Can losing one high PR link cause a big drop?

[Joshmc]

I have seen some substantial drops in traffic two weeks after the panda shift, right around when I removed a paid advertisement that i had that was not no followed.

My site has around 250 linking domains so i figured that losing this one would not have a huge impact but the traffic loss has been substantial. The link was a site wide link, but the home page was a pr 6. I am wondering if this makes sense that a loss of one link could lead to a substantial traffic drop, or if there are too many factors in play to say that this one link could make a difference.

Thanks for you help

[zerillos]

If that one was the only link with no nofollow, or one of very few, my opinion is simply, yes, that could cause a drop.

[zerillos]

250 paid advertisments/links? To me this doen't look like a healthy practice and i believe it falls exactly in the range of the panda update.

[caran1]

Sometimes one high PR link can significantly increase or decrease traffic.

[Planet13]

Sometimes one high PR link can significantly increase or decrease traffic.

Didn't wikipedia use to have do-follow links a few years back? then didn't they decide to nofollow all outgoing links?

I ask because I did use to rank well - and more importantly, got lots of paying customers - to a product that wikipedia linked to.

Then about three or four years back, sales just dried up.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

[JacksSmith]

One high pr link is more than a few ordinary links. Because it gives power to your domain and Google recognizes it. So your link appears in the top of the Google search. That's why you see more traffic to your site. But if that link is lost then their will be drop in rankings.

[Joshmc]

Thanks everyone and @zerillos the other 250 are not paid just the one