I was extremely happy to learn that one of the biggest SEO FRAUDS of all time finally got what he deserved.  I was banned from Real Estate Webmasters years ago for calling out the owner, Morgan Carry, that his SEO practices were unethical, and sometimes borderlining blackhat.  Finally being validated on that assessment feels damn good.

If you do a search for "Real Estate Webmasters", you'll see that the site has been dropped from number 1 to number 40.   Sitting #1 is a blog post by Greg Boser discussing this issue in further detail.  He even points out an email sent out by the REW staff that is clearly an unethical linking scheme.   REW members started noticing their blogs were "disappearing" from Google and going to 0 pagerank on the 24th.

If you link to REW or any of their clients who link to it, I'd advise you removing that link... or at least add a rel="nofollow" like I did above.  Google doesn't like sites that link to "bad neighborhoods" and Real Estate Webmasters and the Realtors who particpated in their lame-brained schemes, definitely fall into that category.

Every so often a blog comes along like this one stating their ranking in Google dropped.  People automatically assume they have been "penalized" by Google and want to figure out what it is they have done wrong.   It's no wonder this is the norm due to all the "scare tactic" blogs you find here.   They make it seem like Google is just waiting for you to screw up so they can make your life a living hell.    I'm here to say that is NOT THE CASE!

I think one of the causes of this misconception comes from not truely understanding how Google works.   Google is not a centralized supercomputer that everyone uses at the same time.   Google consists of 100's of different data centers.   Some data centers have different algorithms and DO NOT rank everything the same way.    Here is a good video to watch where Matt Cutts talks about data centers.   Lets say you query a term that has your website ranking for #3, and then come back the next day and query the same term and find yourself at #7...  does this mean you have dropped?   NOT NECESSARILY! You could be accessing an ENTIRELY different data center.

You should also know that Google has been making changes to their search algorithms more in the last 6 months, than they have during all the time before.    Matt Cutts stated that Google engineers were rolling out DOUBLE DIGIT CHANGES DAILY!  

This helps my second point.  Lets say it was the same data center and you did technically "drop."  That does not mean you were penalized.   It could be merely due to the fact that something changed.   There could have been a factor Google was relying on as "important", and then made a change where that factor was no longer "as important".  There is also something known as the "QDF" algorithm.  QDF stands for "Query Deserves Freshness". That doesn't mean you did anything wrong, and therefore should not be losing sleep over it.

The fact is Google knows that not every webmaster out there is an HTML genius.  Google does not expect perfection.   Matt Cutts also once stated that the average webmaster "worries" too much about obtaining penalties from Google.  If you find yourself slipping in the rankings, don't rush to assume you've been penalized. 

The other day I noticed a member here on Active Rain bragging about all the "unreal Google juice" she had.  She loosely backed her claim up by showing some of the search terms she had a 1st page ranking for. The member stated that "I couldn't teach her anything" because she "already knew it all".  This blog shall prove her quite wrong.

You should not assume that search terms you come up with are ones that people actually search. Researching the search volume is one of the first steps you need to take when deciding which terms to optimize your site for.

The member in question has her site optimized for "Hawaii Relocations" and she currently ranks 6 for it, with her ActiveRain page being number 7.

From my knowledge of search... I think people would tend to search for "Hawaii Relocation".   I believe people use "relocation" over "relocations" no matter which city or state they need to relocate to. Still, it doesn't matter what I believe.  We need to find some empirical evidence. One of the best ways to determine this for sure is the most excellent Google tool called Trends.

The best thing about Google Trends, is that is shows RELATIVE SCALE, and not an actual number. Many people get hung up on the physical numbers given by the Overture Inventory Tool (which is completely worthless.)  If we compare "relocation" with "relocations", we will find that I am correct.   Relocation is searched considerably more than relocations.

See how easy the data is to understand?   It shows over time the relationship of the two terms in Search Volume and News Reference Volume. 

If you have never used this tool, and haven't really verified the search terms you are currently after...  I highly recommend you doing so.

This is an expansion on Jaclyn Erwin's blog: Foreclosure Rate Soars: Realtors Can Help!

It was a thoughtful article that gives advice on how to help people avoid foreclosure.

