There have been many times where I have discussed the topic of losing Google’s PageRank on I’m Blogging That. And while it took me a bit of time to decide, I made changes to my blog and asked that Google reconsider.

On the 18th, I cleaned up my blog a lot. I deleted sponsored posts from PayU2Blog, added the no follow tag to a lot of extra (non-paid) links in my posts, and added the no follow tag to old posts from PayPerPost.

The no follow code is rel=”nofollow” within your link structure.

In addition, I considered what I really wanted to do with my blog and any changes I wanted to make that I previously hadn’t done because I didn’t want to mess with PageRank. With that, I changed my permalink structure to be more “search engine friendly.”

What I did not do was disable my do follow plugin but I did remove the huge list from my blog of do follow bloggers.

After making these changes, I submitted my request to Google for reconsideration. What does this take? Just a simple login to your webmaster tools and filling out a form. What they do ask is that you admit wrong-doing according to their terms. This in addition to spelling out for them what you did wrong and how you have no corrected the situation.

There is where a lot of bloggers are having trouble. Few people want to admit that they have done wrong. But this is where you decide if you’re going to be a blogger of fame or money and who’s terms and games you will play.

If you want to play Google’s game, you admit that you were wrong because according to THEIR terms, selling links is wrong. Or you play by the game of sponsored post companies and you see how far you get with no PageRank.

No one can make the choice for you as to where you’d like to lie in the grand scheme. And I’m sure that there are many ways to keep doing sponsored posts and keep your PageRank. But that’s a blog post for another day.

Just remember, PageRank or not chances you haven’t lost traffic. And maintaining your blog is done for you and your readers. Above all think of those 2 factors before you make any changes. From making that choice you’ll decide where you want to line up in the grand scheme of where you want your blog to be.

Whatever you choose, good luck!

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