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From PR5 to PR9 in Google - Is It Possible?

By Ian Lee on May 14, 2008 in Internet Marketing, Technology

PageRank 5 to PageRank 9 in GoogleA few months back when Google began penalizing sites for selling direct text links, I talked about a specific case where computer.org went from a PR9 to PR5 literally overnight. A few months later, I noticed it is also possible to go from a PR5 to PR9.

When computer.org took a PR dive from 9 to 5, they looked to be selling sponsored text links near the bottom of their website. I checked their web site today and gone are the sponsored text links - replaced by three 120×600 AdSense skyscraper ads. Talk about trying to get back into Google’s good books! As of the writing of this blog post, their PR is at 9. Compare Computer.org’s ad units (placed at the bottom of their website) below.

PR 5 Computer.org with
Sponsored Text Links
Computer.Org Sponsored Links
Click to enlarge
PR 9 Computer.org with
3 AdSense Units
Computer.Org AdSense Units
Click to enlarge

There is no way to validate if search engine traffic was affected when their PR dropped from a 9 to a 5 but given that this was a temporary drop, I would guess not. So it looks like it is possible to go from PR5 to PR9!

Is it just a coincidence that many websites who offered text links also saw their Google PR drop? Anyone else see a drop or rise in PR in relation to sponsored text links on your site?

In light of all the Page Rank changes, here is a cool tool to check your PR. Just enter your domain and click Check Domain to see your Page Ranks at various

PageRank Checker
Enter your domain name below:

Powered by iWEBTOOL

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  1. 22 Comment(s)

  2. By Haydn on May 14, 2008 | Reply

    Can you get penalised for being associated with sites that get penalised for selling text links??

    im new to this website/seo game and want to try and keep my nose clean.

  3. By Mr. Wrinkles on May 20, 2008 | Reply

    Google will ding you for selling links. If they find out, they typically lower your PR to get your attention. Computer.org got their PR back quickly because they had a quick response to Google’s demands.

  4. By Sam on May 21, 2008 | Reply

    I’m not sure I agree with google doing this. It’s your site you should be allowed to do what you want with it. They should allow link buying if there is a nofollow tag or something.

  5. By Ian Lee on May 22, 2008 | Reply

    @Haydn: I think you have the right idea. Keeping it clean will serve you well in the long run.

  6. By kg lew on Jun 4, 2008 | Reply

    google will slap down your website hard if you are selling links/ etc.. but if you start abiding by their standards then they will show mercy ;)

  7. By Tom Liebessprüche on Jun 5, 2008 | Reply

    So Adsense seems to be the key, of getting high PR. ;)

    but serious, it was still a 9
    5 was just the visible PR… i guess

  8. By Evan on Jun 23, 2008 | Reply

    Nice post…ya you don’t want to mess with the big G.

  9. By Judy McKelligott on Jul 8, 2008 | Reply

    Nice post. Won’t touch those selling links! Keep it clean and neat.

  10. By Science on Jul 12, 2008 | Reply

    I read on digitalpoint forum, that one guy also had PR dropped to 0, but his SERPS were intact, so it seems PR drop is only illusory.

  11. By Science on Jul 12, 2008 | Reply

    And your kind-a-captcha code is invisible in firefox 3 - I had to use IE to see it.

  12. By Rasim on Jul 21, 2008 | Reply

    I went from a page rank 4 to 0 in two weeks.

  13. By Education on Aug 28, 2008 | Reply

    Sadly, its easy to go down 4 in pagerank overnight but to go from 5-9 is a ten year task.

  14. By EliteVillain on Sep 1, 2008 | Reply

    I was penalised before from PR 2 to PR 0 …No choice but to remove everything just to get back the PR 2….

  15. By anne on Sep 3, 2008 | Reply

    I think it is possible to rank from PR5 to PR9. All you have to do is have backlinks with PR9 also. Link build your site only to those who have PR like that. But finding PR9 site related to yours are very difficult to find.

  16. By Jeniffer on Sep 8, 2008 | Reply

    Yes, sites which were openly selling their link got penalized by Google and many websites suffered due to this. I have seen several websites who even got banned from Google because of this thing.

    From that time i have made it a point that i am not going to openly sell links on my site.

  17. By Den on Oct 15, 2008 | Reply

    Interesting article

  18. By Software Outsourcing Company on Oct 15, 2008 | Reply

    Google is still the undisputed king of traffic and, regardless of what’s on the horizon, Google is the major deliverer of the web’s traffic. That’s why losing your high Google PR ranking, sometimes overnight, can be so devastating for the struggling webmaster or marketer.

  19. By TechnoSamrat on Oct 20, 2008 | Reply

    Yeah I have seen many cases where Google lowered the PR for sites who are making money selling PR.. But you can request them for a reconsideration also..

  20. By Almir Bojkovic on Oct 27, 2008 | Reply

    very interesting it know lets me know to not sell any of my links to anyone because i wouldn’t want my page rank to dip low when i have worked so hard just to get it up.

    http://www.spreadingyourcashflow.com

  21. By web designer UK on Nov 1, 2008 | Reply

    PR drop does not necessarily affect google rankings. I have seen this with many sites where PR drops but SERPS dont.

  22. By Ted Smith on Apr 11, 2009 | Reply

    Thanks for that. To check if your website is banned by Google, use this website free tools over 50 seo free tools for webmasters and website users

    MadSubmitter.com/tools.html

    Thanks for the article

  23. By Ted Smith on Apr 11, 2009 | Reply

    Sorry here is the link

    http://www.madsubmitter.com/tools.html

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