Miamacs - 6:09 pm on Nov 20, 2007 (gmt 0)

Yeah but the initial test grant mentioned wasn't really about *selling* links, but rather *buying* them.

I mean if I was purchasing my way onto the SERPs to get some initial boos edit: not bad of a typo ( and not as a long term strategy ) I probably wouldn't care if the sellers lost a couple of 'Visible/Virtual/TB' PR points.

However I would care whether these sites pass their real PR nicely all the same, or not. Ranking the same is one thing for those sellers which aren't penalized by any other means than their TBPR lowered 3-4 points. But being able to pass the original PR is another.

This of course only makes sense if Google now only SHOWS different TBPR for 'penalized' sites, but doesn't actually penalize them.

In other words if:
Site A, PageRank 7 sells links
Site B, PageRank 4 buys links from Site A

Is it like...

Site A gets penalized. On the next update it shows a TBPR of 3. Ranks the same.
Site B gets the full value of the real PR. Next update shows it as PR 6.

Or...

Site A gets penalized. PR3. Ranks the same.
Site B shows PR4, no change. But ranks better, as if it was 6.

Or...

Site A gets penalized. PR3. Ranks the same.
Site B doesn't rank any better... but, uh... wait Site B *does* rank better, that was what the audit concluded, wasn't it?

( my interpretation )
Unless link buyers are penalized, and they won't be, ever, this will have little effect on SEO practices, and aims more at the 'publisher' side of the link trade. I... think. *rolls eyes/doesn't care*

...

[edited by: Miamacs at 6:15 pm (utc) on Nov. 20, 2007]