 I'm on the other end of that spectrum.  I find foreclosures that are done. I don't mess with the courthouse or short sales, etc.  I will only look at one when it is in the hands of a bank, HUD, or VA.   I don't want to make light of the topic, but for the last 2 years I HAVE BEEN HAVING A FIELD DAY!

Why is this exactly?  Is it because there have been a large amount of people that are down on their luck?  NO! I believe the reason why can be summed up with 2 words, LOAN FRAUD! During the time that Jaclyn described as a "surge of new homeownership"; there was a surge in unscrupulous lenders and builders.

During that time, HUD made the elgibility requirements a lot easier for a FHA loan, which I believe to be the catalyst of all this. 

Many of these people were, uneducated, first time homebuyers that got blindsided by dishonest lenders and builders.  They were often lured in by claims such as "Move into this new home today for $XXX, which is less than your rent payment."  A lot of these people were barely able to make their rent payments in the first place.  They were tricked into 100% financing with an ARM, not fully understanding what an ARM was.  There were also all kinds of so called "non profit" down payment assistance programs that would give them their downpayment as a "gift".  These "non-profits" would just bill the seller for this "gift" plus a "modest administration fee."  The lender didn't care how risky it was because the FHA was guaranteeing the loan!  Therefore the brokers would fudge applications so they would get approved. These people were being SET-UP to fail!  They had no business getting a loan in the first place! 

 I am amazed that these downpayment assistance programs are still allowed to operate as they do.  If you can't afford a downpayment, how are you going to be able to pay for taxes, upkeep, or unexpected problems that we call "life"?  100% financing was really designed for the wealthy investor.  It doesn't make sense for a person that can barely make the payment to be put into a zero equity position.   So fast forward to now, and reality sure has caught up with us!  All the ARMs have shot up and many people just couldn't afford the home any more.  They were also a lot more willing to just walk away, because they didn't put anything into it! 

The builders were just as bad!  A lot of these fly-by-night types popped up all over Charlotte.  They would build cheap housing, and list it  WAY OVERPRICED!  They would then get a crooked appraiser to justify these inflated prices.  They would then trick people the same way I mentoned above.  Of course I feel sorry for the people that lost their homes, but I feel even more sorry for the people WHO DIDN'T!  They are the ones that are now prisoners in their home because they can't afford to sell it.  What they owe on it is anywhere from 15-40% greater than what it is really worth.  I am going to share an example of this:

In November of 2002, 4703 Tumbleweed in the Windy Ridge subdivison sold for 109K, brand new.  EXACTLY 2 years later, we had a client purchase it for 65k needing about 5k in fix-up.  I'm sorry colleagues, but THAT IS RIDICULOUS!  As it stands today, homes like this in the neighborhood are comping at about 83-87k.  You'll find a few that have recorded above 100, but they all involved 10-20% seller held seconds, or some other "creative" financing like that. 

My point is... these builders and lenders NEED TO ANSWER FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE!  So many lives have been ruined due to their selfish and dishonest actions.

Anyone that is familiar with PPC aka sponsored search, knows the high volume keywords that perform are usually VERY PRICEY!

The real estate related keywords for my city run from 2-4$ a click for a top 3 position on Overture and Google Adwords. 

Overture is now Yahoo Search Marketing as you may know.  In the past Overture did the sponsored search for almost all of the other search engines such as ask.com and msn.com.   That isn't the case today.  MSN now has it's own sponsored search program that works just like Google's.  

It would seem that not everyone is aware of this. Today I was able to get a 2nd position for 67 cents a click for a keyword that would cost me over 2$ for the same position on Google or Yahoo.  

I know MSN is the least searched of the three, but that doesn't make the searches it does get any less valid.

So I recommend getting in while they are still cheap. Couldn't tell you how long it's going to last, but every little bit helps, right?

https://adcenter.microsoft.com/Default.aspx  this is the link, and they only require 5$ to start.  If you are familiar with Google Adwords, you should have no problem using the MSN interface.

That is a quote made by Darth Vader to Luke in one of the Star Wars films.  I feel it an appropriate title for my continuation of dispelling a lot of the SEO rumors that run around here.

I'm using the term darkside to refer to the world known as "Black Hat" SEO.

These are tactics and strategies that are considered a "no-no" by Search Engines. This is not a "how to" that condones the use of black hat methods, but rather a glimpse into their world to show you things aren't the way Google says they are.

