with drops of visible PageRank.
The Decision
Now this is where it got pretty tricky for people that were selling links. I decided that I could make almost as much selling links that had nofollows on them, so I refunded the money for my sold text links and took them down. I then launched a new ad program that ad nofollows on every type of advertising you can buy on this site. I still link out all the time with regular links - the only thing that’s changed is I don’t sell links without nofollows anymore.
Some people wouldn’t be willing to cut ad dollars to conform with Google and I’m cool with that. Every situation is different. Google is a very significant traffic source for me and I personally can make more money with that traffic than I could without it. As soon as I got my site to the point where I didn’t have any links that were being sold I decided to let Google know. To inform Google, I did two things:
- I did a reinclusion request in Google Webmaster Tools. When you do this request, Google wants to know three things: what you did, how you fixed your mistake, and that you won’t do it again. I explained my situation to Google and let them know that I had no intention of selling more links that would pass PageRank.
- I left a really annoying essay of a comment on Matt Cutts blog, explaining to him the exact same stuff. I don’t think this really helped - Matt deleted the comment and I never heard from him.
The Outcome
It’s now been about two weeks since the biggest PageRank slappage of all time, and if you check my PR now you’ll see that suddenly I have a 4 instead of a 3. Since Google doesn’t alert you when I make a fix, I can only assume that they finally got to my reinclusion request, which they said would take a few weeks. Most of my other pages also went up exactly one point as well, which is another piece of evidence that my PageRank was manually, positively altered.
I didn’t want to come right out and say that PageRank doesn’t matter when I was sitting at a meager PR1. Now that I have been able to restore my PageRank, I can tell you that it doesn’t make one bit of difference. Is my site any better than it was yesterday? I don’t think so. The #1 reason I wanted to clear the air with Google was to avoid any ranking penalties that could befall sites that sell links that pass PageRank. I have no idea if the entire penalty was removed or if I’m still down one of the two penalty points.
I don’t sell any links that pass PageRank, so why would I care what my PageRank is? One thing is certain - this process helped me to protect future rankings and that fact makes it worthwhile.
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November 9th, 2007 at 11:17 am
“The #1 reason I wanted to clear the air with Google was to avoid any ranking penalties that could befall sites that sell links that pass PageRank.”
Well there’s the thing, isn’t it? Will Google reduce SERPs for any sites selling links without a link condom in the future? My guess is that they will.
The visible PR reduction was the warning fired across the bows - keep on doing what you’re doing and we’ll blow you out of the water.
The question is when will they do it? My feelings are that if you’re running a link campaign in the New Year without wearing your Big G prophylactic (ribbed for their pleasure, incidentally) that you will get a much bigger slap than the one we received last month. The ultimate slap. The removal from the SERPs and this one will take longer to fix than the 2-3 weeks you experienced.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Read the wikipedia article on “coercive monopoly” and you’ll see how Google is treading on thin anti-trust ice these days.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I have to agree with Frank. Google is specifically targeting sites that work with their competitors and penalizing them. To me, this reeks of anti-trust and racketeering.
A Google link bar looks just like a row of TLA and provides no better “user experience” - it is just that TLA is willing to pay the site owner better than Google.
Yet, while we all say “PR does not matter” it looks like we are all Google whores and they own us. We let them slap us and then do just what they ask. We will do only and everything they say.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Slappage — one of wonderfully descriptive and highly appropriate word! You’ve been stumbled.
November 9th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I also got slapped with pagerank penalties. First one was a drop from PR5 to PR4. Then a week or two later, one of my readers told me that my blog dropped to a PR3.
I’m also planning to send a reinclusion request and hopefully will have the same results as you had.
More power to you and your blog! Have a good weekend!
November 9th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
[…] Mike at 20 Steps used a term "nofollow condom" in a comment on Courtney Tuttle's blog. […]
November 9th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Thank you for saying that Court. Pagerank bites. I see your point of waiting till you had some to say it though. And rightfully you do.
November 9th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I have done the same thing (tweaking the way I sell links and asking for a reconsideration from Google) and still waiting for an outcome. Anyway, congratultions with your new PR!
November 9th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
[…] One of them was Courtney Tuttle. Court took action and his pagerank got reinstated. Read here ‘Why Google Refunded My PageRank Slap‘. […]
November 9th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I guess I just got slapped down from a 3 to a 2. This just happened so here they go again.
November 9th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Congrats Court.
I’ve noticed quite a few sites have been reinstated in the last day - most notably statcounter is back up to a 10 from the 6 it was slapped down to. Like you he quickly added the no-follow to his ads after the slap. Makes me wonder if Google is doing this for everyone who complies - like the whole episode was a warning and they picked on a few of you as an example to all.
Course we will never know and they won’t tell.
November 9th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Congratulations for getting your PageRank 4 refunded, that’s great!
Thanks for sharing this information. Hopefully I’ll never get slapped by Google, but if I do I’ll know what to do.
Maybe I should consider starting selling links as nofollow like you are. Currently they don’t have that property on them. I’m not sure if anyone would even buy them if they’re nofollow though. I’m selling links for $5 right now and getting no purchases anyway, so maybe I could play it safe with Google and follow their rules.
Thanks Court!
