--- title: "PageRank paid links update (2007): what changed and what it means now" url: https://seomadman.com/updates/pagerank-paid-links-update-2007 section: updates language: en published: 2026-09-26T00:00:00.000Z modified: 2026-09-26T00:00:00.000Z author: Adam Hafez topics: ["Link building"] --- # PageRank paid links update (2007): what changed and what it means now ## The short answer In October 2007, Google confirmed it was lowering the toolbar PageRank of some sites that sold links passing PageRank, and said some could lose rankings or be removed. Search Engine Land reported the confirmation on 7 October 2007. Google's Webmaster Central blog set out the policy on 1 December 2007. Google gave no impact figures. ## Key takeaways - Google confirmed to Search Engine Land in October 2007 that it was lowering PageRank for some link sellers. - Google said some link-selling sites could also be dropped or penalized in its results. - Google's December 2007 blog post said buying or selling links that pass PageRank violated its guidelines. - Google said most of the PageRank decreases followed a human review, not a fully automatic process. - Today's spam policies still treat links bought for ranking as link spam unless marked sponsored or nofollow. ## What Google changed In October 2007, Google began lowering the toolbar PageRank shown for some sites that sold links passing PageRank. Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan [reported on 7 October 2007](https://searchengineland.com/071007-173841.php) that Google "confirmed that PageRank scores are being lowered for some sites that sell links." Google also told him some link-selling sites could be dropped or given penalties that kept them from ranking well. Google then set out its position on its own site. Its Webmaster Central blog post of [1 December 2007](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2007/12/information-about-buying-and-selling) said "buying or selling links that pass PageRank violates our webmaster guidelines," and listed the October confirmation to Search Engine Land among its past statements on the issue. Google did not name this change. The name used here is descriptive; Search Engine Roundtable's list of major updates calls it Paid Links. ## When it rolled out Google gave no launch date beyond October 2007. Search Engine Land's report of Google's confirmation was published on 7 October 2007, so this page uses that date; the exact start day is approximate. Sullivan wrote that he had noticed the drops the week before. Google stated no completion date. ## What is known about its impact Google published no figures on how many sites were affected. It told Search Engine Land that it was decreasing PageRank for only a subset of the link sellers it knew about, and that most of the decreases happened after a human review. Its December blog post confirmed that selling links can affect Google's view of a site's value and cause it to lose trust in the site. Lists of affected sites circulated in the press, but Google did not publish any. ## What site owners should do Google's current spam policies still count "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" as link spam. They also say paid links are fine for advertising "as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value." - Mark every paid, sponsored or affiliate link with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". - Do not buy links, or posts containing links, to improve rankings. - If you received a manual action for link spam, fix the links before requesting reconsideration. ## How to check whether it affected you This is a historical question. Search Console keeps 16 months of data, and toolbar PageRank no longer exists, so the only evidence would be analytics archives from late 2007. For anything recent, the [Google Algorithm Updates timeline](/updates) lists every update with its dates, so you can check what rolled out when. ## Related updates - The [Jagger update](/updates/jagger-update-2005) was an earlier update webmasters linked to link practices, in 2005. - The [Penguin update](/updates/penguin-update-2012) was Google's first announced system against link spam, in 2012. - The [December 2022 link spam update](/updates/december-2022-link-spam-update) used SpamBrain to neutralize unnatural links. ## Frequently asked questions ### Did Google confirm the 2007 PageRank changes? Yes. Google confirmed them to Search Engine Land in October 2007, and its Webmaster Central blog post of 1 December 2007 said that selling links can lead to lower toolbar PageRank. ### Why is it called the PageRank paid links update? Google did not name it. The name here is descriptive; Search Engine Roundtable's list of major updates calls it Paid Links, and other industry histories call it the PageRank update. ### What could a site that lost PageRank do? Google said the owner could fix the guideline violations, make sure sold links no longer passed PageRank or were removed, and then submit a reconsideration request. ### Is selling links still against Google's rules? Yes, if the links pass ranking credit. Google's spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam, but allow paid links marked rel=sponsored or rel=nofollow. ## Sources 1. [Information about buying and selling links that pass PageRank](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2007/12/information-about-buying-and-selling) - Google Search Central Blog (primary) 2. [Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google](https://searchengineland.com/071007-173841.php) - Search Engine Land 3. [The History of Google's Updates](https://www.seroundtable.com/google-updates-13861.html) - Search Engine Roundtable 4. [Spam policies for Google web search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies) - Google Search Central (primary)