Is that true that google has changed it SEO policy?

[Stephanie F]

Google has made many changes recently to the guidelines for linking and the points you made above are mostly true.

In the Google Linking Guidelines it stats that paid links do not follow the guidelines. Google's goal is to make the search results as relevant as possible for the searcher.

Google does not penalize for a few reciprocal links, however many reciprocal links may be penalized as google will see that these are not natural links.

Many directories have been stripped of their ability to pass PageRank. However, there are still directories out there that are good o be in: BOTW, DMOZ, business.com or a directory that is niche and edited by humans.

Unfortunately these new changes do have some effects for SEO's and make our job slightly harder and more tedious, but if you are doing SEO correctly you will eventually be able to build a strong linking community naturally.

The best bet advice is to follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters...swer=35769