Hi,

I have a template site with Point2Agent that was at the top of Google for a loooooooong time and suddenly I am on page 54 (and maybe even further back today) I am wondering if there are some template sites that have fairer better than others during this lastest update?

Hayley Ryan e-PROŽ, R.E.C.S REALTORŽ/Partner
Keller Williams Preferred Real Estate
Direct: 267.230.3206 ˇ Office: 267.594.8807
http://www.NortheastPhillyRealEstate.com
http://www.BucksCountyRealEstateOnline.com

The latest Google update is not over. According to Matt Cutts at G, the next two phases of the update will roll out over the next 2-3 weeks.

In the past, the second part of a G update usually involves decreasing the impact of some filters and a lite of sites pop back up (re: Feb '05 update). The third update is usually refining the results.

Now is not the time to go chasing after Goiogle SERP's if your site dropped. Yes - it sucks if you have lost traffic. But making radical changes now may do more harm than good in the long run.

Since this update is all about links, I would suspect that the reason for your drop would be that Google stopped counting the links fron the Point2 link farm or has penalized because of it.

Golf Guy and Doug-

Thanks for your insight. I am wondering if I should cut off the Point2 links? Although there are a few agents in other markets who are holding their own even with those links. The one thing I did notice was my own real estate link page went from PR3 to PR1 even though all links were with agents. I guess I will hold on and see how it sorts out. The frustration is not knowing what Google's criteria is It seemed to me that Advanced Access sites were not hit as hard..


Hayley Ryan e-PROŽ, R.E.C.S REALTORŽ/Partner
Keller Williams Preferred Real Estate
Direct: 267.230.3206 ˇ Office: 267.594.8807
http://www.NortheastPhillyRealEstate.com
http://www.BucksCountyRealEstateOnline.com

Several months ago another agent posted in the forum with the same problem. At that time I had checked and her site had lost all PR and so had all of those who were her Point2 link partners - all the sites had gone PR0. At that time there were also a lot of other Point2 sites that were also participating in the links scheme (but were not linked to her site) that were not penalized - so it sort of looked like the penalty was applied manually after someone had reported one of the participants to Google.

This may be the same or they may now have finally implemented their long-awaited "filter" to automatically catch the type of non-reciprocal schemes used by Point2. Google has been warning for some time that all link schemes are at risk.

Advanced Access sites do not use a scheme that links other AA sites together in the way Point2 does - and even if they did Google would never know as their links pages are usually not listed in Google anyway.

Ok so I have no clue what a "link scheme" is..
Can I toss a penny in for help!!??!?!

There are different types of link schemes but in general if a large group of sites agrees to trade links with each other (as a way of everyone getting tons of links all at once) it will likely get you in trouble. Some Realtors and website providers for example all have identical links back and forth - in some cases hundreds of them.

The point2 issue above is a bit different - in that case they try and disguise the fact that it is a link scheme by having different links on each site but since they are all point2 sites it can readily be identified as a link scheme by Google.

Other links schemes are services offering organized exchanges - Linkstoyou etc.

So all I have been doing as I designed my page is make sure my meta tages were in there, this shared links thing soundslike it could backfire,
I am gonna read up on it before I decide,

thanks for the info doug,

My website http://www.maureenmegowan.com is an Advanced Access site with a huge amount of unique original content, and I have been enjoying great placement in Google searchs for a large amount of key words. In the last week, however, my placement, which had been page one on search results, often the first listing, has dropped significantly, often to page 4 and below.I have a large number of reciprocal links to my site. My site has a Google Page Rank of 4, and has been in existence for a year. I can't figure out why Google has suddenly changed my search results so dramatically. I am constantly adding and changing content, so I don't think that is the problem. Any other Advanced Access sites see a similar problem recently?