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Matt Cutts of Google Penalizing Real Estate Websites - Part 2

By Marc Rasmussen

Real Estate Agent with DWELL Real Estate

June 22, 2007 11:41 PM

I recently wrote a post about how Google is targeting and penalizing Realtor websites for excessive reciprocal linking. You can read about it here.

Executive summary:

Google gives more weight to websites that have good inbound links
However, Google does not like link schemes designed to increase a site's ranking - reciprocal linking with hundreds of Realtors across the country
Matt Cutts heads up the Google web spam team and enforces the Google webmaster guidelines
Matt Cutts has mentioned in the past that he does not like the excessive reciprocal linking that Realtors engage in to pump up their results.
I have a website focusing on real estate in Sarasota, Florida
Advanced Access (AA) is a very large Realtor website provider
AA hired Greg Boser, webguerilla.com, to consult with AA customers about a Yahoo problem
Greg Boser instructed AA customers to delete state pages containing reciprocal links
In April 15th, 2007 Google penalized numerous AA websites.
Many of the penalized sites were the people who were most active in the real estate forums
There is speculation that Google is trying to spread the word about reciprocal linking in the real estate community by penalizing the loudest Realtors.
Advanced Access sites come back after 35 days or so.
Greg Boser, webguerilla.com, started to become active in the Real Estate Webmasters forum on April 27th.
May 9th, 2007 Google penalizes numerous Real Estate Webmasters websites
Many speculate that Greg Boser had something to do with the penalties.
I was one of those sites. I had deleted my state pages and reciprocal links around May 4th. So I cleaned up my infractions prior to being penalized.
45 days later and almost all of the Real Estate Webmaster sites are still penalized.
Numerous lessons learned

New Information:

This morning I was emailed some information from one of the penalized websites. He was reviewing his Google analytics and noticed the following visitors to his website:

April 17th - Greg Boser, webguerilla.com
April 18th - Greg Boser, webguerilla.com
April 20th - Google
April 20th - Greg Boser, webguerilla.com
April 24th - Google
April 30th - Advanced Access
May 1st - Advanced Access
May 3rd - Google
May 9th (the day the Google penalty started) - Greg Boser, webguerilla.com
May 11th - Greg Boser, webguerilla.com

Now, I know why people speculate that Greg Boser had something to do with the recent Google penalties. The agent saved a screen shot of the above information.

Sarasota FL Real Estate

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Laurie Manny

Long Beach CA Real Estate - Long Beach, CA

Marc,

I am a premium package member of Advanced Access. I did not participate in the link farm they promoted, my state pages were empty. I was penalized anyway. The Yahoo punishment is still in effect now, 2 years later. Advanced Access has no idea how to fix the problem, heck they can't even get their existing customers onto their new 2.0 system.

Advanced Access was once one of the best in the business. They no longer are. Whether it is this guy Greg manipulating the system or just their inadequacies, I have finally had enough.

I am no longer interested in hearing the lame excuses that are put forward by a company that is run so inefficiently that they cannot control their own fate.

I am moving my website to a safer place.

Jun 23, 2007 12:13 AM

Linda Reynolds

Bradenton Real Estate - Linda Reynolds - Bradenton, FL

Bradenton Real Estate

Wow I never had an Avanced Access website but always heard good things about it. I use a different provider who I won't mention here because I don't want them tied to the keywords here. I am very happy with them and from what I know, am not being penalized for linking.

Jun 23, 2007 12:35 AM

Marc Rasmussen

DWELL Real Estate - Sarasota, FL

Sarasota Real Estate

Hi Linda,

Your website provider is at the bottom of your website.

Jun 23, 2007 12:37 AM

Paul Moye

Benchmark Realty - Franklin, TN

Broker, GRI, SRES

Is Greg Boser a real person? Sounds to me that he is creating an industry for himself. Keep us posted. I left AA over a year ago for what seems to be this issue

Jun 23, 2007 01:39 AM

Yes, he is a real person. Probably a wise idea to leave. I left awhile ago but heard the company sold and they have had some real problems.

Jun 23, 2007 01:49 AM

New Jersey Real Estate James Boyer Morris, Essex & Union County NJ Realtor

RE/MAX Properties Unlimited, Real Estate - Morristown, NJ

Marc, Good Post, I guess the question now is, what are you and others going to do about this. It seems obvious that google is not in the mood to remove the penalties.

Jun 23, 2007 02:30 AM

Not sure yet. I may move my site to another domain name that I own.

Jun 23, 2007 08:50 AM

Anonymous

Steve Kuss

It does seem that Greg Boser was somehow involved in all of this. But the damage has already been done. At this time everyone needs to get on Matt Cutt's blog and join in the discussion going on there. This blog and Active Rain are ok forums, but let's be honest they probably aren't going to get noticed like a post on Matt Cutt's blog will. If you want attention this is the way to go about doing it. What is the worst that can happen? He'll ban your site? For all intents and purposes your site is already banned. If your own name search in Google doesn't show your site until the 6th page you are buried anyways. You might not realize it yet but you should – war has been declared upon you and your sites. Sitting around doing nothing will not help you. Fight back. None of you who have been penalized have anything to lose by pointing this nonsense out and trying to demand answers. It looks as if Google isn’t going to let REW sites back in anytime soon. Sure two sites did get back in, but that seems more like a fluke to me. Those sites appear to have gotten lucky because of the engineer that came across their reinclusion requests actually acted upon them. If you do nothing with the hope that somehow Google will magically let you back into the index you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Go read the minus 30 penalty page at Webmaster World. There are sites on there that have been waiting over 1 year to get back in – after numerous reinclusion requests. Advanced Access sites got back in around the 30-40 day mark because they had this Greg Boser character working on their behalf. There is no definitive proof but it certainly appears that he was somehow involved with this REW ban. At the very least it looks as if he has some serious juice inside of Google. No one at REW is working on your behalf to get your sites reincluded. You have nothing to lose by speaking up for yourselves. Your sites were hand picked for this penalty while your competitors continue to get away with it. That is not right. No one has anything to lose. Only good things can happen by speaking out. It looks as if only three Realtors are posting on Matt Cutt’s blog. Are those the only three Realtors willing to stand up for themselves? Does everyone else really believe that silence will help their sites be reincluded?

Jun 24, 2007 11:23 AM

Matt Cutts of Google Penalizing Real Estate Websites - Part 2

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