New google pr update

[rob3786]

How does google determine which sites have been buying and selling links?

[Fortune Palace]

They say it's semi-automatic, but if their algorithm was that watertight why would they ask for webmasters to report paid links?

It seems to be a number of factors, but they're not likely to tell us what they are as we'd then go and do the opposite!

A lot of webmasters are discussing this issue on the SEO forums since the last partial update and the consensus seems to be that what looks like a penalty for paid links may actually be caused by Google devaluing links - especially from cheap directories and non-related sites.

Do you think you've been penalised? Is it a drop in PR or an out of proportion reduction in traffic?

Hope you haven't, by the way...

[rob3786]

No I dont think I have been penalised I just want to gain an understanding of the current situation so as to prevent myself from falling victim to Google.