Do Follow Google Smack Down?
Posted on Dec 2, 2007 in Coding, SEO
I am wondering if Google is preparing for another smackdown on the blogging world.
Why? Well, the last slap down from Google seemed to be directed at the blogs that sold text links, even though some of them didn’t. But now with the do-follow crowd growing in popularity, is the “do-follow” movement putting your site at risk of getting “Google Slapped”?
I have been playing around with Blogger for about a month for a couple of niche sites that I am working on. Nothing serious, just some testing for free we’ll call it. One of the things that I have noticed today while working on one of my blogs was the comment form has changed.
Before today, there were three options for you to leave a comment on a blogger/blogspot blog. You could sign in with your Google username and password and leave a comment showing your username. You could leave an anonymous comment. Or you could click “other” and it would allow you to enter your name and URL.
If you notice, the “other” selection is now gone.
“So what?” you might be saying.
There is speculation that Google is getting ready to put the slap on blogs that “do-follow” in their comments. Some people feel that the “do-follow” on a blog is seen as the same as selling text links on a high PR blog to help lower PR blogs.
Is this true? Not sure. I haven’t found anything to confirm that this is why google changed the comment form on their blogger platform. Does that mean that I’m full of it? Nope, as these are just my thoughts and opinions from thinking about why they would do this, and from reading a couple of other theories and thoughts about it.
Grizzly has written The Death of Do Follow which goes into a lot more detail about the inner workings of why this could signal the end of the “do-follow” movement. It is a good read, and I highly recommend his blog also for topics dealing with Adsense and Marketing.
Only time will tell if Google is getting ready to slap the do-follow crowd or not. I hope they don’t because this could signal the beginning of “no-follow” on all links on a blog or site. Talk about big brother watching you.
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Do Follow Google Smack Down? | ejcross.com…
I am wondering if Google is preparing for another smackdown on the blogging world.
Why? Well, the last slap down from Google seemed to be directed at the blogs that sold text links, even though some of them didn’t. But now with the do-follow crowd g…
It sounds like you may have a case of “Googlenoia”.
Google has recently put the smack down on some sites as mine received a spanking last night. Unfortunately, this will kill my entire revenue stream as I’ve been earning a comfortable $50/month through PPP and TLA.
That said, I’ve already fired off a few emails to PPP and TLA to see what might happen now that I’ve gone from PR4 to a big fat nil. It’d be nice if there was another viable option available to us bloggers when it comes to having a realistic site ranking. Unfortunately, neither Alexa or Technorati are up for this challenge
@ Jason, I hate to hear that! I am wonderin g if we are entering the age of any link on sites needing to begin using the “no-follow” rule in order to “overkill” the threat of loosing page rank.
@ Frank, not really, just gets me curious about how to prevent loosing PR. (who said that? dang voices in my head again!)
Don’t worry too much about PR. I’ve got static HTML sites that have essentially just sat there since 2003-2004 with little updating and a tiny bit of initial promotion they’re PR4. Time, a little traffic and a few decent backlinks will get you that.
If you’re not selling links you should be fine unless Google is actually evil. Just because you’re Googlenoid doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you.
Frank,You’re right. However, there are a lot of blgos that do rely upon PR to draw advertisers and provide for revenue to their sites. I think this is a prime example of spreading your income streams on your blog and not relying strictly upon Google to do it all.I’m not so much a Googlenoid, as I am fortunate to have a PR 4, but it does make me wonder what i can do to keep it. Thanks for the reply and good luck with your sites too!
Elliott
Hey Elliot,
Seeing as my blog still has no page rank, I do not concern myself with this. I am sure a lot of us are not making huge money from our blogs, but instead from our other areas of interest in internet marketing. I focus on adsense sites and affiliate marketing, so I am not too concerned with the page rank of my blog. Would be nice to have at least a PR4 though.
@ Ray,
I can completely understand about not making money yet! For this being my first “real” blog, I have learned quite a bit from it and have begun to branch out into some other sites finally. They are still fairly new and don’t have a lot of traffic yet, but I know that takes time.
As for my PR, I don’t let it run my life or worry about it, however, I do want to make sure that I am “playing by the rules” in order to help keep it and not end up a victim of a smack down.
Thanks for the encouragement about the PR, and give it time, your’s will get there eventually!
Elliott
If you’re not selling links you should be fine unless Google is actually evil. Just because you’re Googlenoid doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you.