What to do when Google reduces the PageRank of your site
God named Google behaves mysteriously. I recently met a webmaster who was all happy until one bad day when he found that the PageRank of his site was reduced from 3 to 1, and he grieved as if the pagerank was the sole reason for the existance of his website which was now at stake; this is probably how everybody would feed. When your site loses PR value, you suddenly begin to think how to get back your PR without realizing that is it better to focus on your business instead of Google.
How many backlinks are required ?
I would have expected this question from a recent visitor; an inquisitive webmaster who did not know how much he did not know about SEO. Instead, what I got was ‘How many backlinks can you get me ?‘ Since it was an initial meeting, I quickly avoided that question by asking him ‘How many do you want ?‘. He was quicker than me ‘Thousands!’. It seemed that he wanted to impress upon me that he is generally aware what SEO is all about, and I now feel sorry that I disappointed him by my reaction (I didn’t get his business 
).
If the first thought that comes to you after building a website is to get backlinks, you are suffering from an SEO disease which has not been recorded anywhere – backlink mania. While the quality-versus-quantity-of-the-backinks has been discussed and emphasized on all webmaster forums, it is equally important to know the answers of two more questions -
When should I start getting backlinks to my site ?
How many backlinks are required or enough ?
Frequently asked questions on Link Building
While there is an increasing amount of awareness on the effects of link building on your site’s search rankings, it is proportional to the amount of concerns for link buildings. This is the list of questions that I have been asked by almost every site owner who has some working knowledge of SEO.
- What are link farms ? How do I know that I do not have backlinks from link farms ?
- What are spam sites ? How do I know that they do not link to me ?
- What are spam links ? How do I know that I do not have one ?
- I have exchanged links with sites which are not relevant to my site, will it harm my seo ?
- I am using link exchange services of a company, will it be harmful ?
All these concerns are indeed genuine, and being on the negative side of these answers is indeed harmful for seo. What is not genuine are the pre-built and presumed notions on these topics. So, here are the answers..
What is relevant link exchange ? Understanding the meaning of Relevant Links
An excerpt from google webmaster guidelines:
When your site is ready, have other relevant sites link to yours.
Google’s importance of links pointing to a website in determining its search ranking position has not only led to one more seo phrase ‘link building’, but has also created some myths. While it is clear from the webmaster guidelines that links to your site from relevant sites are good, it is not clear what exactly are considered relevant sites. So the point is, if you are a cotton cloth manufacturer in Sydney, what sites should you consider as relevant ? Cloth manufacturers in Sydney ? All cotton cloth manufacturers in Sydney ? Cloth manufacturers around the world ? Ready-made garment makers ? Or may be, any business in Sydney ?
What is Ethical SEO ? What is Organic SEO ? What is the difference ?
This is one question that I’ve been asked several times in different forms – Do you practice ethical seo ? – to which I instantly answer yes, but then wonder whether it was asked out of mere curiosity or expert knowledge. Ethical seo and organic seo are terms which are heavily used even in marketing. So, is ethical SEO always organic ? Or can non-organic or artificial seo be ethical ?
We’ve Moved !
So if you’re reading this, this is our new location. It was a sad and late realization that this blog (at the earlier location) was unattended for a long time, and like all online things left abandoned for a long time, I had trouble segregating spam from genuine content. The old location is still in a sorry state, so I am not refrencing it hoping that you will never find it.
Some old posts whose content is still relevant will be evaluated again and republished here eventually. Till then !