The Smackdown blog by Michael Vandemar mentions that Matt Cutts had made some statements regarding the operations at Google with regards to how it approaches SEO and these suggested changes are finally a reality.

First, you no longer need to admit guilt in order to submit a reinclusion request. And secondly, the SEO business needs not to require a money-back guarantee.

The wording in the Google Help document has changed from:

For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee. Don’t be afraid to request a refund if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, or if your SEO’s actions cause your domain to be removed from a search engine’s index.

to:

Don't be afraid to request a refund if you're unsatisfied with your SEO's performance.

The discussion moves to Sphinn where Danny Sullivan says that it may have something to do with Google's acquisition of Performics, the SEO firm that is owned by DoubleClick. But he says:

To reiterate, Google does NOT own Performics yet. But they've given no indication that they will split off the company. And they really should.

Michael Vandemar also points out that Performics uses Text Link Ads to boost their rankings. Problem? Well, don't you know of the paid links PageRank massacre?

As Danny responds:

And yep, it underscores what an issue this is going to be for both Google and Performics, if they indeed merge. Google's going to have to worry about everything Performics does; Performics will have to be hypersensitive that they don't somehow violate a Google guideline.

I think this could be very iffy territory. But it's good that at least there's a little more support to SEO firms as Matt promised.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

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