Danny Sullivan has managed to get some feedback from someone at Google confirmed visible PageRank penalties are being applied, as much as a -2 on what is displayed on the Google Toolbar.
This post was my follow on from my post yesterday: Dancing With The Gevil: Defamed By Google?
Fair enough, for those people who have been caught selling links primarily for boosting search engine results.
The funny thing is I have seen so many blogs today that are selling Text Links who have not received a penalty, yet lots of sites that write high quality paid reviews penalized.
I am referring to the PR6+ sites with 10 or more text links in the sidebar that are totally off topic.
As per my previous article, I don’t believe this should cover editorial links that are given during a review that is a form of consultancy. I have always made that clear that that is the purpose of my reviews.
It really does seem I am being penalized based on the Payment processor and marketplace I display most prominently, PayPerPost, though I have seen a few sites that display other Paid Post badges also hit heavily.
The most prominent PayPerPost writers seem to have been hit the hardest.
I Don’t Sell PageRank
Here is the description of the service I offer on my profile on Sponsored Reviews:
Blog Search Engine Performance, WordPress, Niche Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Tips and Social Media with Original Opinion and Loads of Attitude.
50% of revenue from reviews is donated towards WordPress plugin development adding additional exposure.
I perceive reviews as a form of consultancy.
You are paying for my time, not just for link equity or buzz.
My reviews are typically 2000 – 3000 words and I strive to highlight both good features and flaws constructively and offer suggestions for improvements.
My readership is not mass market but contains many thought leaders and influencers.
I talk about tools and strategies to help with the creation of various types of niche websites, social media, social networks, blogging, and WordPress. I can easily review a site not just based on content, but also from an SEO perspective.
If you actually follow the link, there is no mention of PageRank anywhere on the page. They do mention link popularity, but the number of links a site has is also a traffic indicator, possibly more accurate than Alexa.
Here is my profile on ReviewMe. You might notice it is quite similar:
50% of revenue from reviews is donated towards WordPress plugin development adding additional exposure.
I perceive reviews as a form of consultancy, you are paying for my time, not for link equity or buzz.
My reviews are typically 2000 – 3000 words and I strive to highlight both good features and flaws constructively and offer suggestions for improvements.
My readership is not mass market but contains many thought leaders and influencers.
I talk about tools and strategies to help with the creation of various types of niche websites, social media, social networks blogging and WordPress.
I can easily review a site not just based on content, but also from an SEO perspective.
Again, no mention of PageRank, just Alexa, Technorati (which is an indication of links) and RSS subscribers.
Let’s take a look at PayPerPost.
To find me within the directory, you would have to filter on a price range of $100 – 200, no direct link to the profile:
I am considered by many to be an expert on:
- Blog Search Engine Performance
- Search Engine Optimization
- WordPress
- Niche Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing Tips
- Social Media
- Blogging Community
If you are looking for good, detailed, solid information and are not looking to be spoon fed, you are going to love what I write.
My primary blog is in many ways a community project with the content provoking stimulating discussions.
Average Tack: 5 / 5 Google Page Rank: 5 Alexa Score: 17797
I should really log in and get that PageRank updated because it currently gives a value different to what is displayed on Google’s toolbar. I don’t think it actually is different in real terms as far as the ranking of my own content, although who knows, I might actually be a PR6 now that has been downgraded, and my readers seem to like my content.
I did use more sales like approach with some HTML that I grabbed from my Blogcatalog profile – with PayPerPost Direct any initial contact is just that, an initial inquiry and they have a built in message system. The first message I send to any inquiry always ensures that they accept a neutral review, as in they have no editorial control, and to ensure they understand that any and all links will be editorial, with my own choice of anchor text. On more than one of the reviews I have even pulled out a keyword research tool to get a good idea of what to use in the post title, and to some extent topics to discuss and link text.
Tack is something that is important, it is based on advertiser feedback.
I Reject Reviews, Lots Of Them
ReviewMe 33% (2/6) Accepted
Sponsored Reviews 80% (4/5) Accepted
PayPerPost 37.5% (3/8) Accepted
Total 47.3% (9/19) Accepted
That doesn’t cover all the offers I pass over within the various directories or the people who have approached me directly. The direct offers I generally ignore or refuse politely, depending on the product. There is one e-book I still have to take a look at to see if I am going to write a full review. That will be free even though a paid review was offered. Why? It has an affiliate program, if it is any good, I will earn more as an affiliate marketer over the long term.
