Oct 26 2007
Bohica – Google PageRank Slaps
Many website owners are feeling a little raw over the second PageRank drop in a month.
I think the term “bohica“, while a little crass, may well sum up the way many blog owners are feeling at the moment.
So in the spirit of Darren’s recent post, here’s my take on it (there are some great slogans appearing over there).
If you’re not sure what I’m talking about here are a couple of links:
Favourites Slapped by Google
Google Algorithm Tweak Spooks WWW
I guess having a Google Page Rank of “0” has its distinct advantages 😉
12 Responses to “Bohica – Google PageRank Slaps”
Yeah tell me about it I went from PR5/6 to 3
However I’m not worried about it because rankings for common incoming search terms to my blogs seem to be as they were:
eg:
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=far+side&meta=cr%3DcountryAU
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=vanguard+index&meta=cr%3DcountryAU
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=virgin+creditcards&meta=cr%3DcountryAU
SERPS (search engine results pages) are the key. I was at PR 6 for a while ages ago and traffic didn’t change during that period but rose again when I went back to PR 5
PS I don’t think it’s a smart move to punish some of the most influential people on the web, this can only increase the anti-Google sentiment which has grown during the last year and drive people into the arms of YPN and other ad networks
Haha, so very fitting.
Google has done their worst to me in the past, scraping my PR does not bother me one bit, they can take the whole lot for all I care.
(Shhh, don’t tell G, but they seemed to have missed my other blog 😉 )
bohica – ha! I live and learn. 😀
I’m not happy with them, haven’t been for a while – if they really feel (google) that the world works in some bad ass bully way that dictates that the only way to get people to do what you want them to do in this life is through threats and punishment then Jesus, that’s so incredibly wrong it aint even funny.
I so wish I’d never bought into their whole do no evil thing, because cases like this show that it was nothing but empty meaningless claptrap from a bunch of techie nerds who hoped they’d do well, and struck lucky because a lot of influential people believed them and so helped promote them through word of mouth. It’s a little like having someone ingratiate themselves into your trust only to have them go and abuse it at some point down the road, its just not nice or necesary.
Neerav (sorry had to get you out of spam because of the links)
OUCH!
I do get the impression that no one is suffering from declining traffic. I rank pretty well in the SERPs with “no” PageRank. I just wish they’d speak out about it.
My old wordpress.com blog is still sitting there, untouched since May, with a PR of 5 – now higher than ProBlogger. That’s just crazy! If you’re going to do “downdate” (as opposed to an update), then really, shouldn’t it be across the board?
I agree it’s not a “smart move”, and said as much myself, but someone playing devil’s advocate said “yeah? A what percentage of Google users have the slightest clue about what PageRank is”. Which is a pretty valid point. You’re really talking about a small percentage of “high end users”.
Can you believe I actually came across someone today that used the internet but had NEVER heard of Google? That was pretty amazing. I was sure they were having us on…
Leigh 😀 (I won’t tell if you don’t).
Hey Rob (still got your floppy hat?)
Hehe – I do like that expression, maybe it’s more of an Aussie thing? Kind of explains the situation when you’re absolutely at someone’s mercy and powerless….
In so many ways I think Google revolutionised the internet, but I agree a googlopoly is probably not a good thing….
I do..wanna borrow it?
Aussie thing, yes must be, I’d never heard of it until I saw your image from Darrens blog post .
It’ll all come out in the wash I spose!
Love your Bohica – brilliant!
I don’t even know what my my pagerank is or even how I’d find it out but boo hiss… it all sounds wrong.
I thought their motto was do no evil?
Well said. The Google PR update did NOT affect me at all – because, they could not lower below zero. Ha..haa..losers!
Rob – na, but my mum might 😉
CB – You’re a 4 m’dear – which technically gives you the same “credibility” as ProBlogger, except without the traffic or the income 😉
Thiru – welcome to the “zero” club
Even though I have lost green-bar PR on some sites, I haven’t lost any rankings on search terms. And if you think about it that makes sense.
Google on one hand is trying to discourage the buying and selling of links, meanwhile it still needs to deliver relevant search results to its customers. By stripping away rankings on the little green bar and maintaining results it does both.
Maybe the link market will get more sophisticated? Rather than promoting a site on PR alone web site owners will promote links on their web sites based on rankings for certain search terms?
btw, this site ranks really well for “Google PageRank slap”, and it has no PR that I can see. Well done !
Hi John
I agree it’s a cosmetic penalty & that the link market will get more sophisticated.
Actually, shortly after this post I received a PR5, so “I no complain”! What surprises me more is the fact that it’s so short (content is king and all that) and yet it ranks…
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