Last November my page rank dropped from 3 to 0 overnight. I was completely bewildered because I wasn’t buying text links, writing paid reviews or doing any of the google no-no’s.
This article quickly became my most commented. Some people offered advice and others stopped by to commiserate telling me that the same thing had happened to them.
I intended to write a follow-up to that article but never did. I decided to try not to care about page rank and got distracted by much more important things.
A week to 10 days after I lost my page rank I submitted a reconsideration request. I figured it couldn’t hurt but I didn’t expect to hear back or for anything to come from it.
At the beginning of the year Ajith emailed me to let me know that my page rank had been restored. It was kind of like a New Years gift.
Note: I am told there was a page rank update on New Years so my ranking probably came back because of that, not the reconsideration request.
I am only assuming that the reconsideration request made a difference because there wasn’t an update in rankings at that time. But like I said, I never heard anything back from google about the request.
At the end of last week Google posted a video with tips on submitting a reconsideration request, which I have included below. I think the information is valuable although the reading of the script from the laptops is annoying.
So, if you’ve had ranking or indexing problem I would recommend submitting the reconsideration request. It can’t hurt. Just don’t expect to hear back. But maybe you’ll be lucky like me and will get your ranking reinstated.
photo credit: yewenyi
Is it bad that I still haven’t figured out what the page rank is for? If it drops, do you go lower on the list of search engine results? Mine is 3, too but I haven’t done anything specifically to try and up that but maybe I should?
I’m very glad they gave you back your ranking! A lot of this SEO stuff is very confusing to me, it seems like if we all just made the best sites we can that should be enough.
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Hi Tracy,
I believe the higher the rank the better your search engine listings will be but that isn’t always the case. Some people do fine with very low ranks. I also believe it helps with ads – the amount that you can get for them
Except for the drop to 0 mine has been three – never higher. I haven’t done anything to achieve that would but wouldn’t mind if it went up.
This article is a good intro – http://google.about.com/od/searchengineoptimization/a/pagerankexplain.htm
and Ajith, who’s in the list of top commentators has good information about it on his site.
It’s all really mysterious to me.
I’m not that familiar with PR myself. I haven’t checked (and dont know how). Now I’m wondering if I should be worried! :D
Hi Carla,
Yours is a 3. You can check it on this page
http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
Great, thanks! :D
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Or if you are using Firefox, you can install the SearchStatus Firefox Extension which will show a sites ranking at the bottom of the browser window.
Tim´s last blog post – “Techie” Interview Series 4 – Abelardo Gonzalez
Hi Tim – Thanks! I use that extension but, apparently, was much too lazy to explain it ;-)
@Kim,
Thanks for posting this video. The lady in the video sounds pretty firm as if she could be the ultimate authority on decisions regarding our PRs :D
As for your PR coming back to its orginal, I thought it happend on New Year day where there was a PR update.
Hi Ajith – She does sound like the authority. ;-)
I made a note in the article. When you notified me of my page rank coming back I thought it was reinstated – I didn’t know that an update occurred over New Years.
So, shouldn’t there be another one soon?
There was at the end of March.
Dennis Edell´s last blog post – 100 Marketers Give 100 Strategies – Recommended!
Hi Dennis – Oh! I guess I’m going to be stuck at 3 permanently ;-)
Assuming that was a joke, I will say, 3 is “easy” it does get much harder from here on out…keep building those quality links!
Dennis Edell´s last blog post – 100 Marketers Give 100 Strategies – Recommended!
Yeah, they will give a 3 to any Tom Dick or Harry, including me :D
Sire´s last blog post – Having A Blog Test Site Is A Good Idea
Kim, there was another mini update already during second week of April while I was on holidays. There was no change for me.
Ajith Edassery´s last blog post – Which WordPress Theme?
What is a “mini update”?
Thanks for the article Kim, This time my PR dropped from 2 to 0. I am still undecided whether i should send a request or not. There has been no change in traffic. I think i should just send it. Seems like there is no harm
Hi Madhur,
It won’t hurt to send it and maybe it will help.
Yea there was infact a PR update starting on the new year eve itself. A new year gift we can say lol :-)
When my blog was still on blogspot i got that problem, in fact I didn’t lose PR but my indexing was removed :-( I then changed address and moved to wordpress and bought the dot net. However just one month later the old address was being index again… It was banned maybe by mistake from Google previously. But I had already move on to a new domain so I closed the old blogspot version permanently.
