A client suddenly, wihout code changes, has had page ranking dropped as well as backlinks going from 110 to 3.

Has Google changed or what might be explanation?

I have noticed that many PR8 sites dropped to 7s and many PR7s dropped to 6s.

I think Google is trying to make it a little tougher to reach the higher page ranks and made some adjustments to its PR algorithm.

Google only shows backlinks from sites that have a PR4 or higher i believe.

I thinkChief might be right on that one. I've seen both my sites drop from PR 6 to PR 5, but there's been no change in traffic. Perhaps everyone's having their pagerank reduced to leave more space at the top....

That is fearful. Could there be possibly be wrong with the link building services on that which clients would usually blame as the one cited above?



< very obvious link drop removed >

Anyone who uses the type of link building service you described is paying for spam and bad publicity, but Google also cut their ability to pass pagerank.

Gord, the question isn't whether backlinks and PageRank dropped; the question is whether or not you're experiencing a significant loss in traffic that can't be fully explained by the overall decline in traffic associated with the summer months and people adopting more outdoor activities.

Google's link: query only reveals a portion of backlinks and its external PageRank (the one we all see) is updated infrequently and really wasn't intended as anything more than a rough guide anyway. So these aren't things to obsess over, contrary to published SEO opinion.