A lot of people tend to stress how important Google Pagerank is, though, they shouldn’t. If you get slapped with a decrease in your Pagerank, will that stop people from coming to your blog? Nope. Will you stop making money online? Nope. And honestly, if you are a great marketer, then Google Pagerank definitely won’t mean a thing to you.
Like I mentioned in one of my previous posts, “Google Pagerank – It’s Just a Number, Who Cares?!” in which I discussed how its Google’s way of telling someone how important a page is. Well, everyone should have their own head on their shoulders so that Pagerank number should be overlooked.
For instance, will people stop going to your blog if you’re a PR0? Nope. What if you were a former PR5 or PR6? And Google didn’t think too much of your site for whatever reason and they kept dropping your Pagerank until you’re back at the beginning – PR0. Will your readers leave? Will you lose money?
A very good example is our friend, Tyler Cruz, who was recently, yet unjustly, slapped by Google. And yes, they slapped him back to PR0!
Okay, maybe “slap” is the wrong word for it. But I had a chance to ask Mr. Cruz a couple quick questions regarding his recent Pagerank drop (he will be discussing it further on his site so look out for that!).
Since Google dropped you to a PR0, has that affected your traffic or your earnings for your blog? If so, how?
“It has not affected traffic or earnings in the slightest, nor had I expected it to. PageRank has never been of any importance other than ranking you better in some ad networks such as ReviewMe and Text-Link-Ads. Other than that, it is meaningless, especially since DMOZ went downhill.”
Additionally, he goes on to add, “I really don’t mind too much that I’m a PR0, since PageRank lost any real meaning over the past few months; great blogs and sites have low PageRank, while scraper sites or brand new blogs have higher ranks. The whole point of PageRank was for Google to show users the ‘quality’ of a site, and now that is useless.”
And would you mind sharing your income since the most recent update?
“My blog earnings for January will definitely be lower than December, and by a fair bit too - around $200 less is my estimate, totaling around $900. But it is important to note that this has nothing to do with PageRank. It is simply because I received less paid reviews from December. I expect February will break a new earnings record.”
I had a chance to ask Tyler Cruz these questions this past weekend, so it’s a little less than a week before the end of the month. And thank you, Tyler!
Tyler’s blog continues to grow and his RSS feed subscribers still went up this past month. Now, he’s well over 1,200. So, that must tell you something!
I know it seems like I’m favoring the side of Google Pagerank not having the same meaning as it once had, but for those who are extremely die hard fans for it, I have also written articles on how to help with your pagerank. Feel free to read it if you are dying to get that Pagerank up. It’s titled “Simple Steps to Increase Google Pagerank.”
Additionally, I will be posting my monthly earnings next week. And yes, I’m yet another blogger with a PR0, but it looks like earnings increased! 
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I would like to add that Google PR slaps are generally only toolbar slaps - the sites keep their SERP ranking - they have to or Googles own search engine would be meaningless - so generally speaking, if you come out in the top ten for a keyword search - you still will after a slap - it really is a bit of petty face slapping by Google - not a full blown punch
cheers
the radical blogger
http://www.myradicalblogs.com
Just linked to this post: http://blog.feefifoto.com/2008/01/thursday-thir-2.html
great post, and very encouraging to all the bloggers with bad pagerank. Do you think using the site clipboard might have had any effect on that? or did you never have a page rank?
I lost my PR as well, i believe in late December.
My main blog (Groovy Vegetarian) was a PR 4. I was angry only because SOME people do gauge a sites worth/value on that number. But my blog ranks high for many search terms and is visited daily by many folks.
I move on, i LOVE my blog, and will continue to develop and nurture it despite what the almighty G thinks.
Missy.
the toolbar PR slap is nothing. But dont be complacent about Google. There are many kinds of penalties for many different kinds of infringements of Google’s terms - and a toolbar PR slap is one of the lightest.
But you really can’t predict if you are going to get hit with a toolbar PR reduction, or something worse.
If your google ranking for keywords tanks, you are in big shit indeed.
If you get hit with a -50 penalty, there goes your traffic.
If you get hit with a -950 penalty, same.
Never be complacent and tempt Google - bloggers may be new to this, but some of us were slapped with penalties a long time back for stuff which were not our fault. And many had to close shop too.
Also, remember that certain infrongements will bring you a toolbar PR penalty TODAY. TOMORROW, they might upgrade it to something else - a masive downturn in rankings. No point crying after that.
I’m very agree with you, pagerank it’s just a number, although too many advertising programs set your price bid with this number, and I think it’s wrong. By the way, Google slap you if you use keywords like “get paid per post, for blogging…” so try to avoid this keywords…Nice post
You are right the traffic does not change. But some one forgot to tell the advertisers. They still think that you should be paid based on your PR rank.
Cheers
I have noticed that even really popular blogs have no PR, but their Alexa is super low. I tend to notice the Alexa more then the PR now.
My own blog has no PR, but my Alexa is dropping by the week! This makes me quite happy.
I do not value a site for their PR. So, good old Google can kiss my butt.
I love google, but google, alexa and compete mean nothing unless you are working to get the visits you deserve. Besides what do you care what a spider thinks of your site anyways?
Same here.. I lost my PR from 3 to zero. I was disappointed at first, but I am now trying to look for another source on how I can make money online with my blog even with PR 0. I think I have to concentrate with my traffic now, rather than a PR
I agree, too many people huss-n-fuss over the PageRank (advertisers and even so-called gurus)… it’s insane.
Great post!
Maria Reyes-McDavis
Web Success Diva
Maria Reyes-McDavis’s last blog post..Reality Check from Seth Godin on Making Money Blogging
Hey!
Your blog is interesting! Thanks for sharing this information.
Pagerank is just a number. But at the same time Google cornered the market on search, so getting in good with them certainly can’t hurt.
PR changes on Google’s mood. We need to concern about SEO, but don’t take it too heavily when got slapped.
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I was initially wondering. But once i went through your article i then felt that it is very much possible. Thanks a lot for sharing the information.
Interesting chat with Tyler Cruz. I enjoy his site as well..apparently he loves poker..
..but then again, who doesnt?
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Thanks for your magical secrets I think it will surely help me to make money online….
I can agree with the poster and most of the other commenters here. Most of the time, the Google PageRank slap is simply for display purposes only; it does not actually affect search traffic.
My beloved blog at Karlonia.com got reduced from PR3 back to zero around the beginning of April, but my overall search traffic has actually increased slightly. After looking back through my older posts, I have surmised that the PageRank drop may have been because of not putting nofollow on the affiliate links. During those first few months, I was not aware that we were supposed to do this in order to avoid a penalty.
I have been gradually going back through these old posts and “condomizing” these kinds of links. When I have finished with all of them, I may go ahead and file a reinclusion request with Google just to see if I can recover the visible PageRank.
Yes,
You are right!!!
The Google Page Rank is not so important but, still when the page rank goes down we feel bad and we think we are going to loose many visitors just because of this!!!
Oh well, PR is very important. Let me tell you why!
From which place do u get traffic? Ans. Search Engines
Which is the biggest search engine? And. Google
On what basic Google ranks site on search words? Ans. PR
How u got the answer, well if u r an established blogger, that may not harm u, but for newbies, that’s very important.
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