Page Rank Drop - How To Tell What Did It; How To Fix?

Asking for help regarding a page rank drop

[onlineshrine]

I run a rather large Web site.

Recently, the page rank for a few of the subdirectories dropped off from PR5 to PR0. Subsequently, google rankings for those particular sub-sites fell off of the face of the earth as well (other SEs are still showing love though).

I increased the keyword density on the page recently, but density is still between 3%-7% (4/5 in most cases) on the sub-sites that are effected. Two examples of effected sub-sites are:

<snip>

The Duff site is listed in DMOZ. Some of the other effected are too. Both of the above are cached in google, so google knows about them.

Any idea what the problem is? Is it density, or might something else be going on?

I've lurked on this forum for quite some time and it has been really educational. I am hoping you gurus can help me solve this disturbing Cosby mystery. :)

Sincerely,
Chris

[edited by: WebGuerrilla at 4:32 pm (utc) on June 5, 2003]
[edit reason] No Specifics Please [/edit]

[dvduval]

I would say PageRank is in a state of change and is pretty meaningless right now. The important thing is the SERPS. I have some pages displaying PR0 that were PR6, but they are doing fine. Go figure...

[dvduval]

This page at WebmasterWorld is PR zero as a matter of fact. New pages seem to be especially penalized when it comes to PageRank, and only B B KING can make it better.

[onlineshrine]

I figured out the problem. My associate put a text link the same color as the background on the page. We discussed taking that out, but it must have never happened. I didn't notice because, being as it was the same color as the background, I didn't see it. Argh. I guess I will have to wait for the site to recover from that.

When Google next crawls it will it return to normal, or is that URL permanently penalized?

Argh. Argh. Argh :(

[percentages]

Are you sure this is the cause. I am monitoring a page that has text links in the same color as the background and they still show PR5?

[onlineshrine]

I suppose I can't be 100% sure. It could be that these are relatively new sub-sites that I posted too, within the last three months. Not sure if that would have any impact.

[WebGuerrilla]

The answer to your problem can be found in message # 7

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