Page Path: googlerank.com / ranking / Ebook / pr4sale.html

Topics: Pagerank ™ for sale: the past, the present, the future..

Assuming that Google's PageRank is the result of all inbound 'weighted' links to your website, and these links have to be topic-specific from a well-pageranked site, with NO tracking code (simple link, no adv server, no clickthru reports etc…), we have been shown a great evolution in portals' webmarketing strategies.

THE PAST

Big, well known and respected portals and websites sold one or more links into their directories promising clicks, visibility and traffic to potential advertisers. Links came with extensive tracking features that reported page views (impressions) and click thrus. In order to sell the link, salesmen convinced the advertiser that enough direct traffic would come from the link to generate a positive ratio.

THE PRESENT

Many highly respected, topic specific, portals are now selling text links with all tracking code removed so that the links will pass PageRank, according with Google's algorithm. And the PR benefit is the biggest part of the sale teasing…
All the tracking codes have been removed, but advertisers would continue to pay for ever, even if the link doesn't directly generate any visitors. They will continue to pay because everyone is beginning to understand that the true value of the link isn't in the number of visitors that will click on it. The true value is the additional Google search traffic you will receive due to the increase in your site's pagerank.
Google's great influence and marketshare make a +8 pagerank the best deal a webmaster can do. No doubt.

ETHICAL OR NOT?

Ok, in a perfect world this would not be ethical. In a perfect world (in Google's world too). This is just a natural evolution. Yahoo i.e. sells a place in its directory for about 299$/year, and this may result in a sensitive pagerank increment for your site (and, maybe, it's one of the most important -when not the only- reasons a webmaster can spend so much to be there…).
A good pagerank link is nowadays a good, and goods can be sold and bought. Pagerank is part of a webmarketing strategy, purchasing a topic specific link is something you do for YOUR site, for a product you believe in. You did not make the market the way it is, you're just playing the game the way it has to be played.

Easy to guess, next step will be a great number of webmasters that will try to sell a link from their well-pageranked sites to you. Until Google permits this, of course (Google programmers could have the power of discounting these effects at any time and in any way they want).
If someone tries to sell you a link you may be interested in, just follow these rules.

1. Links to your site MUST be direct, and no tracking-coded (i.e. www.yoursite.com/index.html and NOT www.advserver.com/banner?=clientID34 and so on...

2. Links to your site MUST be in text format, or images with "alt" attribute.

3. According to Google's algorithm (in the theory of Chris Raimondi), if the logarithmic base is around 7 then a link from a page s with pagerank 9.0 will, by itself, give the target page a rank of:

· 8.9 if there is just the one link on the page
· 7.3 if there are twenty links on the page
· 6.5 if there are a hundred links on the page

That's assuming a damping factor of 0.85.

4. Each Geocities.com (Yahoo group) web page comes by default with a +7 value pagerank. Creating some websites with a text link to your main site and publishing them on Geocities FOR FREE still sounds unethical to you?
Why does this happen? That's because of Google's PageRank. By their nature, aggregate sites like GeoCities or Angelfire or AOL will get a lot of votes because they contain thousands of pages, and by extrapolation every hosted page itself starts quite high in the rankings, regardless of its own merit. It's a matter of facts: hosted websites acquire the "voting weight" of the entire aggregate site……………

5. …………… Already thinking of opening 20.000 free accounts in Geocities and publishing the same site? Sit back and relax, Google's developers are NOT fools, pagerank evaluation is ALSO made on a IP basis, too much links from the same IP, when not penalizing your site, they won't help you at all. Be creative, be smart. There are so many free hosting services around the world...

6. Don't feel guilty if you're gonna BUY some weighted votes (pagerank is made of weighted votes). Instead of paying 100$ / year for a link in a directory i.e., why not try paying a site owner with a good pagerank for a link on his site?

Example: your site is about CAR WASHING, you search for directories like Yahoo and Looksmart, find your category and pay for an inclusion. OK. Wouldnt it be good anyway searching the net for car related websites with a good pagerank (if any..) and offer a "small fee" for a text link in the home page? Maybe that webmaster never thought about selling a link, maybe he doesn't even understand why you're offering him money…make the same offer to other webmasters. Imagine how much money you can save with greater benefits.

7. Submit your site to DMOZ.org ('nuff said)

A New Zealand's Yahoo directory is still completely FREE for any kind of website...enjoy :-) http://www.yahoo.co.nz

8. It usually takes 2 or 3 Google updates for your pagerank to take effect, so don't panic if your site's pagerank doesnt get better immediatly after an inclusion

(update)

Google has recently made changes to its ranking algorithms. There are no official words from Google but it seems that the changes has been made to fight two phenomena that worried Google:

"Google bombing"
selling advertising based on Google PageRank
"Google bombing" means that a lot of web pages link to the same web page with the same link text. For example, if you searched Google with the phrase "go to hell", the number one result was microsoft.com because many web pages linked to microsoft.com with that exact phrase.

With the latest Google update, searching for "go to hell" no longer takes you to microsoft.com.

Then there are sites that sell text ads and links where the prices are determined by the Google PageRank of the sites. This means that you'd pay for a link to your web site depending on the Google PageRank of the other site.

Google doesn't like it. Links are not placed because the linked site has important content but because the linked site has money. If many sites would sell their links, then Google's PageRank algorithm wouldn't work.

So what has changed in Google ranking algorithms? There are some hints:

To stop Google bombing, Google now seems to check link texts with the link web site. If the link text doesn't appear in the linked site, then the link is ignored or degraded.

To stop PageRank monetization, Google seems to put lower value to link texts if the linked pages don't have a high PageRank.
Some people claim that the algorithm changes degraded the quality of Google's search results.