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Google Pagerank Penalties A TextLinkAds Killer?

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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Comments

27 Responses to “Google Pagerank Penalties A TextLinkAds Killer?”

  1. Vlad on October 24th, 2007
  2. Jim Kukral on October 24th, 2007

    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.

  3. Vlad on October 24th, 2007

    Just delete your blog inside ReviewMe account, you don’t know if Google is not looking in there for people to penalize.

  4. Jim Kukral on October 24th, 2007

    That’s paranoia talking Vlad, or is it? Better safe than sorry eh? Deleting now.

  5. Vlad on October 24th, 2007

    lol most likely paranoia

  6. Mike on October 24th, 2007

    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.

  7. PageRank Update is Google's October Surprise on October 24th, 2007

    [...] Jim Kukral on buying links: So how can TextLinkAds 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 Text Link Ads, but personally, I never did like the model of “passing Google juice” for cash. It always seemed very gamey to me. [...]

  8. Google с нов алгоритъм за PR и/или наказват за платени връзки | DevStorming.com on October 24th, 2007

    [...] Google Pagerank Penalties A TextLinkAds Killer?, Jim Kukral [...]

  9. James on October 24th, 2007

    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.

  10. Google Took My Balls and Went Home » Oreo CEO: Internet Famous on October 24th, 2007

    [...] 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, [...]

  11. tony on October 25th, 2007

    how will this effect scratchback?

  12. pizzafreak on October 25th, 2007

    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:

  13. Table Pad on October 25th, 2007

    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!

  14.   Se você perdeu PR, ainda faço piada da sua cara - Fudeblog by Cesar Cardoso on October 25th, 2007

    [...] Google se torne um monopsônio acreditando em don’t be evil e outras baboseiras enquanto dão pauladas nos concorrentes… desculpe, se você se ferrou merecidamente, e todo castigo ainda é pouco, [...]

  15. Sectional Sofa on October 26th, 2007

    Man this is depressing! Despite the “PR doesn’t matter” talk - the truth is Google is leaving (or at least trying to leave) bloggers with Adsense as the only workable means of monetization. Sinister…

  16. | Blogging Tips on October 26th, 2007

    [...] 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 ,43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, [...]

  17. anne on October 26th, 2007

    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

  18. Dusty Fog on October 26th, 2007

    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???

  19. Jason on October 27th, 2007

    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.

  20. Google Pagerank dropped to 4. Presumed guilty. on October 28th, 2007

    [...] never directly linked to TLA or similar, or used [...]

  21. James on October 29th, 2007

    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.

  22. Beware Google PageRank and Paid Links… | Fenetre Marketing Blog on October 31st, 2007

    [...] Google Pagerank Penalties A TextLinkAds Killer?, Jim Kukral [...]

  23. PageRank 2007 Q3 Update. Many Blogs Demoted | Sha Money Maker on March 13th, 2008

    [...] Google Pagerank Penalties A TextLinkAds Killer? [...]

  24. Devin on March 20th, 2008

    No matter what Google does to combat the different strategies people take to get more rank, there are always going to be companies that will find a way to help people around it. That’s where the money is.

  25. imDavidLee on June 23rd, 2008

    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 !!!

  26. alice on June 25th, 2008

    Although websites lost their PR, but I think soon they get their PR as they got them before. This Google update may increase the good result when you search any thing on google.

  27. LawrenceBryant on August 4th, 2008

    good job,

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