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Does Google Ignore "PageRank For Sale"?

Does Google systematically ignore bought PR?

         

Rollo

5:39 pm on Jan 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



A question for the PR experts in the group... does Google have a means in place to systematically ignore PR passed from sellers?

I've been searching for some additional link advertising to experiment with, but a lot of sites with great PR, i.e. 8, don't seem to be passing the benefits onto thier link partners...

I've seen the following PR8/40 producing only PR4s. PR8/20 pretty much the same. I thought a PR8 would be an automatic 6 and several would bump you to a 7.

Let's assume no shady webmaster tricks and that the sites being linked to aren't in their first month or two of having the 8 linking to them so thatit has not yet updated.

Any wisdom?

bhartzer

5:41 pm on Jan 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



systematically ignore PR passed from sellers?

How can they tell it's bought PR and when it's not bought PR and simply advertising on another site?

I think they're probably discounting links that they can determine are obviously bought links, but there are cases where they just won't be able to tell.

The Contractor

6:22 pm on Jan 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I thought a PR8 would be an automatic 6 and several would bump you to a 7.

Difference between "real" PR and toolbar PR, just as between "real" backlinks and "shown" backlinks.

Rollo

6:28 pm on Jan 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Well, obviously I don't think that they would be able to if a site is descrete, but what I'm curious about are loads of off topic outbouds... does Google just totally ignore them now? Some of the PR 8s that sell links have oh, dozens of sold outbounds and don't seem to be passing any PR.

PR means page rank... if you download and install the google toolbar [toolbar.google.com], you'll see if at the top. It's Google's way of introducing an increasingly onerous class hierarchy to the internet.

Rollo

6:32 pm on Jan 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Difference between "real" PR and toolbar PR, just as between "real" backlinks and "shown" backlinks.

I know its a question of degree, such as a high 8 and a low 8 much like when rating an earthquake, but why would the toolbar read 8 whenthesite is really a 6 or a 7, if that's what you think might be the case...

The Contractor

8:58 pm on Jan 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



but why would the toolbar read 8 whenthesite is really a 6 or a 7, if that's what you think might be the case...

OK Google 101

Why run the toolbar at all? Why do people still use Google for backlink analysis or link hunting? Why does Google hide many of the better backlinks a site has (which are what's making the sites rank)?

Care to guess at the number of average users using the toolbar compared to SEO's?

Think about the above.... do you really think Google wants you to be able to "nail down" what they are using and when, to rank sites? I've done tests as I'm sure a lot of other people have. I have given sites one link which causes Google to crawl them and obtain PR. The funny thing is that one link often "never" shows up as a backlink on Google (even though it may push the site to a PR5). How did it get crawled, show PR, and rank at all if there are no backlinks showing in Google?

Google has become better at providing misinformation to lead a lot of people who believe what they see into making some pretty substantial changes/mistakes. They often hide Google/dmoz backlinks but show 300 PR0 clones in the backlinks - think they are trying to give you the info you want when you are trying to optimize/rank?

Their biggest flaw in their algo (IMHO) is their dependence on links to rank sites - which makes them vulnerable to manipulation (but then all algo's are). So if someone can go to Google, use the backlink command to find the backlinks of the top 10-20 sites and go begging for links from the same places - right? Used to be as easy as that when Google showed PR4+ backlinks (although tools were/are available to find good backlinks much quicker with more info than using link: ).

It's not in their best interest to give people the tools, system resources, and the information needed to game their algo ;)

Uninstall or close down the toolbar and pop it on every few months, you'll be happier, more productive, and less prone to making changes/mistakes you otherwise wouldn't be.

diamondgrl

9:45 pm on Jan 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



What is paying to get in the Yahoo directory other than a bought link? I really don't think Google does anything about paid links.

What I think Google has gotten frosted about is selling PR specifically, as opposed to selling a link that happens to carry some PR (which may or may not be accurately reflected in the toolbar). But I'm still not sure what Google can do about it other than manually penalizing sites.

Rollo

10:07 pm on Jan 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Contractor, I hear you... makes perfect sense and I've heard as much as well... that just so flys in the face of "don't be evil" as it generates an entire industry based on what ammounts to fraud. I just didn't think it would be that extreme. Why not turn off pagerank all together? I guess I don't see the advantages of a misinformation campaign versus just turning it off.

The Contractor

10:15 pm on Jan 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I guess I don't see the advantages of a misinformation campaign versus just turning it off.

Ever see one of those long yellow sticky fly traps hanging from the ceiling in a horse barn? :)

This is a long thread [webmasterworld.com] on purchased links, advertising, reciprocal links, and pr etc.