A few weeks ago my tool bar page rank dropped to zero (from four). This happened without warning - OK on Friday, zero on Monday, and after some research I’ve just made some changes to this website and requested a review from Google. I’ll let you know how it goes.

First up, my main source of information was a post which listed the specific steps required to recover from this scenario. Some of these just didn’t apply, but it’s a good succinct read, nonetheless. Here’s what I did:

1. Removed the text link ads from my sidebar. I didn’t just comment them out, I removed the code completely. TLAs were generating the princely sum of $15 a month, so it’s a loss I can live with.
2. Added “rel=nofollow” to the four 125×125 ads in my sidebar.
3. Deactivated the NOFF plugin, which had the effect of adding “rel=nofollow” to all links within comments.

I don’t know for sure whether that’s enough. Time will tell. And I’ll post back with progress if I get any feedback from Google.

BTW, to request a review you need to log in to Google Webmaster Tools; the link is on the right hand side. You also have to have your submitted-for-review website validated in the Webmaster Tools interface.