Editorial Control
Google representatives have stated many times that paid directories are OK, as long as they are not selling PageRank specifically, and there is some editorial control over the process.
I Don’t Sell Advertising
Any advertising you might find on this blog is affiliate marketing, and where I remember, that is blocked and nofollowed.
PageRank = INFLUENCE
It seems as I suggested in my previous article that Google has singled out anyone, or any collective group or company who gives a hint in their promotional material that they are selling links based upon PageRank.
Selling links based upon even a similar term, such as listing the number of links to your site does not seem to be a problem now, and this might be a slow but manual process.
If you mention PageRank as an indication of how “pretty” you are to advertisers, you are going to be treated like a prostitute.
As I also mentioned in my previous article, PageRank can also be looked on as a measure of influence that can never be assessed just by looking at a pure number of established links, or a traffic rating from Alexa.
While I would love for PayPerPost to move away from displaying PageRank, influence makes a huge difference, but even then they will need additional metrics for traffic, not Alexa, but their own system coming in approximately 1 month.
Adam Lasnik
Adam Lasnik from Google commented on the Sphinn story for Danny’s post:
I totally understand and support tough-but-fair evaluation of our methods, but at the end of the day, I’d hope the majority of folks here would agree with our goals of aiming for a more level playing field on the web as well as a greater surfacing of quality content.
It doesn’t seem like they are trying to level the playing field for me. From my evaluation, they have been on the one hand quite surgical in which sites to take out, and on the other hand, have not paid any attention to the quantity and quality of the content.
Here are 2 quotes from Adam from April when interviewed by Eric Enge:
Two, taking a step back, our goal is not to catch one hundred percent of paid links. It’s to try to address the egregious behavior of buying and selling the links that focus on the passing of PageRank. That type of behavior is a lot more readily identifiable than I think people give us credit for.
That’s one of those things where typically you know it when you see it. As I mentioned, our interest isn’t in finding and taking care of a hundred percent of links that may or may not pass PageRank. But, as you point out relevance is definitely important and useful, and if you previously bought or sold a link without Nofollow, this is not the end of the world. We are looking for larger and more significant patterns.
As I pointed out on Sphinn, I have over 1800 pages indexed, and of those over 1500 are showing in the /* supposedly primary index.
That actually compares very well with many PR6 optimized sites, and better than most.
Among those pages are 9 pages from which I linked to clients who hired me to review their service or website. Those reviews typically took between 4 and 10+ hours to perform and write the content, to receive between $35 and $130 in my pocket, pre tax.
Obi Wan would certainly, at this time be saying “Adam, these are not the paid links you are meant to be looking for, move along.”
Maybe Google has identified PayPerPost as a bigger long-term threat not only to their search index but also to their monetization of the web, then what was currently only about links that were easy to identify, such as those in the sidebar.
Rather than trying to tackle the mass of 50,000 PayPerPost bloggers, they are highlighting the most prolific or prominent bloggers using the service. Sure they have also hit the Stanford Daily very hard, but that is just one visible site.
Shoemoney has been saying “Don’t Make Google Look Stupid”
I honestly don’t think PayPerPost currently are making Google look stupid, but the danger for Google is allowing them to grow.
Some more great discussion on this from Rob and Meg, and thanks to Snoskred for the support – Hmm legal fees paid by Nigeria maybe? 😉
One point raised in the comments of my last post by Tomaz was about the Review My Post links, part of the PayPerPost affiliate program. With close to 400 clicks in the last 10 months and 3 conversions, it is not ideal, as so few people who click through qualify for PayPerPost. If everyone who filled in the application form was accepted, it would be worth $0.75 per click which isn’t shabby, and hell as far as I care the link can be nofollow – it is just a great way to help someone make some immediate cash – maybe PPP will improve the conversions.
Anyway, short term, I am going to remove the button for Review My Posts. That is the only minor concession I am going to make.
I don’t sell PageRank.
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