So it looks like Google has finally graced our websites with a PR update with some people getting a mighty bitchslap and others coming away unscathed. I was one of the lucky ones who made out alright with this update, though I’m beginning to wonder more and more whether worrying about PR is just a huge waste of time. But even still, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and post some thoughts about the recent update and how my sites did.
My budget travel site held tight at PR4 which is surprising since it’s a member of Text Link Ads and also an all out links whore. I’ve got so many paid links on that baby I don’t even remember which are legit anymore. I really should sort that site out but in the meantime I’ve got a bunch of links that are set to expire in December so hanging in at PR4 will make that a lot easier if I choose to go for renewals. When I sold them the site was PR5 so I’m curious to see if I’ll be able to get the same price.
My working holidays site also stuck at PR4 which I’m happy with. I’m going to attempt to sell links on this site but I’ll be going about it in a different way. Rather than heading to Digitalpoint in search of advertisers that are vaguely related to travel, I’m going to be contacting companies that would be a perfect fit as advertisers. Sort of like cold calling, I guess. I think selling links with this approach will rely less on PR and more on traffic stats and a well defined target market so I’m not too concerned with what the PR is on this site.
My living in London site jumped from PR2 to PR3 which was a bit of a disappointment considering this is my most popular site but I’ll be selling links directly to companies with this one too so I’ll be focusing mainly on improving my traffic.
It’s hard to say how my other sites did because I forget what their PR was before the update. I think everything has either stayed the same or jumped up by a point. Do I care? Not really.
I think the main thing that this whole manual downgrading of people’s PR has brought to light is how ruthless Google can be. They’ve identified private link sales as competition and are trying to stamp it out but I think they’re fighting an impossible battle, even for them.
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