Bloggers hit out at PageRank punishment

31st October 2007

Google has lowered a number of website's PageRank - a ranking out of ten on how useful the site is - for receiving money for linking to other websites.

However a number of bloggers have hit out at Google's actions, claiming that selling links is common practice for blog sites.

Search Engine Roundtable blogger Barry Schwartz claims many sites that sell links also provide quality content, saying: "So what? Why slight them?"

Chief search quality officer for Google Matt Cutts said: "Paid links that pass PageRank would affect our opinion of a site. Going forward, I expect that Google will be looking at additional sites that appear to be buying or selling PageRank."

The PageRank does not directly relate to how high a site appears in Google's search results but rather its reputation and the number of other reputable sites that are linked to it.

The Times reports that sites for the Washington Post, gadget blog Engadget and business publication Forbes are among those to be penalised.