Google’s Page Rank Update on October 27, 2007, was their third update during the month of October, and it has caused confusion, frustration and a lot of noise in the Internet Marketing Industry. The change resulted in lower Page Ranks for a number of sites, particularly sites that have significant interlinking occurring between them.

Although there are many ideas and theories circulating about the recent updates, a common thought is that the decreasing Page Ranks are due to Google’s campaign against paid advertisements and links utilized on these sites. Duncan Riley suggests that the larger blog networks and other sites considered “link farms,” which produce numerous cross-links, are the primary targets of Google’s crusade.

Riley seems to believe these updates will have serious ramifications for some blog sites. He writes, “although traffic alone can and does sell ads on bigger sites, a drop from say PR7 to PR4 in one example makes the ad sell that much more difficult, particularly on blogs with little traffic. I’d suggest that the Deadpool will soon see a number of new entrants.”

Google resource Matt Cutts gave the official word on the updates to the Search Engine Journal, explaining that the change was in fact due to the buying and selling of links. He predicted that in the future Google would continue to make changes in order to make the paid Page Ranking ineffective.

Another change Cutts mentioned was that Google will begin updating their internal databases every 1-2 days rather than every 3-4 weeks as it has recently been done.

Many find Google’s message confusing, as it gives the impression that people who pay for links do not have valuable websites. But it seems that it may be an incorrect assumption to insinuate selling paid links equals less relevant content.

Kyle Eslick questioned Google’s motivation and purpose in his blog. “I have a hard time believing that selling paid links makes mine, or anyone’s content less relevant and deserving of a lower rank….rather than assuming people are purchasing paid links in order to receive additional traffic and exposure, Google feels that they are trying to purchase higher SERPs. My advertisers are actually receiving 2-3 times more exposure now, for the same price, than they were 5-6 months ago,” wrote Kyle.

Bloggers, including Eslick, claim the Google Page Rank is now nearly dead and useless to marketers. For example, Darren Rowse of Problogger.net advised to lose the focus on Page Rank and instead choose to build a quality site and a better, even more relevant blog. Rowse suggested that relying too heavily upon any single site, even Google, is not a wise move.

Steps you can take to recover or improve rankings in the new Google include:

· Put more time into Search Engine Optimization methods, obtaining high-quality links you receive based on having great site—not because there was buying and selling involved.
· Follow Google’s guidelines; do not participate in link schemes or link to spam sites.
· As suggested by Problogger.net’s Rowse, remove all questionable links and ask for reconsideration from Google.