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About Mert Erkal

He left his full time job as of 1st August, 2008 to earn his living as a problogger from blogging and freelance Internet projects. He also shares his 10 years of experience he gained in a giant multi-national company for Small Business companies and builds Corporate Identity. Read more about him!

Apr
7th

How I Got My Google PageRank Back After 16 Months

By Mert Erkal in Search Engine Optimization

Bloggers

When looking at the title of this post one may think that I was sleepless during the last 16 months just because my blog’s PageRank was 0. Frankly speaking I really don’t care about Google PageRank. Because I still made significant money despite my blog’s PR was 0 during that time. However, it is quite obvious that most of my readers and potential advertisers still care about PageRank more than I can ever dream of. Therefore I am happy that yesterday Google kissed my blog and blessed it with a PR3.

This post is written for the bloggers who are in a very similar situation. If I can recover back after 16 months of struggling, you can also make it. Here comes the secret formula.

No Retreat, No Surrender

Secret formula?? My formula is only four words long: “no retreat, no surrender”.

When my blog got penalized by Google, even some SEO masters told me to move to another domain. Check this one as a good example: Free SEO for my blog Searchforblogging dot com

But I did not lose my hope, and tried so many different techniques to get it back throughout this period. I summarized my efforts in this post before: How To Prepare Your Blog For The Next Google PageRank Update?

Also my blog’s Search Engine Optimization category is full of useful tips, and information on SEO for blogs and PageRank recovery. I strongly suggest you to read this section, and apply basic SEO techniques to your blog immediately.

If you are in a very simular situation, you can follow this step by step guide:

  • Try to identify why your blog got penalized by Google: Have you subscribed to pay per post programs recently? Do you sell text links? Did you use any duplicate content? Is your blog’s HTML codes are valid? Even though Google may penalize your blog for other reasons, it is better to know the real problem.
  • Take Action: Unsubscribe from any pay per post programs. Remove duplicate content from your blog. Use Markup Validation Service to scan your blog for possible HTML coding problems, and immediately correct them.
  • Increase Backlinks: Increasing your blog’s backlinks is one of the best things you can do to recover your blog’s PageRank. Backlink Factory is a reliable source you can refer on building backlinks to your blog.
  • Apply for a reconsideration: Read this post carefully, and learn How to get reconsidered for PageRank after Google penalization

You know we are in the middle of the last Google PageRank update. How about your blog’s PageRank? Are you satisfied with your blog’s current PageRank? Have your say.

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Comments

Stephan Miller April 7th, 2009

Man, you stuck with it longer than I did. I had one site that took a couple of years to recover because I abandoned it. But it’s good you got yours back Mert. It’s good to know you can get it back without waiting years.

Mert Erkal April 7th, 2009

I did not know this Stephan. Thanks for sharing.

AntihumanIST April 8th, 2009

i have the same problem with my blog. my PG changed 3 to 1. and it demoralized me. =(

hope i can get it back, like your Mert. thanks..

bbrian017 April 8th, 2009

awe man blog engage lost a pr and is now at 3! we were sitting at 4 but I found out why!

Dead links leading to blogs that didn’t exist anymore! I’m taking hours and hours cleaning each category visiting all pages ever submitted. This is for both the upcoming and published.

Congrats on the increase Mert it’s well deserved!

Geoserv April 8th, 2009

Good job Mert. My blog went from a PR3 to a PR0 about 12-15 months ago.

I have done everything I can think of to get it back but no matter what I do it still hasn’t returned.

My blog is indexed well by Google so I am not sure what the issue is. All outbound links are nofollow except for repeat commentators.

I think my issue was acquiring too many backlinks too quickly. Imgine, penalized for putting in a lot of hard work to get backlinks only to get penalized for it.

I would never recommend to anyone to use a script or program to acquire backlinks, this has to be the worst advice ever.

Anyways, congrats, but don’t use anything automated to acquire backlinks.

bbrian017 April 8th, 2009

Geoserve it might be what you said!

http://www.blogserp.com

the above website I own and it’s 4 months old and still not cached! I’m thinking the same as you. We were acquiring too many backlinks too quickly and Google doesn’t like that.

Pentad April 8th, 2009

Yeah, I went from a 4 to a 3…and, happy that I got my 4 back the other day after 6 months. Advertisers and sponsors do care, as it’s one of the only guarantees they have that our posts end up near the front of google searches, thereby increasing the chances that their ads will be seen. It’s just the way it is I guess, because they can’t always have a guarantee of traffic amount on sites in which they advertise.

Mert Erkal April 8th, 2009

Yeah Pentad, I think you mentioned a very good point. It is an important parameter from their point of view. I am glad you got it back. Cheers!

Alex at Net-Entrepreneur.com April 14th, 2009

I gradually went from 3 to 1… :(

don’t care much, but as you said, people do.. so I’ll have to do something about it…

Mert Erkal April 15th, 2009

Hi Alex, I duly understand you. I mentioned all the things I did to recover my PageRank back in my blog. I hope you get it back until the next update.

kyrious April 26th, 2009

thanks for this info actually my blog was pr3 after it's recent update it drops to zero now i'm on a mission to get it back again i'm so happy to have subscribe to your feeds

mert_erkal673 April 28th, 2009

It is my pleasure!

Luis May 15th, 2009

just have to keep on keeping on. Never surrender, Great work!

Domain names July 2nd, 2009

PR is quite funny, one of my forum refuse to leave PR2 despite the great quality links it has gotten over how many moths now the PR is just static but my new blog of 7 months old is PR3 with few backlinks.
I will check out and see if your mentioned guide may be the course or other wise probably G gives more weight to blogs

SEO marketing October 19th, 2009

There is always a reason sites lose their page rank, if you can get to the bottom of the reason it can always help. The unfortunate fact is that we are all at the menace of the the big G. The best advice here is from Luis, you have just got to keep on trying and adding that importnat content to your site. Glad to hear you got your rank back, nice post.

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