Google really seems to have gone into overdrive of late.

The minor PR fluctuations have come more or less constantly every couple of weeks since the last update, and despite weeks of false alarms on various forums there was no big update of any global significance until today where most people can see some changes to both domains and inner pages.

But we also had multiple threads on DP starting yesterday documenting Authority sites suddenly dropping from long held #1′s to page 6 etc..

So a quick check in at our fave serious forum webmasterworld showed a great round up post by Tedster

It seems like this past month has seen shifts in the way Google evaluates backlinks:

1. Links from blogrolls (maybe all run-of-site links?) have been adjusted – see discussion.

2. Some reports that links from article sites no longer have power – see discussion

3. Plus, let’s not forget what ever that algo change was in late February, the one Matt Cutts called the Vince Update – see discussion

That last one may be more than a change in evaluating backlinks, but I’d still guess that backlinks play a part – and that some backlinks got a boost.

This all seems like an extension of Google’s preference for “freely given editorial links”. From what I see, sites whose rankings fell may not have actually been penalized at all. It’s just that their backlinks have less power — and maybe it also goes back an extra step: the sites that link to their backlink sites lost some juice.

What I don’t see is lower rankings for sites with a diverse and healthy backlink profile. But sites that were ranking mostly by links that their own effort created – some of those seem to have wobbled. Again, Google likes to see mostly editorial links, and not self-created links.

Google knows that some blogroll links are for sale. They know that an article site may have low editorial standards – and a reprint of that article might mean more than the original just sitting there in inventory. And they seem to have found some quality signals that are not easily faked – signs that an online business is a solid and ongoing concern, and not just some bits and bytes cobbled together.

Do others see what I think I see here?

Well speaking for us and our clients we havent seen any rankings drops to speak of, and just a few minor PR adjustments, several down from 4 to 3 including here, and SEO Spec Ops

But we’re pretty confident there’s still plenty of real PR flowing, the toolbar is OK as a rough guide, but more and more seems to be being used as opposition propaganda and as such cannot be trusted.

crack on.

<<— click image for graphic illustration of why we think theres real PR about.

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