Hi Kurt,
Did you ever try contacting them about any of those problems?
Or did they just stop indexing and then start again?
Nope. I didnt contact them as I was already thinking of changing to top level domain name, so this just pushed me to go for it. They re indexed my post on the blogspot one by themselves later on. However then I had a problem as my new blog with same content migrated was being like duplicate content as the old ones on blogspot too was indexed. So I removed the old blog permanently then.
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I think they do an update every quarter so yeah, it may not be really because of the reconsideration request. Great video though.
Hi Manshu – Yeah, I was wrong. I didn’t know there was an update over New Years – not sure why I misunderstood. And I so wanted the reconsideration request to actually make a difference :-)
So your PR is back to 3 huh? That’s great news! Although, still keep in mind that you don’t care about it ;)
Hi Stratos – Yeah, it’s been back to 3 since the beginning of the year.
I didn’t realize it until Ajith let me know.
I care and I don’t care ;-)
Congratulations on the return of the PR Kim. I don’t think I will be submitting a reconsider request for those blogs that got Google Slapped because I know what their answer will be.
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Hi Sire,
I guess if you know the answer then submitting the request really wouldn’t make a difference. They say in the video to be honest and if you’ve been doing no-no’s that they will know about it.
Yeah I know and the thing is those blogs are mainly used for paid posts and seeing as how they are bringing in a steady income I don’t see the point of jeopardizing that just for PR. Not only that, the post themselves also increase my SERPS so in a sort of backdoor way Google is still helping me out ;)
Hi Sire – That totally makes sense to me :-)
I personally do not think the reconsideration request works, page rank fluctuations happens all the time, unless you also have your site disappeared from the google index or sudden drop in traffic for longer period it is just “page rank fluctuation”. In the past I have my sites lost the page rank but later on it returned back the original position without any thing done.
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Hi – I’m really not sure. According to Dennis my rank would have stayed at 0 during the last update, if they hadn’t reconsidered me.
It’s all so mysterious and annoying.
Useful info here, Kim, as usual. Saved. :)
Vered – MomGrind´s last blog post – Fear of Rape
Hi Vered – Thanks :-)
I get frustrated by page rank too, so I just don’t deal with anymore and rely on word of mouth to get my sites out there.
Data points, Barbara
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Hi Barbara – Probably a better stategy. And more logical :-)
As both Straosg and Ajith say, PR is just a metric and if you have a great following (like you do kim) you shouldnt worry about it.
If you dont have a large following …you should NOT worry about it. As long as you write useful content your site will get visitors
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Hi Donace – Thanks! You are all great for visiting.
Hmm … useful content ;-)
2 FYI’s – Your reconsideration was approved, they just wait for the next update to put it back; if it wasn’t approved, the update would have done nothing.
It’s my understanding that they never reply yay or nay. The reinstatement or non-reinstatement on the next update IS their reply.
Otherwise they have to hire separate staff just to cut/paste reply emails. lol
Hope that all made sense. :)
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Yeah, and we all know how they can’t afford that don’t we Dennis.
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No offense to KIm here (hehe) but I actually agree on this one, that team would be a waste of money. Someone does something to get slapped, banned, or whatever, they can wait. lol
Although it may happen from time to time, I find it hard to believe that SO MANY PEOPLE get slugged for “no reason whatsoever”.
Now, what I DON’T believe in is their policy of not telling you what you did wrong and make you figure it out on your own…I’m sure there are some that got hit out of pure ignorance, not intent.
Dennis Edell´s last blog post – 100 Marketers Give 100 Strategies – Recommended!
Hi Dennis – That does make sense. Maybe they could hire us – “will work for page rank” – lol
Hmm, I think I’d prefer links from their blog. ;)
Dennis Edell´s last blog post – 100 Marketers Give 100 Strategies – Recommended!
From what I know you will need to keep on getting some back link or else Google would penalize you. This is the talk on Digitalpoint.
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Hi – I think backlinks are an important part of your ranking. People are
linking to me here and there but I have not had the time to focus on getting the backlinks.
