openswitch

Now that the smoke is clearing from the latest Google PR juggling act it looks like Google is not, in fact, penalizing text ads and/or sponsored themes. While some folks insist this is the case — PhotoMatt being the most notable — , many data seem to indicate otherwise. For instance, up until the scare, openswitch was regularly running Text Link Ads, yet my PR was not affected (I now have a higher PR than 9rules. Odd.) Yet other sites such as Engadget were adversely affected.

All this and more is pointed out very well in an article at Tech Soapbox. But the fact remains that we shouldn’t be so obsessed with Page Rank, even if we rely on our sites for some income. The “brass tax” factor is how much traffic you get. If your traffic is unaffected after your PR drops, then your PR doesn’t matter one iota. After all, it’s just a number.