Google Pagerank Penalties A TextLinkAds Killer?

24 October 2007 Written By: Jim KukralComments: Comments

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Rumor, or truth, nobody is sure, but speculation is that the recent Google pagerank drops are a direct counter by Google to “decrease” relevance on sites that sell text links. If true, that is a DIRECT frontal-offensive move at the TextLinkAds business model.

The reasoning on this make sense for Google (see Darren’s comments below), but the problem is, for TLA, that their business model is built on passing “Google Juice”.

I can understand the text link penalties though – people buy text links so that they can increase their ranking in Google. People buy AdSense because they want traffic. Google don’t want their search results manipulated so they work against text links. I don’t like it any more than you do – but I can see their reasoning.

Right. So how can TLA survive in it’s current business model if the rumors are true?

Furthermore, would you buy a text link from them if they had a “nofollow” in it?

I like the guys at TLA, but personally, I never did like the model of “passing Google juice” for cash. It always seemed very gamey to me.

More talk at Searchengineland. Original story from Andy B. Much more at Techmeme.

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  • Vlad
  • Vlad, the last time I saw that link was the day I signed up to test it out. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I don't use that service or TLA. I did try it for a week or so (TLA) about a year ago, but it felt wrong to me.
  • Vlad
    Just delete your blog inside ReviewMe account, you don't know if Google is not looking in there for people to penalize.
  • That's paranoia talking Vlad, or is it? Better safe than sorry eh? Deleting now.
  • Vlad
    lol most likely paranoia
  • It's an interesting point, Jim, and one that I put to Patrick a couple of months ago. Sadly he decided not to respond other than saying that they had a number of initiatives in the pipeline. Now whether that means they'll be abandoning TLA and focusing on AuctionAds or Shopping Ads remains to be seen.
  • You really think TLA is going out of business because of this? Patrick is a smart guy; the writing has been on the wall for a long time when it comes to having an open link purchasing marketplace. I think TLA will survive and thrive because of this change as long as they adapt.

    Let's think basic economics - demand is as strong as ever, supply just went down, so what are prices going to do? I'm afraid all Google is doing is pushing the market underground and making the link brokers richer in the long run.
  • how will this effect scratchback?
  • Someone says that PR of a certain amount of sites dropped down because there they sell or bought links. I believe it's a bit to easy. There are many other factors that might have been changed by google. I guess that the current drop down is rather related to many removed sites and pages. The whole discussion about the drop down is a perfect example. Someone says:
  • Table Pad
    After going patiently through AB's blog and all the comments on it, I find your stand quite refreshing for being so different. I personally believe, nay hope, that Google will soon come out with a statement. I don't think that they would like all the negative stuff going around in the cyberspace!
  • so this is it.for the whole night i kept wondering why in the world my PR went down to 1 instead of 2. now i know the reason why.trying to get rid of those link ads now and hope it goes up again as it is so hard for me to get some opps on ppp
  • Anne,

    Your texas-sweetie.blogspot.com site is still PR2.

    The weird thing about mine (crisisandmanagement.com/blog) is it dropped to PR1 from PR2 about ten days ago, and today, climbed back to PR2.

    My other blog, celebritybrands.net was PR3 since the last update (Apr 27, 2007) and today it's PR4 (and I didn't even do anything to raise the PR.)

    And washingtonpost.com drops from PR7 to PR5? As well as some top sites going down two ranks? Including forbes.com? Is forbes.com interested in selling back links? Don't make sense! Something wrong with Google's algoriths???
  • OK so the higher your Google PageRank the higher TLA will charge for links on your site. Google changed their algorithm, TLA can do the same with their algorithm. TLA doesn't want you to make any less than what you already are. How much you make is directly related to how much they make. Does this all make sense?

    As for traffic from Google. Well, I just consider that bonus anyway since most of my traffic comes from other blogs and social news sites.
  • James
    My blog had been at pagerank 5 for months, and in that time the number of inbound links to the site from blogs and other credible sources increased nearly threefold. However, I used TextLinkAds on my site, so Google has dropped my pagerank to 3! I haven't noticed a drop in traffic yet, but this is outrageous. Somebody needs to stop the Google monster.
  • i wan o put TLA into my blog post but scare that G.. will drop my page rank...
    somebody suggest me to use ads switcher but i feel not convenient..i wan to use Google ads and text link ads at the same time...

    do u thnink is it a good idea ?

    imDavidLees last blog post..Dave's Corner Had Been Migrated !!!
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