Agent to Agent Reciprocal Links & the Search Engines

In the past few weeks, Google implemented penalties on Real Estate websites that are still doing Agent to Agent linking, or have spammy reciprocal links within their website. With Yahoo previously taking their stance on agent to agent linking networks and now Google, it is imperative that you remove any agent to agent links you have whether they are in 'state' pages, favorite links pages, or other generic custom made pages that you have created. Some of our Advanced Access clients have been affected by Google's changes as have other sites in the real estate sphere. Google has been cracking down on spam in the real estate industry and it may not stop anytime soon. This is the time to analyze your website and the links you have and make changes for the better.

Analyzing the inbound and outbound links is what Google does best. Google can tell what percentage of your links are reciprocal, as well as how many one-way links you have coming from authoritative (quality) websites, or what links might be from bad neighborhood sites (Casino or Viagra sites, for example). Google has been analyzing this behavior for years and they are only getting better at it.

One of the most important changes is the way your inbound and outbound links affect your reputation in Google. The past few years have seen many link schemes created in an attempt to fool Google into thinking a particular site is an authority with many valuable incoming links. Those days are now over. If your website has one or many pages that consist of nothing but a long list of links to other websites for search engine gain, then it is time to pay attention. Please note that those links are not helping you.

What is an inlink or inbound link? (Also known as a 'backlink')

This means there is a link on another website on the Internet linking to your website.

What is an outlink or outbound link?

This means there is a link on your website that links to another website on the Internet.

Quality inbound links have never been more important. Getting quality inbound links from sites that contain excellent content is still essential. Notice how we keep emphasizing 'Quality'? Find out how to acquire quality inbound links from local community resources, on a past Marketing Tip. It may be time for you to rethink what 'Quality' means. Do you like the site from which you are attempting to get an inbound link? Would you want your family to visit the site? Is it relevant to your neighborhood or business? Does it have good information, is it designed well, and are there any links to 'bad neighborhoods'? If you are attempting to link with sites purely for any search engine worth, stop now! The better inbound links you have, the more Google will explore your site, index your pages, and rank you accordingly. It's not enough to simply have links pointing to your homepage. If you have other interior pages within your website that are very important, you may want to make sure people are linking to them as well to make sure Google, and other search engines, will explore your website to the fullest potential.

Outbound links are also important to monitor as well. Once you create links on your site to other sites on the Internet, do you check them out to see if they still work? Have you ever checked them? It is common for websites to be created on domain names, only to have a domain name expire and be snatched up by unsavory individuals who put sites up because of current links pointing to it to obtain traffic for AdSense or other commissionable links to make money. Yes, sometimes these sites may be extremely unsavory and you are still linking to them. Google will hold you responsible for linking to these 'bad neighborhoods'. They do this by associating your website pages with these bad neighborhoods and also consider your own pages as such, and may not index them in their search engine or simply not value them according to their worth. Also, any users visiting your website might click upon them and be offended that they were drawn to them from your website.

Being penalized by Google for excessive and/or spammy reciprocal linking can take affect in several different ways. One of the most common ways, and what we have seen, is the -30 effect where your website is immediately dropped 30 ranking points. If you have experienced loss of rankings within Google and you have questionable spammy reciprocal links (especially Realtor to Realtor linking), you may be penalized. If you do believe you have been penalized, you will need to follow the Google reinclusion instructions after your site is cleaned up. We have detailed instructions in our Advanced Access Forums if you need help or want to ask questions. You can also call our Customer Service Department at (866) 518-1571.

Where do you go from here?

You should concentrate your efforts on creating community content on the areas you specialize in. By creating such content, adding 'hot listings' to the page, links to available listings on the market, helpful contact forms for your users to fill out, you will gain valuable leads. Also, links will still be important for bringing in targeted traffic. You will need to still work on inbound links but from quality sources.

We also encourage you to visit our Advanced Access Member Forums. Our forums can get very technical on these details and help you make the most of your online presence.

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Advanced Access
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