Who sent the email, I have not heard of this, so I tend to think it is just anotehr rumor email. Unless it is froma reliable source, I don;t believe it.
It seems that this may be true. I did some more reading and found that some of the better ranked real estate sites in major markets got penalized and were told by Google to remove the reciprical links from their sites. Not sure if it is completely true.
Have a look on your own! Search on Google "google reciprocal linking" #2 The Google directory with a list of reciprocal link directories listed in order of PR. I think this discussion can be closed; at least until the content of the directory page will dissapear. google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Promotion/Link_Popularity/Reciprocal_Links/
It may be true, maybe a rumor or just plain myth. It would help if you: 1. Search for related terms on news sites 2. Look at Google or Yahoo official blogs 3. Read reliable sources like Search Engine Watch or Search Engine Land
Move that to spam. Its not possible or Google will ruin themselves. Almost 99.9% pages on google are with reciprocal links
Google has said numerous times, they will not hand edit the index but rather modify the algo to prevent problematic Black Hat techniques from working. Considering the Real Estate area is quite competative, i'd say it's someone is trying to scare competitors from recip linking and boosting their rankings so they themselves will have a stronger website.
If that mail comes from somebody without support from links or article or whatever. I don't believe that googles deleting reciprocal links??? How could that be true?
The quality of links that you are getting still the link building process is good from the linking point of view i have seen a lot of websites that are doin well with Reciprocal link building process....
Yeah, I also don't believe that reciprocal help in creating more IBL. Just choose a quality to link with.
Don't take the google directory as a source on this. That's just a copy of the ODP directory (www.dmoz.org) - and that just means at some point over the last 10 years or so someone thought it was a good idea to create that subcategory. Reciprocal linking with just anybody has been a depreciated practice for years. BUT a good themed directory of links that happen to be reciprocal is a different story. I'd be surprised if those links are totally discounted. But they may weigh less then they used to, that's for sure.