Home : Blogs : Ryan Ward : Atlanta Real Estate Blog

My Google Penalty is Finaly Over!

Wow! 60 days ago I was penalized by Google for reciprocal linking and I wasn't even a serious offender. At most I had about 100 reciprocal links. I went from #3 for the search term "atlanta real estate" to the 5th page. Needless to say, the phone calls stopped and the listing inquiries stopped coming in. I was not the only one who had this penalty imposed. Some (like the Advanced Access websites) had 30 day penalties. Others, like mine, who have a Real Estate Webmasters site had penalties that lasted between 1 week and 60 days. Some still have the penalty. Much has been written recently on this subject and even Matt Cutts responded saying that most of the penalties would be between 30 and 60 days.

Do you still have reciprocal links with other real estate agents that are helping you increase your search engine results? Do you think that they are justifiable based on referral business?

Google doesn't believe you. In fact, there is no reason to think that Google will stop with these websites that were hit. The second penalty for the REW websites was longer than the Advanced Access penalty. If there is another round of penalties levied, it will likely be even more severe. Google doesn't like their search results manipulated and if you have reciprocal links with other REALTORS, that's the way Google see's it.

What should you do? That's completely up to you. If you leave your links up, you run a risk of a severe penalty. Everyones risk tolerance is different. If you leave them up, you run the risk of being reported to Google by envious real estate agents who don't have search results as high as you. If you are penalized, you will lose al of your internet business. Is that worth the risk?

I removed all of my reciprocal links from my Atlanta Real Estate website. You should too.

Posted by Ryan Ward on 07/08/2007 07:17 AM

Comments (21)

google penalty, reciprocal links, real estate, atlanta real estate

21 Comments on My Google Penalty is Finaly Over!

JUL

2007

I removed all of my reciprocal links a while back. I'm still trying to climb up the pages of google for certain terms, I certainly don't need to be shoved down any further.

Thanks for the heads up on this. Those of you who have been ahead of the game set the stage for we newbies. I see so many of these links in various blogs and see that alot of people can be harmed by this. thanks for the information.

I've been harping, yes harping, about the danger of reciprocal links for 10 years. I'm considered a crank, an incompetent, and worse.

All I could say was, "one of these days". Looks like the "days" are getting here.

Your page is #4 for "atlanta real estate" and you've got a PR5 rank. What more could anyone want??

Good job

I took mine down over a year ago and notified every agent on my list that I was doing so. Were all your links to other REW websites? That could have been the trigger.

Forgive my naive question, but were you officially notified (i.e. email) that you were penalized? How does one learn that they have been penalized by google? Thanks.

Leon,

You will not be notified. It will happen and there isn't anything you can really do about it. There are different types of penalties. The one I had took me from the first age to the 4-7 page for EVERY term. This is the same one that the AA and all of the REW sites had.

Lenn,

I did those links the first week I had my website and forgot about them. When the AA sites were penalized April 15th, I removed them, but, it was too late for me.

Greg,

They were not all REW websites. They were just real estate agents from arounf the country.

Todd,

You may have a god webmaster for some things, but, he ABSOLUTELY does not know what he is talking about if he thinks that this is bunk. It is very well documented and Matt Cutts himself has spoken about the penalties. What he said was that some people felt that a 30 or 60 day penalty is too tough and others thought it wasn't tough enough.

Ryan - You can get calls from your website? Interesting. I've had a website for 2.5 years and believe I do a fairly decent job of keeping it out to day, providing some valuable information (admittedly, I don't do it all -- iHouse does 75% of it for me), but in all of that time, I've only had one contact from my website.

Now some of my other Internet efforts, that's a whole 'nother story. People like to know that you genuinely care. I'm currently giving a lot more to the community than is coming back. Maybe that is the way it will be until I die; I truely don't know. What I do know, however, is that I work on my marketing efforts with a much more hi-touch, lo-tech approach. That seems to work fairly well for me, but then I'm not looking to be a stellar producer just yet.

I'm still learning constantly and trying to make every transaction a good one. I'm working heavily with WOM and networking, so my Internet presence -- well, my website came up #2 on Live.com yesterday, but I'm sure that was a fluke. I don't know why that happened. I was searching for "des moines real estate investment". Whether I'm there or on the 10th page doesn't matter that much to me. That's probably a huge mistake but I'm not going to spend a lot of effort worrying about it. If it happens, it happens.

Is this "stinkin' thinkin'"? Should I be working for SEO? I really don't know? All of my Internet leads have never panned out. What has been your experience with these leads you're getting?

I still get email requests for reciprocal links and wonder what these people are thinking.

Andrew,

Not only can you get calls and emails, but, if your website is designed for consumers first you WILL close transactions, provided you are on the first page for your key terms. Just today I have received two phone calls, but, there is something that happens over time because people begin to look online and many will not bookmark your website, they will come back over and over because they are googling the same terms and recognize your site. Take a look at my Alpharetta real estate webpage. I have tried to provide an easy to use and easy to navigate website that provides information, but, hopefully results in a contact submission form or an email or a phone call.

It works

JUL

2007

My real estate site didnt get penalized and I have been reciprocal linking for years. So whats the difference? I link to sites in my local demographic.. I avoid linking with every real estate agent on the planet. Also, I use linksmanager which affords me the ability to decide who I will and will not link to.. I get a few links every week.. and link out to a few new sites every week. by keeping my volume low and natural, I have no penalities and receive good traffic from the links themselves.

by removing recip links, you risk longer term lower rankings because the serps are still affected (in part) by link popularity. avoid the services and softwares that force you to link with other sites in high volume and use something like linksmanager which helps you make linking decisions based on what is best for your users.

Steve,

You should read Google's webmaster guidelines. It clearly states that manipulating search rankings is against their terms of service. You are cearly manipulating the rankings. You can continue to game the system if you wish, however, you have been warned. One day, when your website is at the bottom of the heap and all you have is a bunch of worthless reciprocal links, you will wish that you were more proactive.

I have 0 count them, 0 reciprocal links and I rank #4 for "atlanta real estate" of which there are 20 million search results returned. If you think reciprocal links are the answer - go for it! I am telling you, not suggesting (and providing proof with my website), that you do not need reciprocal links to rank well! If someone reports your website as spam, you could be gone for a long time from the rankings.

Don't ever say that you didn't know...

JUL

2007

Steve,

What I have seen with linksmanager is that they keep the links from your site on their server so in effect you are getting one way links from your reciprocal partners and in return they get nothing. Is this how you use linksmanager? I could not find your website.

JUL

2007

Some real estate webmasters replaced "Linkexchange page" with "Real Estate Referral Directory" or "Relocation Resources". Is this a right strategy? or from GOOGLE's point of view remains a manipulating of search rankings. What do you think?

Arina,

I think the better question here is: Does changing what you call it mean that it changes the intended purpose? If the answer is that you are trying to increase rankings with reciprocal links, then you could be subject to the same penalty...