A common theme I've seen discussed is how the best SEO method is to design for a user and not the search engine. That's actually the first sentence in Google's quality guidelines. 

I think that is very good advice in general, especially if you are just launching a new site.  But in respects to SEO, it's not the most truthful statement.

The fact is, search engines calculate your position in the SERP mainly based on offsite factors.  I don't know the exact ratio (no one does seeing as how it's proprietary information) but for our purposes today I think it would be safe to say it's 90% off-site.  If this really is the case, then how can "user friendly" content be "the best" strategy... the answer is it can't.

Proof of this can be seen by doing a Google search for the term miserable failure. The #1 result is the biography of George W Bush on the official whitehouse website, whitehouse.gov.  If you do a control F on the page, you will see that the term "miserable failure" is not contained anywhere in the content.  Well if it's not in the content, why does Google think it's the best website for that keyword.  Well I've already answered that quetion, and the answer is OFF-SITE STRATEGY!  That shows you how powerful a backlink from a few authority websites can be!

Now let us delve a little deeper into dark world of black hat, which is where we will find more proof.

 If you have the number 1 natural listing for the term "buy viagra" on Google, you can expect to make at least $10K A DAY!  That's why it is one of the most "vertical" search terms in Google. By vertical I mean it is constantly changing everyday with a new #1 every other day or so.  This is what all the web spammers are after.  So if you do a search on Google for buy viagra you may be surprised by the results.  The #1 spot is some college student's message board page with a simple one sentence message and a link.  How would Google consider that user friendly with good content?  Well if you are starting to understand things as they really are, you will know that the content had no part in this.  If you do a check of the banklinks going to this obscure message board page, you will see it has over 1000! 

If the user friendly content was the best strategy, why would things like this happen? Well they wouldn't which is how you now know that it's not true. 

BACKLINKS ARE KING - NO IFs, ANDs, or BUTs about it!

 I'm not going to describe what these spammers did to get all those links, but here is the important thing you need to pick up on.  It wasn't just the backlinks that got it the number one position.  I'm sure there is some site that has 40K backlinks for the same term, and it doesn't even fall into the top 100. The factors involved are the QUALITY of backlinks, i.e. most of them are from blogs, and the fact that the student message board is associated with the domain name Virginia.edu, which is a very old and established domain with a PR of 8!  Virginia.edu has been an existing domain since 1995 and was probably registered earlier than that! 

So now you know a few things that Google REALLY considers important.  Yes this is blackhat and yes the methods they used were despicable, but the point is.. it made the algorithim think it was the best site in the world for that term!

My reason for telling you this, is that one day you may find that you've just done the best job you can do with regards to ON-SITE strategy, and you still have no results.  This is when you may want to put on a "grey hat".  These are tactics which aren't quite "white hat", but at the same time it can't negatively affect your site.  It doesn't hurt to throw in a text link to your site on a forum, guestbook, or blog when the opportunity is appropriate.  If your blog is not going like you think it should, it doesn't hurt to "ghost" some comments to simulate activity.  Theres a lot of little things like that you should be able to figure out and identify when the opportunity presents itself.

But David! Are you sure I can't get banned for doing things like that?

Yes, I am absolutely sure.  If Google did have some way of figuring out that links posted in a blog were put there just for the purpose of SEO (which they don't) they still would not be able to penalize you for it. Otherwise your competition would just be able to set up all kinds of sites and put links all over the web for the purpose of getting YOU penalized out of the index.  This is why OFF-SITE can NEVER hurt you, only help you.

There is nothing wrong with this, and you almost have to start thinking this way if you want to stay competitive.  Lets say you did everything you were supposed to do according to Google's guidelines, and still didn't have results in a year for the keyword (your city here) real estate. Should you just say "well I guess Google doesn't think I'm relevant for (your city here) real estate, so I should find a new profession.  NO!  What does Google actually know about (your city here) real estate anyways?  Therefore you need to "convince" Google that your site is relevant. :)

I'm a Realtor here in Charlotte, and I was really suprised to find out the CMLS policy on domain names that have an IDX feed.

