tedster - 8:18 pm on Oct 4, 2008 (gmt 0)

If you read through this thread and the other monthly threads about Google SERP changes, you'll see that there certainly is no guarantee - so saying "maybe" is exactly the right attititude for you to take. Some people say you're not really doing SEO until you wrestle with an unexpected penalty.

There are so many existing parts to the ranking algo and they are all in motion, getting their relative weights changed, their maths and thresholds tweaked... to say nothing of the occasional appearance of what seems to be something brand new. And the shifts seem to come almost daily, if you watch enough different markets at least.

When hundreds of engineers create a complex and shigting algorithm, the individual or small group never hope to perfectly reverse engineer what's going on. So we're fortunate to have each other to discuss things with, to share what we see or thinh we see.

This thread is a good place for educated guesses - that's what I'm saying most of all. No one should need to wait until they are 100% sure about their idea, because most of the time, that day will never come.