November 9th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
[…] Tuttle mentioned in an earlier blogpost seeing his PageRank recover after taking action to remove paid links from his blog and filing a reinclusion […]
November 9th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Yes, there is another update as we speak.
I just went from a PR 4 to a PR 2 at one of my blogs
November 10th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Congrats Court on being proactive and helping your PR. But like you said, the blog hasn’t changed and most like neither has your potential to attract advertisers.
Interesting though with the “nofollow”. It is a point that Grizzly touched on on his blog too and certainly of importance I believe for future avoidance of the slap.
Time will tell in the end.
Monika
November 10th, 2007 at 3:48 am
[…] One of them was Courtney Tuttle. Court took action and his pagerank got reinstated. Read here ‘Why Google Refunded My PageRank Slap‘. […]
November 10th, 2007 at 8:56 am
Well to my great surprise during all the carnage my PR on my other blog - netmonetization.com - went up from 2 to 3 - I’ve got no idea why but so far it hasn’t made the slightest bit of difference to the number of readers I get ! I was expecting an improvement but no such luck.
November 10th, 2007 at 9:20 am
[…] Why Google Refunded My PageRank Slap by Court - Like Mr. Tuttle, Lots of us bloggers got hit with a PageRank penalty and are still struggling to come to terms with it. Courtney shows us that you may be able to get your lost PR back like he did! […]
November 10th, 2007 at 9:33 am
good for you. congratulations. My opinions on this page rank issues and what google did is if good things outweigh bad than i would follow. to me anything or systems that can be played and manipulated by the use of money would always lead to bad things. it has happen in the past and it will definitely will be happening in the future.
November 10th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Hi Court,
This PR update is weird. I went from a 0 to 3, but now it looks like it’s 0 again. Very strange. Seems like they should make up their minds (or maybe I’m looking in the wrong places?)
November 10th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I’m with you, Theda! I went up from 3 to 4, and today, I’m at 2. I’m NOT happy at all!
November 11th, 2007 at 6:55 am
I went from a PR5 to a PR4 a couple of weeks ago.
Yesterday I was slapped even harder and went down to a PR 2.
Guess I need to change my ways…..
November 11th, 2007 at 10:55 am
is it such a good thing to admit to G that you sold links? i am apprehensive to do such a thing. i think things are still shaking out so i willnot write them.
is this slap for all external links or sites you own or on your server are excluded?
K
November 11th, 2007 at 11:48 am
congrats on getting your PR4 back. I guess there are as many different ways to deal with the PR issue as there are blogs.
Some don’t see a need to “give in” to Google and sell links anyway, some find it nessesary to follow Google’s outline for “good practices”.
I think each blog/site needs to find what is best for their particular layout, traffic, readers, and finances and go with that.
Thanks for the update. Scott
November 11th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
6 to 3 myself
oh well.
November 11th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
If you have a high PR then you can get paid nicely for PPP for a while until Google lowers your PR and then you are left with all the $5.00 posts. So it looks to me like it is very hard to make money in that way now.
November 11th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
[…] found Courtney’s post on the subject quite refreshing and honest although I can only find the advertise page in Googles […]
November 11th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
[…] my recent PageRank upgrade, CourtneyTuttle.com was moved up into the Top 10 on the Top 100 Make Money Online Blogs list. […]
November 13th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Hey court,,,, Congrats for getting the PR back.. i am little sad about the google treatment towards my site http://hem.com.np they first gave PR to my blog to 4 ( which was from 0 to 4 ) and now they are changing it to 2 .. i am really pissed off with this.. pls tell me how do i request them to review this..
i cant find where i can make “reinclusion request ” Please elaborate.. Thanks
November 13th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Hi Hem! Sorry to hear about this. To do a reinclusion request you will first have to get a Google Webmaster Tools account. There is a link to Google Webmaster Tools in the above post. Once you get an account you will sign in and on the right hand side you will see a link that says ‘Request reconsideration’.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:23 am
[…] saw an article from Court . He got his PR back after it went down to mere 1 . now his PR is 4 . Even i want it back. I dunno […]
November 15th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Wow! I had no idea that Google would be looking into such requests on a case by case basis and replying so quickly! What was the comment you posted on Matt’s blog - can you share? I never found Matt to be so “champ” that people make him out to be. What do you think?
November 17th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Google’s Page Rank is garbage. It doesn’t tell you anything. I have a site that went from a 4 to a 1 a year ago for absolutely no reason but then my traffic from Google increased. It since jumped to a 3. I also see sites with a 1 getting more traffic than sites with a 5. I wouldn’t have removed any paid links or implement the nofollow links. It’s your site. Also did Google ever send out notices to Bloggers to stop. It’s all speculation and I suspect Google doesn’t really care as much as you think.
November 18th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Yeah they did send out notice, you can find it in their webmaster guidelines. Sorry Patrick but this isn’t speculation at all. They have been discouraging webmasters from selling links for years and no matter what you think this was about that.
November 27th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Mostof my sites went -1 PR
February 28th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Hi
Congrats to your reinstatement. I acknowledge your cleaning up with Google. That’s really something. I appreciate you sharing your experience. This is an eye opener for me re PR rating. I look forward to more of your articles and sharing of your experience.
Thanks.