Google has been cracking down on paid link building and penalizing sites engaging in selling links with a PR drop. The latest PR update appears just to be a PR drop for many sites, which is bound to have some influence on search results. Here is the list of sites from seomoz

• andybeard.eu PR5 > PR3

• daily.stanford.edu PR9 > PR5

• Onemansblog.com PR8 > PR5

• spap-oop.blogspot.com PR5 > PR4

• weblogtoolscollection.com PR6 > PR4

• weblogtoolscollection.com PR6 > PR4

• autoblog.com PR6 > PR4

• blogherald.com PR7 > PR4

• copyblogger.com PR6 > PR4

• engadget.com PR7 > PR5

• forbes.com PR7 > PR5

• johnchow.com PR6 > PR4

• joystiq.com PR6 > PR4

• masternewmedia.org PR7 > PR4

• problogger.net PR6 > PR4

• quickonlinetips.com/PR6 > PR3

• searchengineguide.com PR7 > PR4

• searchenginejournal.com PR7 > PR4

• seopedia.org PR6 > PR5

• seo-scoop.com PR6 > PR3

• seroundtable.com PR7 > PR4

• sfgate.com PR7 > PR5

• statcounter.com PR9 > PR6

• suntimes.com PR7 > PR5

• thecrimson.com PR8 > PR4

• tuaw.com PR6 > PR4

• volodymyrzablotskyy.com PR4 > PR2

• washingtonpost.com PR8 > PR5

Google's Larry and Page foresaw this a long time ago and even wrote about this while at University, about having paid search results along with natural search results.

With current cost per click for keywords and the effectiveness of natural search engine ranking, those paid link building may need to resort to alternative ways to achieve good search results. Textlink brokers, Payperpost, paid link directories may have to rethink the whole business model with this move from Google.

As for this site, we haven't been around long enough for a PR update and care the least for PR. For this site, our focus remains on the cost effective ways of driving relevant traffic. Link building, article marketing, social book marking and handful of pay per click channels remain some of the best ways to do this.

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