Not just important darlin’, they’re the backbone of their ranking algorithm. ;)
Dennis Edell´s last blog post – 100 Marketers Give 100 Strategies – Recommended!
Darlin’ ? lol
eh it seemed to fit with the flow. lol
Dennis Edell´s last blog post – 100 Marketers Give 100 Strategies – Recommended!
Hi Kim. At the time you got your Google smack, I believe I told you your PR didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. A few months down the line and you’ll notice that (for once) I was right.
To put it into perspective: Your PR 3 (restored) blog gets oodles more traffic than my PR4 blog. Why? Because you’re better at connecting with people than I am.
And that’s something Google can’t take away from you, no matter how clever their algorithms are.
Hi Dave – lol – Well, yeah – in the grand scheme of things Villa tying to Bolton doesn’t matter either ;-)
Thanks though – I really appreciate it. Sometimes I wonder why any of you visit but I’m so glad that you do :-)
Thanks for the video! It’s cute how much they emphasize that real people read the requests :P
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Hi Siel,
I still don’t believe them – it’s done by robots I’m sure. ;-)
Kim,
Thank you very much for providing this info. This may be of help in future or WIll check that video as well.
Nihar´s last blog post – Friday Night Links Party – 24 April 2009
Hi Nihar – Thanks. I hope it helps.
My PR dropped from 4 to 3 in recent update :( Thanks for the great video.
TechZoomIn´s last blog post – Plugin To:Customize/Change Your WordPress Login Page!
Hi – Sorry your PR dropped. We would rather it go up.
Hey Kim! I think we should start a PR3 support group!
I wonder what the big criteria is for moving up to a 4? That seems to be the big breaking point.
Cool article, and thanks for the reminder.
George
Tumblemoose´s last blog post – Tumblemoose Times – A writer’s newsletter
Hi George – LOL :-) I just can’t seem to move past that point. I think we need more backlinks – preferably from PR 7 sites ;-)
Kim – shoot me an email.
Dennis Edell´s last blog post – 100 Marketers Give 100 Strategies – Recommended!
Hi Kim. This is pretty bizarre how this all works… or doesn’t work . I just don’t get this PR stuff.
Last year my first blog Loving Pulse had a PR of 4 after just a few months. And I was just blogging for fun. Now, Shades of Crimson is 4 months old and is stalled at at PR of 2. I have tonnes more links and backlinks than I had with Loving Pulse, and my content is more focused. I’ve not heavily monetized my blog so I’m not all that upset by this, but I just don’t understand.
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Hi Davina – It doesn’t seem to have much logic behind it – it’s confusing and mysterious. I barely understand it either. And whenever I write about it people stop by and try to explain it to me – it just doesn’t seem to sink it.
ummm, i just think do not mind the pr too much,just do something to make it better, then google will be better to you!
Schumi
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Hi Schumi – Thanks for the advice.
Wow. What a great post. My site is new and I dont even have a google rank as of yet. I started the site almost two months ago. I wondered what was wrong and why google wasn’t indexing it properly but had no idea there was actually a way to contact them for these things.
Very helpful and informative post. I will make sure to share it along. Thanks again.
Hi Sonia – I think in your instance your site is just too new. You should have something the next time google does a pr update but I don’t think you need to submit a reconsideration request yet.
Thanks for visiting :-)
That’s good to know that there is a reconsideration request. Mine stayed the same last time, so I am not going to worry about it, but there are mistakes that can be quickly rectified after a pagerank drop that would merit reconsideration for a better score sooner than waiting on the next update in 3+ months. Thanks for sharing the info!
~ Kristi
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Hi Kristi – I’m glad you found the article useful. I don’t know if I would submit one unless something extreme happened but you never know – it might help.
We’ve been there before. We had a penalty two years ago for excessive reciprocal linking. What was unnerving was wondering what the heck Google wants or expects! They do not respond so we were left wondering. It took 40 days and we were back in Google’s graces. Haven’t had a problem since.
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Hi Colleen – It is hard to know what google wants – and for such a big company customer service is definitely lacking. I’m glad it was only 40 days.
Hi Kim, My weblog afterbtech has suffered a PR loss from 1 to 0 . :( It may not be too significant but its always encouraging to see things progressing and getting better. please consider it and see if there are any problems with it.. ?
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