The CMLS is carolinamls.com for Realtor access, and carolinahome.com for the public IDX.  The policy states that Realtor's that are members of the system, MAY NOT have an idx feed on domains that have words like MLS, Multiple Listing, etc.  This is so that people won't confuse it as the real MLS.  Well that sort of makes sense from a VERY NARROW perspective.

The CMLS owned CharlotteMLS.com for some time and it used to be the public idx site before they turned it into carolinahome.com

I'm somewhat technically inclined, and I have a few scripts running 24/7 that keep an eye out for good domains that are expiring and are related to Charlotte Real Estate.   So far I have acquired RealEstateCharlotte.com, RealEstateCharlotte.us, OwnCharlotte.com, CLTRealEstate.com, and last but not least CharlotteMLS.com

I was really suprised that the CMLS just let that one go.  I mean for an organization that is supposed to be concerned with the integrity of the name, it would seem they would at least forward it to carolinahome.com. 

So it turns out it was up for auction through Register.com.  Long story short:  I ended up winning the auction to the tune of $4500!  The person who was bidding against me, lived in the UKRAINE!  Now I don't know it for sure, but past experience tells me this: if you live in the Ukraine, and have $4500 United States Dollars to spend on a domain name called charlottemls.com... more than likely YOU ARE INVOLVED WITH INTERNET CRIME!!!!

I still felt good about the price I paid until I found out the policy I mentioned above.  I couldn't believe this.  I just saved the domain from some Russian gangster who was probably going to turn into some type of 'phishing' website (i.e.  set up a site that says people can list their home on the MLS for 50$, just punch in your credit card details) and now I can't turn it into an IDX site like I wanted.

I was going to be very careful in disclosing that this was not the actual MLS, and that only a Realtor had access to the MLS.  I was planning to explain what the IDX was, and how it should not be considered the actual MLS.

No Dice according to the CMLS board.  So for now, I just have it set up as a SEO strategy for my main site, because it is an old domain with authority.

But how does this make sense?  If I would have let the Russian gangster have it, it would be gone FOREVER! This guy could have turned it into whatever he pleased, and there would be nothing they could do about it.  Do you think this guy would have had the "integrity of the MLS" in mind?? 

The only people that the CMLS board can prevent from using the domains are the Realtors who are a member of their system.  These are the very people that the MLS is for.  So it's not okay for me to have a site that "might confuse" the average person that this was the "real" MLS, but it's completley okay for some stranger to.  I mean even if was just some national lead farming network, they could do all kinds of things that degraded the integrity of the term "MLS".

It seems to me that the way to preserve the integrity, would be to allow Realtors to buy these domains up. The board should have some standard guideline on what must be disclosed, etc, etc.  The message that the board wants to get across the general public would be conveyed on a much broader spectrum, because it's all over the web on multiple sites. 

I think what the board is trying to prevent has already happened anyways.  Everyone is familiar with the term MLS, and every IDX website has a field for the user to put in a MLS NUMBER!   Addressing this concern by putting restrictions on Realtor's is not the way to go about it.  The public needs to be educated, and the only one who would be interested in doing that is a REALTOR!  

The fear the board has is that everyone will think the MLS is a public thing, and that everyone should have free access to it. They fear that somehow this misconception will grow if Realtor's are allowed to have sites with MLS on it.

I think the fear is legit, but the solution is actually making the problem WORSE!! 

As I have stated, the current policy is basically leaving  these domains wide open for abuse by people that don't care about the MLS, Realtor's or the real estate industry in general.  As people come across these bogus MLS sites, their perception of it could be negative.  For instance, there are tons of lead farming websites that offer "Free MLS search" just input your name and email and you will get instant access. But when one does this, you are just taken to a page that tells you "someone will contact you".  That person of course would be a Realtor that purchased the lead.

So now the consumer has been tricked, and are upset they didn't get what they were looking for.  They associate that experience with the term MLS and how a Realtor called them when they didn't want to be contacted in the first place... all they wanted to do was a search.  Stuff like this can degrade the "integrity" of the name MLS a lot worse than a licensed Realtor with an IDX feed. 

And what can possibly happen with the way things are going now, is that the term MLS can become so stigmatized... that something else on the Internet comes along AND REPLACES IT!  

But hey.. at least no one ever thought they could search it for free :P

I know that is an extreme speculation, but is it really that far off considering the situation and restrictions I have described?  I don't think it is.

