Devaluing PageRank

Google recently made a stink on the Internet when it devalued some well-known websites of their high PageRank. The reasoning? Well, from most accounts people believe it has to do with selling paid links. Google recommends those who sell paid links to use the No-follow tag. That way the link doesn’t count in the eyes of Google, therefore no ‘link juice’ is passed along.

Google has been promising a crackdown on websites that sell links and apparently have made good on that promise. Many quality websites have taken a hit, which has some questioning just how reliable PageRank is of true web authority.

Eatonweb, a blog directory, announced earlier this month that it will be eliminating PageRank as a factor when it comes to assigning value to blogs. While it isn’t surprising that some webmasters are disillusioned with PageRank, when companies begin to take notice of the flaws in PageRank you know something is wrong with the system.

It will be interesting to see if other ranking websites follow suit and if Google will have any response to their decisions.