November 19th, 2007 by James Omdahl
Last week Google took its most aggressive swipe at paid links so far by wiping out the visible PageRank for sites in the Pay-Per-Post network. From an objective point of view, this is a pretty smart move by Google. In effect, Google is breaking PPP’s business model by broadcasting that they’ve been devalued. I’m sure it’s not the last time we’ll see Google target specific linking schemes with a total PR smackdowns.
This is yet another warning to SEOs that if you are going to buy links, you better be covert about it. The days of the open, visible and public link buying are over my friends. The underground link market will become the mainstream link market. Link buyers are going to find themselves having to sign NDAs to get into the underground, and many linking programs will become invite only. Luckily, it’s in the link seller’s best interest to send out a lot of invites…so if you aren’t invited to the party yet, chances are you will be soon.
Google is on a rampage folks. Who do you think will be the next to face the GoogleWrath?
For coverage on the Pay-Per-Post and link buying story, refer to the following posts:
Is Google Going to Expand its Punishments of Paid Links? - Eric Enge
Are SEOs Still Buying Links? - Barry Schwartz
Google Goes After the Everyday Blogger - IZEA Blog (the PPP company blog)
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November 19th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
I dont think its just PPP, though. I have several sites that got zeroed recently, and only one of them ever did PPP reviews, and Ive removed all the PPP review posts ages ago.
All three sites do, however, contain the word “review”. As in “lets review the points of this post” or “I was reading a movie review”. Nothing whatsoever to do with paid reviews.
Whatever Google is doing, its BS the way theyre going about it.
November 19th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Wow Sapphire, if what you are saying is widespread, Im pretty shocked. I mean, if people are getting nailed for just reviewing things, thats a bigger issue. You sure there isnt anything else that would have tipped off Google to your sites? Cross-linking perhaps?
November 19th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
It is not widespread but could still be under way. reviewme.com shows a healthy PR6. theweblogreview.com shows some PR, etc.