Pagerank Recovery
I checked my site’s pagerank the other day and found out that it dropped to a 0. After searching around for the reasons why, I figured that it could because of the following:
- Selling links, especially by participating in the Text Link Ads network.
- Use of labels and texts like sponsored links, buy links here, place ads here for $$$, all which might suggest to Googlebots that you are selling links, even though you might not be.
- Articles or posts suggesting the importance of pagerank and buying links.
- Taking part in paid reviews and encouraging others to do so.
- Selling advertisements on your blog, which suggests to Google that you might also be selling links
As you can see, Google really doesn’t like the idea of selling or buying links, and will penalize you for it! Unfortunately, that was what happened to my site, so now I’ve in the process of clearing up any hints or suggestions that I’m selling links. If you’ve been hit with the same problem, you can try the following steps to recover your pagerank:
- Stop with the buying and selling of links. That’s what Google is punishing people for, and they do it through various methods like I mentioned above. So if you’re doing it, then just stop. Or if you don’t care about pagerank or having your site removed from Google’s search result, then by all means keep buying and selling.
- Add rel=”nofollow” to all outgoing links. Ok, maybe not that extreme, but if you want to be safe, this is the way to go. Jem has a good article on the dangers of dofollow, and I think she also has one on the benefits of dofollow, but I can’t seem to find it. Either way, I think it’s worth reading.
- Take off labels like “Sponsored Links”, or any other labels that might suggest to Google that you are selling/buying links. Remember, Google does NOT like that.
- Limit the paid-to-review posts. Usually you’re paid to blog about subjects you don’t know and advertise the site. Again, Google doesn’t like this. However, I’m not saying to stop writing those paid-to-review posts. I wrote an article on why paid posts aren’t as bad as people make it out to be.
- Resubmit your site to Google for validation. You can find a link to your right when you login to Google Webmaster Tools. After you submit your site, do not expect a reply back. If by 4-5 months your pagerank doesn’t improve, take it as a hint that Google still doesn’t like your site for the above reason, and that it’s time to comb through page by page to weed things out.
I find it ironic that I just wrote a post on pagerank when Google is penalizing people for it. 
On May10, 2008, Deb said...
To me, this all seems ridiculous, complex, and non-computer professionals like me are hopelessly lost.
On May10, 2008, Shao said...
To Deb: It is really complex, and even I don’t know exactly how this whole pagerank system works. However, the information I posted was just from what I found out through research. I’m still learning about it, but right now my main focus is just not to have my site banned from Google (ie. not showing up in the search results).
On May11, 2008, Candygirl said...
Wow, I didn’t know the pagerank could go down because of all that =/
I don’t worry about that now since i’m just begginning with my site, hehe.
Btw, i’ve added you to my links. (:
On May12, 2008, hbish said...
mm page rank it sounds pretty complicated..
On May12, 2008, Ever After » Blog Archive » Choosing A Domain Name, Alias, And Home said...
[...] My only concern before that prevented me from switching was because of my pagerank, but since that is nonexistent now, I really couldn’t care less. As a matter of fact, a new domain name would be a nice restart [...]
On May12, 2008, Shao said...
To Candygirl: I didn’t know either till now
Thanks for adding me!
On May16, 2008, Giving Your Visitors Link Juice - Remove Nofollow | Ever After said...
[...] last week I wrote a post on adding nofollow to all outgoing links, or at the very least, paid links. However, I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t [...]
On Jun23, 2008, Ai~ said...
Goodness, this really puts a lot of monetizing blogs as a disadvantage.
Thank you for posting this, it’s been rather informative. 
On Jul2, 2008, Mimi said...
To Ai: It really does, so it’s a choice whether you’d rather keep your pr and be on Google’s good side or to be keep raking in money with your blog. I chose the latter.