"SEOs are shaking in their boots."

What happens when the leading search engine in the world decides to punish some of the top websites on the internet? You get a lot of SEOs shaking in their boots.

The news first came through SEO blogs like Andybeard.eu, then from Digg.com. Websites were losing their Google authority value, or PageRank, by as much as two points. In a world where value is placed on a ten point scale, two points can be devastating.

Some of the best, well-known websites have received a decrease on their Google ranking; websites such as CopyBlogger, ProBlogger, Business Opportunites, even Forbes.com, and a lot more that have yet to be documented.

There is a lot of speculation that "link networks" are the reason for the blow to the ranking of these websites - but that is only speculation.

Frances, over at SEO1.net, shared his insight on the matter, stating that "a lot of seo websites have an artificial boost compared to most other sites simply by virtue of being in the seo community."

While there is quite a bit of validity to Frances' statement, Forbes.com is hardly an search engine optimization website.

So why the low blow? What other websites were affected? How much more damage will be done by the end of the week? Should you be worried?

If you have some insight - or just an observation on the matter - feel free to post over on this thread at AndyBeard.eu, where myself - as well as others - will be trying to get to the bottom of this fiasco.