Have you noticed your real estate site rankings for various key word phrases have taken a drop? Actually, in some cases, sites on page one of Google are now nowhere to be found within the first 10 pages of returned results. Wondering what changed?

In late October Google made another, in a series of continuing modifications, to its ranking algorithm. Google's algorithm has always judged the quality of a website by the number of other sites linking to it. From my own observation (by running 29 real estate and legal websites), it would seem the main thrust of this most recent change is to devalue reciprocal links.

Links, especially quality links, have always been a heavily weighted factor in Google's ranking formula. Unfortunately, in recent years, website owners and designers, looking for instant gratification, have abused the concept to such an extent that in many cases their practices are looked upon as link spamming.

Regrettably, many real estate sites are major participants in the link abuse phenomenon. Link farms, link rings, free-for-all-links, exchange portals, etc., are basically offering hundreds (or thousands) of links for their members. Also, individual sites offering to trade links have little or no regard for the quality of the link, as it is the quantity of links they want. It is quite common to see real estate sites with link directories with 50 or more links per page with no regard for characterization or theme. Perhaps the worst of these practices is the tiny text links listed on the bottom of home pages.

So, what should one do to regain or maintain your site's standings on Google in the face of this new change? First, understand that incoming links are still advantageous and are considered in Google's ranking algorithm; just not as much as they originally were. Plus, what Google considers 'link spamming' will now have a major impact on your site's standings. Below are a few suggestions you may wish to consider:

1. If you have reciprocal links jumbled up anywhere on your site, either straighten them out for easy navigation by visitors, or remove all of them. There are a number of software programs that can automate this process for you. If anyone would like some suggestions, just email me.

2. If you have more than 20 links per directory page, add more pages to keep the maximum number of partner links to 20.

3. Any links that are to non-themed sites should be removed at once! You're running a real estate site and all your links should be real estate related.

4. Do not trade links with any sites that are not already listed in Google.

5. Be sure you have a hyper-link on your home page to your link directory and each page of your link directory is hyper-linked to other directory pages. An additional tip here is don't use the word 'link' in your hyperlink to your directory. It would be far better to use a phrase like: 'real estate partners' for these links.

6. Check which sites are linking to your site and any undesirable ones should receive a form email requesting that they please drop their link to your site. To see some of the sites that link to yours through Google (who for some reason, does not show all incoming links), go to Google and in their search box type in: link:www.yourwebsite.com

7. If you are a member of any type of link exchange -- cancel your membership.

Naturally, some of my suggestions above are tough and you may disagree with them. After all, Google, or any search engine for that matter, never spells out details of what their algorithm looks for, or exactly what each revision to it encompasses. So, the search engine optimization professionals have to use their acquired experience and judgment to advise their clients. Search engine optimization is far from an exact science. So what you have here are my personal, professional opinions of one factor of this latest Google change. If your site has dropped off the Google radar, you can do nothing, or try to improve your standings and possible new business, by playing by the rules. The choice is yours. Choose wisely!

Bob Schwartz is a Certified Residential Specialist, broker with downtown San Diego real estate & co-owner of an Internet search engine optimization firm specializing in domain name registration and Internet domain website hosting. Bob received his BBA majoring in computer programming. Bob is an expert witness for major San Diego law firms, has served on the Consumer Affairs Community of the San Diego Association of Realtors, past president of a local HOA, co-owner of a condominium management Co. and directs a multi-state high traffic network of legal directory sites. Bob can be contacted at bob@websitetrafficbuilders.com.

Published: November 29, 2005

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