Well, it seems that Google is against my blog. First, I had to remove Google ads from my blog and now this Page Rank disaster. Both cases almost at the same time. The first case being the major concern but then I think I have spoken enough on the same. There's no point in speaking on the same topic again and again. Now, looking at the present case - The Page Rank disaster. From 4 to 3, truly shocking! I am saying so because I believe I didn't do anything silly to make this happen at any time in my blogging. Now, one thing is sure that this blog deserved Page Rank 4 and in other words, I would say it as a biggest reward for me in these 2 years of blogging. I was hopeful of maintaining the same and more hopeful of gaining much higher page rank. But then it was never to be. Contrary to it, the recent update has left me with some doubts in my mind.

Now, we all know that Google Page Rank is decided on the quantity and quality of the backlinks plus there are many other factors which are not as important as the linking factors. Going back to the moment when I got a PR 4 for this blog, it was almost proved that I was rewarded for my efforts in quality link building for this blog. Plus I believe I really worked hard on my blog's content making it sure that most of my posts are high quality and original. And honesty speaking, Page Rank 4 was the result of those efforts.

After I gained PR 4 for this blog, I was confident of maintaining it forever. But I think it was more of an over confidence from my side. The recent Page Rank update has given me the food for thought. I have lost my Page Rank from 4 to 3 for reasons unknown. Well, still there could be many reasons for the same -
  • Did I do too much of link building ?
  • Did I exchange link with spammy sites?
  • Did I exchange link with unrelated sites?
  • Were my links removed from the sites with which I did link exchange?
  • Has there been any change in the Page Rank mechanism?
For the first question, my answer is " NO". Well, after gaining PR4 for this blog, I was quite content with it. At any moment, I didn't try to do much. I avoided doing link building for this blog but still I did with some sites but not much. It shouldn't have caused problem in any case. Now, linking to spammy sites - may be I was caught here. I don't know exactly but I must say it is very difficult today to differentiate between a genuine and a spammy site. May be I paid the price for it. Linking with unrelated sites - Perhaps it could be the single biggest reason. And the reason I am saying so because being a niche less blog, there was not much option left for me to try. I had to exchange link with anyone whom I felt I should. Seems that Google penalized me for the same:( No doubt, most webmasters do this without giving a prior notice. Yes, most webmasters remove links from their websites. These links are those which are placed after a proper link exchange process. Well, I did remove some of the links from my own blogroll only after checking to find if my links were still safe or removed from other sites. Shockingly, most of the sites with which I had exchanged links, had removed my links without letting me know first. So, I too had to do the same in the end.

Now, this is interesting. Change in the page rank mechanism. Who knows? Anything is possible today and Google being so innovative these days - Anything can happen.

Well, there can be many more reasons for the same which I may have forgotten to mention. To be honest, I am not so bothered about the Google PR at present. It happens at times. Bad luck it happened to me. I quickly need to forget about the Google PR. As long as you keep getting traffic on your blog from the search engines or from any other source, Page Rank shouldn't be a matter of concern for you. That is what I've learned in recent time. Believe me, Page Rank is nothing more than a showpiece but yes, one thing is very true - When you get a good one, you do not want to loose it any cost !