This is a question I was asking myself after rumors that the huge PR drop that many blogs experienced was due to bloggers doing paid posts. Now we all know that Google loves informative blogs and that for many blogs to be informative they will normally link to other sites of interest. So the question is how does Google determine which links are paid links and which are not.

My theory is that GoogleBots, which are only as bright as the script that instruct them, have been programmed to look for tags such as the “Sponsored PayPerPost” tags at the end of sponsored posts. I reckon if you remove these tags Google will no longer be able to tell that they are paid posts. To test my theory I have removed all the tags on this blog while leaving all the tags on my WellBlogMe blog as they both had the same PR. Ig I am correct the PR on this blog will go up while the other one won’t.

Now all I need do is sit and wait.