BlogCatalog has come under fire in the past few days for a number of perceived faults starting with allegedly hoarding PageRank by using "java links". Lets examine the reality of the these claims.

The Onclick Question

The initial assault in this attack was on the front that BlogCatalog was using "Java Links" to hoard PageRank. The claim is put forth that links containing an onclick attribute can not pass PageRank.

To bolster this claim several discussion have been cited, and quotes posted, but not one of these actually addresses the onclick attribute directly and not one actually makes the statement that "links with the onclick attribute can not pass page rank". Lets look at some of these.

In one article we are presented with this quote.

Matt Cutts of Google has talked about this function in previous webmaster articles, that the JavaScript function is not crawlable by Google Bot; the giant of search engines, nor is the Google Pagerank passed from sites using this JavaScript function "onclick".

Immediately following the "quote", which is not sourced, or cited and does not come up in a Google search, we see this.

Matt Cutts Blog –

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-sneaky-javascript/

So, perhaps the quote is from that blog post. No. Not only is the quote not from that blog post, but the topic of the post is javascript redirects from indexed pages to spam pages, not a discussion of the use of the onclick attribute.

Another favorite citation is http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?p=90316. Again the discussion here is about paid links on the Post website. While these links actually do contain onclick attributes, Neither Brian nor Matt actually say that they can not pass PageRank for this reason. Further, when Danny Sullivan specifically asks that question, they do not reply to him, or at least not publicly in the thread.

Next up, and the most recent by a year, is this post by Matt at Sphinn.

"Most SEOs would generally take it that if a link shows up when doing a link:domain.com query, then Google probably count it."

That's just not true. Or rather, if most SEOs take it that way, then most SEOs are wrong. :) Halfdeck actually bothered to hunt down where I've said it before. I'm happy just to re-state: if you assume links for a link: query automatically carry weight, then you've made a faulty assumption.

Again, Matt is not addressing the onclick attribute here. He is saying that the link: operator does not necessarily return only links that carry weight.

This statement does invalidate my own previous premise that locating backlinks in the index from onclick link would demonstrate that they passed PageRank. Rather than a "weak attempt to convince people of something" as my research was called, it was a mistaken attempt to gather evidence based on a faulty premise. More on why it was still not a wasted effort later.

This statement does not, however, continue on to state that the onclick attribute prevents a link from passing PageRank. In fact, this is yet another example where Matt was asked this specific question and did not choose to reply.

At this point all that can be said with certainty is that some links that contain an onclick attribute, may not pass page rank. But then it can also be said that some clicks that do not contain the onclick attribute may not pass PageRank. Earth shattering, no?

Is Google trying to kill PageRank?

The last thing for now on the onclick / Pagerank question is this. If the onclick attribute prevents a link from passing PageRank, and Google is encouraging Analytics users to use it, does it follow that Google wants to kill PageRank? or could there be some other answer, like, onclick does not definitively prevent Passing PageRank. Sebastian thinks so. In this article he offers an explanation (the only rational one so far) for why BlogCatalog's links might not be passing PageRank, and explains how they could be redone in a way that would make it much less likely that they would not.

Those Uncaring Meanings Running The joint

These guys must all be republicans of the worst stripe to be so unfeeling towards their membership. What cads, what villains, what... What? Oh, they implemented the onclick in an effort to dump the previous redirection script tracking method that absolutely guaranteed that nothing got passed on to their members? You mean the redirection method still employed by most directories, including the one run by the antagonist in all of this?

Still, they're probably pretty mean spirited. What, as soon as Sebastion posted an idea on coding onclick tracking they started looking into it, and are exploring the implementation? Well, that's just a smoke screen surely.

They are still probably laughing at us behind our monitors and plotting to steal all of our keyboards. I mean, they dont even ask the members what they think before they implement new policies on the site. Oh, they do? Really? Oh.

These guys suck at being draconian and mean.

The Advertising Switch And Bait

Not content to limit this assault that was absolutely not personally motivated to a single front, the attacker offered, as evidence that BlogCatalog does not pass PR, a link to a blog where the blogger complains that they purchased a sponsor position in the directory and received no traffic from that advertising. I'm not even going to link to this. I'll simply offer the advice that if you believe that purchasing advertising guarantees a return, you would do better to hold off on doing any advertising for a while longer yet. And if you are so risk adverse that a $15 advertising spend leaves you crying "scam" you might want to rethink the whole thing.

Revenge of the Clones

The previous ranting about BlogCatalog being nothing but a clone was, unsurprisingly dredged back up for another go round. I've addressed this issue here and at BUMPzee. In short BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog and BUMPzee share similar functions, and thus similar features. Much like Myspace and facebook share similar features, and Ford and Chevy share similar features. The only thing on the planet that I can think of that is absolutely unique and original and shares nothing in common with anything else is... Well, I guess I drew a blank. That said, as I posted earlier, while each of these blog community driven sites share features their implementations, focuses and feels are different. My advice as always is pick the one that feels like home and work on it.

That's enough. Something Special in the next post.