Official Document

[Agnafl]

Can anyone give me a link to an official document or statement that has been made by Google regarding the reciprocal link state pages and the SPAM that they are being considered as. I know I could probably find it somewhere in the forum if I had the time to look through all the posts, but I don't. I would really love to be able to put what is now an escalating arguement to bed with a "In your face!" article, statement, TOS regarding the SPAM.

Thanks

Matt

[JimOlenbush]

I don't think we ever get any official documents, but there was that video where Matt Cutts talked about the Realtor sites abusing reciprocal links and the recent penalties.

http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/thread16198.html

[SEO Nick]

As far as I know, there is no such thing other than the Google Guidelines... which are still pretty cryptic.. if you're looking for in your face answers.

[Homesurfer]

There is no official Google document about this, as far as I know. There is the SEOmoz interview. There have been several statements by Matt on panels that referred specifically to real estate, some asked by agents, most of which were attended by agents and web folks that specialize in the real estate portion of the web. There have been informal discussions with Google folks at various parties, also specifically about real estate linking policies.

Most of that has been reported on the web in various blogs and forums, but much of it got drowned out in the incredible "link to me, link to me!" madness.

The problem is still the same. LinkSpam works. Google doesn't like it, lots of people do it, only some get punished. My suggestion is to plan SEO around a strategy that doesn't include peer-to-peer linking and is still successful. That way if the algorithm hammer ever does fall, you won't get smashed like a bug.

[Agnafl]

Thanks guys,

Jim - That 2nd video was pretty cut and dry. Thanks.

Terry - I know what you mean about the link 2 me madness. The company that I purchased my site from has a forum that is littered with riciprocal link requests from hundreds of real estate agents that are VERY unaware of Google Webmaster Guidelines and for the most part they are just doing what they have been told to do. Many sites provide a small, basic tutorial on what to do now that you have your website. Referral links or backlinks is one of the topics that is discussed in many of these memos/introductions. I will never (never is pretty strong, 99% of the time) use ignorance as an excuse for violating the rules, TOS, and most importantly the law, but the consumers (mainly realtors) are being set up for failure by many of these companies that you can buy template sites from. It is disturbing to me how many people are out there that just don't know. It wasn't very long ago that I was one of them. Luckily I was shown the light by a member here in the forum and now I am trying to pay it forward with a friend of mine that is well on her way to a great SPAMMY site.

Thanks again.

Matt

[JimOlenbush]

Jim - That 2nd video was pretty cut and dry. Thanks.

I was always somewhat skeptical of everyone rushing to change things on their sites, because it has happened in past and turned out to be a false alarm. But seeing Matt Cutts talk specifically about penalizing real estate sites in that second video was a real eye opener for me. I thought it was pretty cut and dry too.

I never thought our small, local real estate sites mattered that much to Google. I thought they spent their days fighting Viagra spammers and worldwide stuff, not small time "city real estate" people like us.

[SEO Nick]

Aye, but the real estate website industry has become a massive juggernaut. RE sites are everywhere.