Googles latest updates
Google is about to begin their update of toolbar PageRank for sites in the US. They began the update already for European markets. This PR update ought to prove interesting. They have instituted many changes, most of which are not understood yet.
One thing has been tossed around quite a bit and that is changes to how Google treats backlinks and link exchange strategies. It is common knowledge that Google strives to rate sites by backlinks as one of many criteria. Their Utopian view of backlinks does not allow unrelated backlinks to count toward ranking. Although they haven’t quite nailed this yet, their latest changes may have taken them a step closer towards perfecting their linking analysis.
I think that counting links as a measure of a websites value is important, but leaves something to be desired when it comes to practical application. I commonly troll the various freelance websites available on the net looking for work to help pad my downtimes when business is slow. Many of the jobs I see posted ask for (say) 1,000 PR5+ links. Google has done well to penalize these sites as their links do not place any value on the site. They are not being linked to because of quality content, it is because they hunt down links for the purpose of fooling Google into believing they are worthwhile sites.
Worthwhile sites build their links over time spread out fairly evenly and increase in the number of links as they become more popular and other website metrics increase. As Alexa ranking improves and search engine positioning goes up, it is natural to expect a site to gain links faster… kind of a snowball effect. It would not be natural for a site to increase it’s links overnight or even to gain 1,000 links in a month after not having any for a long time. The only sites where this naturally occurs would be the Red Cross after a disaster or campaign sites around election time.
Google has tried to counter the unnatural link explosions by creating a damper effect on sudden and unnatural rises in links to sites. I can only imagine that one of the changes in this latest update will intensify that damper effect and help to nullify webmasters attempts to artificially trick Google into believing that their website is actually valuable by adding many links quickly.
One of the things Google has ‘missed’ to some degree is the practice of linking to unrelated sites. Google has paid some attention to this, but I still see many sites about cars that link to real estate sites who have unusually high PR (based on my experience). Why would someone looking for a muffler for their ‘05 Trailblazer want to follow links to Florida Real Estate or Betty’s Crafts? (Sorry Betty, I just picked any name that came to mind).
When Google gets stronger about the relationships of links, many sites will suffer severly. Until then, people will continue to throw good money at unrelated sites. The uncomfortable time will come when many sites get knocked out of their comfortable PR because Google decides that enough is enough and starts to actually deduct points for ‘bad’ links instead of just giving a reduced value for them.