Google Dance: Is Your Blog Jiving Now?

Much as we would like to get a life instead of being a blogging junkie, most of us bloggers just can't get over this Google Dance thing. Some are just getting freaked out as they wait and wait...to know their fate. Website directories are feeling the heat, too.

According to a WebProNews Insider Reports, as many as 60 directories have suddenly dropped in rank. Could this be algorithmic flux or selective penalties?

It seems nobody is talking at the moment as paid link directories started going south in Google search results. Could this be a sign of an impending Google slapfest on so-called "errant sites"?

Since late July up till today, there have been a number of false sightings that this crazy Google dance was about to go on stage. But to the disappointment of those dying to see how their blogs would fare in the PageRank, it must have been a frustrating wait - a rather long one this time around.

Some bloggers have reported noticing erratic movements on the green PageRank toolbar but that must be an illusion or their imagination must be running wild. The advice: Don't get paranoid and uppity about it all. Looks like the little green thingy is in hibernation.

Are we seeing something new on the horizon?

Perhaps, as some blogging pundits are suggesting, the PageRank updates may no longer take place. Maybe it's because Google are cooking up something else instead of looking at links to evaluate your page rank. Before we proceed further, for the benefits of newbies, here's a brief take from Bill Platt's article "The Roller Coaster of Link Popularity" about why blogs do links...

Links are the roadways that keep Internet users moving from one website to another. Before the search engines became the all-powerful providers of Internet traffic, the role of Internet promotion was to establish links on pages where a website's target audience is already going. The goal, of course, is to get the person reading the page to click the link to the target website. With every visitor to a website being a potential customer, it makes good sense to get as many visitors to the website as possible, and that requires getting as many links as possible pointing to a website."
Are you still making dollar and sense out of blogging?

Obviously, if you're a webmaster you need to take actions to boost your incoming links in order to move up in the SERPs especially Google PageRank. Now is the time to reflect on what you have been doing as far as link-traffic building is concerned in the past three or four months. And also ask the following questions:

• Are you still into meme projects to gain more links?
  
• Are you still doing that Alexa redirect train scheme?
  
• Are you still planning to run more linkbait contests?
  
• Are you still handing out various types of blogging awards for obvious reasons?
  
• Are you still buying or selling links?
  
• Are you still charging people to make comments on your blog?

One cannot deny that, for most bloggers, the major drive factor is making dollar and sense out of blogging. It's the number one reason. Numero Uno. Period. That's why we have top 100 lists of money-making blogs to whet the appetite of bloggers who are just getting into the act or still struggling to do so.

The evolution of blogging

I don't see this trend changing because blogging is evolving, and with that comes more sophisticated methods and ideas to make more money and more converts to the blogging world.
Bloggers are becoming multi-platform users and, therefore, their online presence will become even more dispersed with social media playing a prominent role in this changing blogging landscape.

Back to the linking issue, Jason Lee Miller at WebProNews wrote an interesting but foreboding article about the impending death of link authority. He's saying that, according to Edelman's Steve Rubel, link authority was good while it lasted, but now "there are so many places where people can publish and connect with peers."

Jason, who has covered the Internet scene expansively, also mentioned a Social Media Index article by David Brain, president and CEO of Edelman Europe, who is working on a formula for this social index which we may see embraced by Google and other search engines in the future.

If these are any indications of the future, will we be seeing the death of link authority? I'm not qualified to give an answer, but I would like to ask another question:

Are we bound by links from here to eternity?


Of related interests:
Link popularity: How, why and what to do about it?
Social networking: Tailing the Long Tail
The hots on linkbaiting
Why this PR is doing the shadow dance
Is Google PageRank still a valid marketing tool?