I wrote a blog post recently about being penalized by Google for having state pages with excessive reciprocal links with other Realtors.  You can read more about it here: part 1 & part 2.

The good news is that I came out of the penalty box today and looks as though I came back where I left off.  I rank # 1 in Google for "Sarasota real estate" and bunch of other phrases.  The 60 day mark is July 9th as I was penalized May 9th.

Be careful with the useless reciprocal linking with each other. Matt Cutts of Google is very clear in this interview (forward to the 5:30 mark in the 2nd interview) that they do not like excessive reciprocal linking. If you have state pages and/or excessive reciprocal links with numerous Realtors around the country there is a possibility that you will be penalized. A penalty can be devastating if you get any business from ranking well in Google.

Lessons Learned:

• Don't try to game the Google search engine. They will eventually figure you out.
• Don't trade links with hundreds of Realtors around the country. Build links only for the benefit of your users, not your search engine rankings.
• Build a site with tons of unique content, provide lots of value to visitors and eventually links will come with time.
• Google isn't perfect.
• If you rely on Google search results to feed you and your family you better have some money stashed away in the event you get penalized.
• If you do make money off the web keep at least one eye on what is happening in the search engine world to stay competitive.
• I rank fairly well in MSN and really don't get that much traffic from it.
• Ranking very well in Google will bring tons of traffic to your website.
• Being penalized by Google sucks.