Google had warned various publishers that selling text links ads on their web pages and hence tampering Google’s algorithm would adversely affect their sites PR. And the warning wasn’t just an empty one.

The recent Google PR update toppled various famous sites PR and there were cries of dismay all around the blogosphere. Some problogger’s like Johntp suffered a major PR drop from PR 6 to a measly PR 3. Other PR 5 entertainment sites like Ourbollywood and Naachgaana slumped to a docile PR 3 from a healthy PR 5.

My Advice To Bloggers

Crying too much about the loss of PR wouldn’t do any good. I strongly recommend bloggers not to purchase links. Create a better blog to get quality traffic to your site and create a larger reader base. That’s the only mantra for a successful blog.

Now moving to the point of should you continue selling Text Link Ads? I guess if you think your major source of revenue is through selling text link ads, then it makes no sense removing them. Ask yourself , why you want a high PR . Is it just too command respect on the internet or is it too make a lot of money? If the answer is the latter then removing text link ads would be nonsensical. As if you want a good PR to sell links and if Google will decrease your PR if you sell links. Then you are in a real catch 22 situation. So do not care about Google and just go ahead and sell those links.

But if you observe a drop in the SERPs of your site or if google ( search ) traffic to your site has greatly reduced. Then the best option would be to ditch text link ads. Most of my blogs receive around 70% of their traffic through Google, so if selling text links are going to affect my SERP than I would prefer to stay away from them.

But John Chow whose site suffered a PR blow from 6 to 4 is in no mood to bow down to Google’s dictatorship. He has no plans of removing his text link nds and wants to take the Google bull by its horns. He has also stated that Google traffic is only 2% of his total traffic ( a big exaggeration , I feel) . Anyways, check out his post : “Turning A Negative To A Positive” : a real inspiration if you want to wage a war against Google

Here’s a great cartoon of this PR update: I found on the net. Cannot recollect though from which site

How did the PR update affect me?

One of my network PR 6 sites tumbled down to PR 5. A few sites retained their original PR 4 while a recent network of 100 sites that I had just started managed to get a PR of 1 + ( 10+ got a PR 2). So guess me not that affected by Google’s PR mess. Overall seeing the mess around , I guess me fine although not too happy about it.

What are your views on the recent PR update? Was this PR update a pleasant one for you? Or are you still recovering from the PR update mess? Do share with me.