I am a dues paying member of the CMLS, therefore I am committed to it's integrity.  I wish the CMLS board would realize that.

Well, I would really like to hear your opinions on this. 

As I said in my last blog, I'm new here to AR. 

Reading over some other posts, and comments left on my last blog, I find there is a lot of disinformation on why people are going crazy for blogs in respect to SEO. 

I've been in the SEO game since late 2001.  I'm involved in a lot of online SEO communities, and attend at least one SEM conference a year.  To explain why blogs have become so important, I need to give a little history on a few things.

It is known that the most effective SEO campaign is developed from off-site strategy, which can be summed up as getting back links from other websites.

4 to 5 years ago, any backlink was pretty much weighed the same.  People started picking up on this, and of course developed all kinds of schemes to get these links.  This is when Google started "tuning" their algorithims to account for this.

For instance, reciprocal links was one of the big strategies that was talked about.  Therefore everyone started doing reciprocal linking for the purpose of SEO. The reason why everyone was talking about reciprocal linking back then was because Google deemed them important. Reciprocal links started out so professionals could share clients.  A plumber in Tuscon may have links on his site for a carpenter in Tuscon and a electrician in Tuscon.  Google considered this to be objective information.  Now fastforward a year or so, and everyone and their brother is starting up reciprocal link exchanges with anyone who will particpate... FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF SEO!

 Google caught on to this, and changed the algorithim so that reciprocal links were not given as much weight as a "one way" link.  Why? Because Google realized people were now setting up reciprocal links that really didn't mean anything. So they figured that one way links should be given more weight because there was obvioulsy no collusion in regards to that type of link.  For a short while, that was a true statement.

Fastforward another year or so, and now you have all kinds of Link Farms, Link Co-Ops, Text Link brokers etc etc. These are all things that people use to get more one way links for the sole purpose of SEO.  Well Google caught on to that too.  Yet it has been difficult for them to design an algorithim that is smart enough to tell what is a genuine one way link from one that has been purchased or is part of a co-op etc.  So now they just give less consideration for one way links.

Now fastforward to the present!  The people at Google got the big idea that links which people put in blogs and comments of blogs should be considered more geniuine, than a link sitting on a footer of someones e-commerce website.  This is because blogs have such a human element to them. It is considered people sharing information with one another, whereas a link on a e-commerce website was put there by its owner (probably for the purpose of SEO) So as of now, LINKS ON BLOGS ARE GIVEN THE MOST WEIGHT

So now we are in the blogging craze. And just like the last methods, EVERYONE IS NOW DOING IT FOR SEO!  You have people setting up fake blogs with fake comments, or hijacking abandoned blogs to post their links on. 

My point is that SEO is always evolving, and while blogging is now the "recommendation" of "experts", don't believe it's going to stay that way. 

Blogs have many other important uses other than SEO, but the SEO part is all I was addressing. So I'm not telling you to abandon blogging, just don't count on it as the only strategy for a good SERP rank. I'm sure everyone has heard the saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket"

I'm new to activerain, and overall I think it is a great site.

 However, I was FLOORED when I saw how many people were putting that graphic and city specific text link on their homepage for a lousy 600 points!

If you do an archive search, Active Rain was a completley different website May 2006 and wasn't even established until early 2004. They started out as a idx solution and lead capture provider. The fact that they did a major change, and aren't that old of a website are some obstacles they have in getting a decent SERP rank.

If your website is established and has considerable tenure online, you are pretty much being used! Google and other search engines take that text link as a "vote" from your site for that keyword being pertient to ActiveRain.  Considering your site is related to that keyword ("your city here" Real Estate) it gives them even more weight!  Because the links are coming from older and established sites, the search engine algorithims are willing to ignore the fact that ActiveRain is NOT! You also need to know that people are willing to pay $10-$100 a month for a text link on an established site's home page!

If you fall under this category, I suggest you remove your link and demand FAIR CONSIDERATION!

It's not fair if you have a site that Google deems as "established", and someone else has a brand new site, and you both get the same points.  If points is your thing.. thats fine.. just demand a lot more!  Your site is doing a lot for Activerain, therefore they should do something for you. What is that 600 points doing for you exactly?