I wanted to talk about the most recent PageRank update which Google decided to further its monopoly upon the online advertising market, being the sale of text links. Google made comment that they do not condone the selling of text links, which means they don't condone any web directory upon the net that charges to provide a service. Funnily enough, Google themselves do the exact thing they hypocritically state others too not do; they sell text link advertising through their billion dollar Adwords program.

A good read is Aaron Walls Aesthetic Google PageRank Update!

Now it was speculated that Google reduced PageRank throughout the WWW for those who network, then discovered that this is true. It was then discovered they penalized PageRank from those selling links, those networking and web directories in general. Why in general? Because the majority of web directories across the globe got reduced in PageRank, whether paid, free, reciprocal, etc.

What does this ultimately mean for web directories? Well, many will close, no doubt at all. Many are junk, no doubt about that. I know I am guilty of all the above, in that I network my sites, I sell a service for links, I sell advertising sitewide. All these things got punished, yet I did not get punished as much as some who do less of these things. It seems that Google didn't really get much right with this update apart from once again proving they are inconsistent within their algorithm approach.

Webmasters alike took to PageRank like a duck to water. Originally when released it was Google's major development of the time in ranking algorithms. It soon was abused so heavily forcing Google to certainly up its pace to improve beyond such nasty algorithms. They moved to semantics as a result, which clearly improved Google's future. Webmasters still believe PageRank influences rankings, this means directories always require to hold atleast a five or six PageRank in order to prosper from selling advertising. The problem with this blinded model though, is advertisers are buying something that delivers no traffic and no real benefit within search results as they presume it does.

Now over 90% have all been reduced in PageRank, that means either the world must wakeup and understand that PageRank actually doesn't influence rankings as those believe, Google will remove PageRank altogether, or directories will simply close-up shop and find another way to continue business. The amazing thing is that Yahoo and MSN aren't quite as good yet as Google, and whilst Yahoo and MSN exist, directories will exist. Yahoo and MSN are not as influential as Google, and that's just another problem within the equation of market share balance.

The days are numbered for online advertising based on PageRank, and hopefully Google help that process along even though they may not realise it. The facts are, all my directories got reduced by 2-3 PageRank per domain from this latest toolbar update. The best thing though is that all of my sites still increased in traffic, increased in rankings, yet PageRank decreased across the board. So whilst I will lose business from those who submit based on PageRank, I will still obtain business by those who submit based on traffic, and those wanting rankings within Yahoo and MSN. Interesting...

Its time the world acknowledges that PageRank is truly dead, it is a manipulative little green bar which webmasters must fully understand and stop listening to the amateurs in the online marketing industry; webmasters must get back to what we used before the little green toolbar came along! Traffic statistics. Its like listening to people who use Alexa or such tools to rate traffic. None of these are accurate. I have a program that can take my Alexa rank to whatever level I want if I want, yet that would be deceptive. People are using these type of things though to over-inflate their websites and manipulate people for sales they truly are being extorted through. To affect a toolbar users must be using those toolbars. Facts are, the only people typically using those toolbars are webmasters, not the general public.

I think those who choose to get online and learn about search engines and rankings, they need to stop listening to those lesser professionals within the world and begin finding the facts for themselves, testing the theories to prove what they believe or not believe is factual, then use that experience to then further develop into the world of search engines and rankings. If you want to be lazy, just go read people like Aaron Wall or Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Watch. Atleast that way you will get the facts, not the bullshit fed from a large percentage of online marketers.

My personal opinion! It is becoming quite dangerous that one search engine is gaining this much power, this much influence, to make or break any business model they see fit, when they see fit. Google do not any longer make subjective changes as they have claimed in previous court dealings, they instead now make personal decisions to improve their own monopoly upon the advertising global market. They cannot break though what they do not control; though they can certainly make life hard for those who do use the web as their lifestyle.