Sorry to be a whiner here, but for the last month or so my website has gone from page 1 for 'toronto real estate' to page 8 or 9. Of course a lot of my business has disappeared, and I am devastated. Cannot understand that, since I have much more content than most of my competitors, and update the website regularly.
My website has always been close to, and a lot of time above, the one of my competitor: toronto-condominium-homes.com. His is now #2, after Toronto Real Estate Board, and I swear the website is way worse than mine (torontohomes-for-sale,com, #89!). Anyone can give me any advice, please? I am out of ideas... Help!

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Marisha Robinsky
Real Estate in Toronto
Toronto Homes for Sale
Roncesvalles Village Real Estate

Google has started to hit real estate sites for reciprocal links. The pattern is similar - rank on page 1 then drop anywhere from 40s to the 100s'. Not only do you have reciprocal links, you have a web ring.

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Bob

Perhaps these page might be your problem:

torontohomes-for-sale.com/4a_custpage_5466.html
torontohomes-for-sale.com/4a_custpage_1948.html
torontohomes-for-sale.com/4a_custpage_3102.html

You are aware that Google is currently seeking out Realtor website who have reciprocal link pages and paid links, and has penalized a number of sites recently *if not I suggest you read all posts in the thread below*

http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/thread15141.html

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Calgary Real Estate
Sarasota MLS
Calgary Luxury Real Estate

SD is correct. Look around for info on the 'Google 950 penalty'. It's a derank in the search results such that if you were #1 in the search results, they shove you back to the 9th page. It appears to stick around for 5 days, then they 'revaluate' you. So you have a shot once a week or so to recover, if you make the right changes.

Get rid of those recips ASAP. Some people think adding content will prevent the penalty, but it appears that is not the case. If you are relying on your site for your livelyhood it would be foolish to take a risk by keeping them.

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Lydia Taylor, Realtor & Broker

Augusta GA Real Estate | North Augusta SC Real Estate | Augusta GA Home Search

Adding content is not a solution. Marlow Harris had her www.seattledreamhomes.com hit and her pages had content with no links.

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Bob

I've never heard "5 days" for a 950 penalty. Do you have a resource?

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Thanks for all your help! I really appreciate it. Greatly.
Does that mean that I have to remove all my pages with links? Even if they are not recips? What counts now? If content doesn't count, what is the point of a website then?
So I removed all the link pages AND the web ring (is this something bad?). I still have outgoing links from the link exchange that I just did with Nick from REW - these are 5 links per page of content. Is that bad too?
Now I have to think what am I going to tell all these people that I have exchanged links with in the past... I feel awful! Not to mention I feel so stupid!

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Marisha Robinsky
Real Estate in Toronto
Toronto Homes for Sale
Roncesvalles Village Real Estate

Hi SDhomes,

I am still on the uphill part of the learning curve, What is a webring and can you give a example of it that I can look at so as not to repete the mistake in the future.

Thank you,

Jim

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James Boyer
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
Morristown, NJ 07960
973-647-0253
Serving the Real Estate markets of Morristown, Morris Township, Madison NJ Real Estate, Chatham NJ , Summit, Short Hills, Millburn, Maplewood, South Orange, & West Orange Referals happily given and accepted. For information on home sales in New Jersey please contact. Morristown NJ Real Estate Madison NJ Real Estate Chatham NJ Real Estate

I saw that mentioned on Webmaster World. They have a long thread about it on the forums. If you google for '950 penalty' you'll find it's pretty widely discussed these days.

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Lydia Taylor, Realtor & Broker

Augusta GA Real Estate | North Augusta SC Real Estate | Augusta GA Home Search

Once you clean up the problem, you then file a reinclusion request via Google's Webmaster Tools. It takes 30 days, not 5.

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Bob