Integrisearch | Solid SEO Ramblings.

Be careful who you mess within in the world of SEO.

That’s my initial caution as the result of an unexpected drop in PageRank.

Those in the industry know that it is extremely rare to see your PageRank drop in between Google’s visible PageRank updates.

When it does, there’s a strong chance that it was a manual update — meaning someone reported to you Google for using nefarious tactics.

I do nothing of the sort, but I do see how a manual review of my blog could lead on to perceive some of my links as “paid” — since they are not related to the content of my blog. However, they happen to be sites I like and I gave them links willingly. No foul, there, right?

Wrong.

After the December update, my site went from PR4 to PR5. Over the weekend, it dropped to PR3. No other sites that I work with, no sites that I track, no friends’ sites saw any changes in PR.

Just my little ol’ blog that maybe a dozen people on the Internet even know exists.

So, most likely, my blog was reported to Google, and some of my links were deemed “paid” and my PR was hit with a -2 PR — the most common — penalty.

Thanks, guys, for reporting me. Thanks, Google, for being so narrow-minded. Every lesson is a good lesson.

The lesson here is to be careful who you interact with in the SEO world. There are some unscrupulous sorts out there, who have no qualms about messing with people’s livelihoods for no other reason than that they can.

Just keep your nose to the grindstone, create great content, optimize your site and let the SEO hustlers do their thing - which is to contribute virtually nothing to society at large with their tactics.

In the long run, we’ll prevail. I’ll prevail.

I’ll get my deserved PR — as meaningless as it is — back in due time.

If you want to send me some link love in the meantime to help me out, I would greatly appreciate it.

Peace.

— Jeff

P.S. If I discover that I’m wrong about being reported to Google, I will most definitely post an update and admit that I was a paranoid fool. But, seriously, how the hell can my visible PageRank drop when there isn’t a visible PageRank update going on???? I offer $100 to the genius who can explain that.

Some of the secrect gang over at a secret forum have posted that they’re seeing changes to PageRank numbers.

I can confirm this is the case.

My blog was a PR4 yesterday. Currently showing PR5.

Will it last? Who knows?

Does it matter? On some level, sure. It’s the Academy Awards of SEO.

“And the improved PageRank goes to …”

Blah, blah, blah. The performance is already over. It’s merely confirmation that your performance was well-received. It will have very little immediate effect on sales or rankings.

But, in our sad, little world of SEO, it’s damn good clean to fun to find out what Google thinks of our sites.

“They like me. They really like me!!!!!”

I have clients who’ve gone from PR4 to PR6 this update with no change in rankings recently.

Also have clients who dropped to PR3 from PR4 with no change in rankings recently.

“Recently” is the key word.

The site that jumped to PR6 has seen rankings increase steadily over the past few months.

The site that slipped to PR3 saw a minor dip in rankings over the past few months.

A reminder that visibile PageRank updates are a signal of the past, not of the future.

So, if you see a nice 2-pt. jump in your PR today, congratulations on the hard work. But, don’t expect traffic to come flowing in overnight. You should have already reaped the benefits of improved PageRank.

Testing.

I’ve been noticing a rather disturbing trend in Yahoo’s organic results over the past several weeks.

Mainly, that for a variety high-volume phrases, there’s not much about the results that can be defined “organic.”

In short, in many industries, it’s looking as though you have to pay if you want to play, or be Yahoo to get strong results in Yahoo.

It’s a move that doesn’t surprise me considering the struggles Yahoo has been experiencing of late, but it’s an insidious move that does disappoint me and points to a diminishing landscape for searchers to find non-commercial search listings.

Case 1: “mortgage refinance”

A search for “mortgage refinance” returns results that on the surface look fairly legitimate, but a deeper look shows a strong concentration of paid inclusion results:

1. Wikipedia
2. Yahoo Real Estate
3. GetSmart.com
4. Mortgage 101
5. Quicken Loans
6. GMAC Mortgage
7. Yahoo Directory
8. Lending Tree
9. E-Loan
10. NationalMortgage.com

Again, appears kosher on the surface with some major players in the results. But, a look at the URLs reveals another side to the story:

1. Wikipedia — Organic
2. Yahoo Real Estate — Paid Inclusion
3. GetSmart.com – Paid Inclusion
4. Mortgage 101– Organic
5. Quicken Loans – Paid Inclusion
6. GMAC Mortgage – Organic
7. Yahoo Directory – Organic
8. Lending Tree – Paid Inclusion
9. E-Loan – Paid Inclusion
10. NationalMortgage.com – Paid Inclusion

Sixty percent of the top 5 results are “Paid Inclusion” links.

Sixty percent of the top 10 results are “Paid Inclusion” links.

I find it no coincidence that is a phrase that goes for upwards of $8 in the PPC space.

Getting the picture now?

I’ll post another, even more damning example later next week.

I’m still in denial that my site has been dropped from PR4 to PR0. I didn’t do anything wrong, dammit!!!

But did I do something not so very bright?

I am wondering if it was a canonical issue arising from my transition to Wordpress.

I had a friend set up the blog several weeks ago and apparently Wordpress defaults to a non-www URL. We both assumed that the Wordpress default 301 redirects the www version to the non-www version. But, neither of us can confirm.

All of the inbound links to this site point to the www version (www.integrisearch.com). So, if WordPress redirects to integrisearch.com without using 301, is www.integrisearch.com erased from existence and all of those backlinks didn’t send credit to integrisearch.com. Or does WordPress not redirect at all, treating integrisearch.com as the top-level site and www version as the subdomain many consider to it be?

Can it be that simple? Can I be that simple?

Would love to hear from SEOs more knowledgeable in the technical aspects than I am or who happen to be WordPress gurus.

I haven’t been able to find a specific answer yet.

I haven’t heard any rumblings in the forums, yet, but Google has clearly done an update that has rocked my world, and is certain to rock some others.

This site, which I haven’t even used in its new blog format essentially until today, went from a PageRank4 to a PageRank0.

I do not sell links on this site. I do not buy links to this site.

The only inbound links I have are from sites I optimized that linked to my site out of appreciation for the results my work gave them.

The only outbound link I have is to a site I currently work for. Am I not allowed to give some link love to a company I’m proud to work for.

In short, why was my site punished for doing nothing wrong?

Is Google deeming these as paid links? If so, they’ve gone over the deep end on this one. I know of major corporations blatantly buying links without restraint that my 5-year-old son could detect from a simple perusal of their backlinks. Yet those sites kept their precious PR.

Was it because I hadn’t updated the site with any content since I converted to a blog format?

Is that really a reason to punish a site with a 4-pt. drop in PageRank?

I’ve seen other sites that have dropped from PR6 to PR3 that aren’t buying or selling any links, either.

I cling to a faint hope that this is just Google’s update going through typical growing pains before it’s complete, but I don’t see any reason at all for the loss in visible PR to be affected by that.

Would love to hear from any others who feel they were wrongly punished in this recent update.

I will get my well-deserved PageRank back one of these days, whether Google likes it or not.

Yahoo’s organic results are looking awfully PI heavy these days.

Has anyone else noticed that some high-volume, high CPC results pages are seeing the so-called organic results heavily loaded with Paid Inclusion links?

Is the struggling Yahoo looking for creative ways to bring in more CPC cash now that they’ve surrendered to Google AdWords?

I smell something fishy, and will report back shortly in a few weeks with my findings.

I plan to time the post for SMX East in New York. See you all there.