SEO Site Linking

Everyone knows that other sites that link to your site helps in the SEO process. Everyone should also know that reputable sites will help you while some other sites will actually hurt you. How do know differentiate between these two types of site though???

I look at it this way.
My site is for a bookstore that sell collectable Sci fi, mystery and horror. I have had the owner find the links she thinks will serve her best. Authors, other specialty bookstores (with good reputations both on and off the web, publishers, and a few, very few fan groups.) What is showed was she selected who would want to use her site and the other sites they might want to visit related to the reason (collectable books) that brought them to her site. Logic and common sense was what she told me.

Your talking about link building campaign for a site. Actually, I would set aside the "reputation" of the site first before considering the site that is suitable for link exchange. I would say, reputation is the second and optional requirement. The first to consider should be the relativeness of your two sites. The reason for this is because links pointing to your site is like a vote for higher PR or status, thus, should be related to each other. SE are very particular about links, so it is also advisable to avoid link farms. Link building is not about quantity, it's about quality.

My two cents worth...

That's a common misconception.

Search Engines understand you cannot control who links to you so you will not be penalized. All that happens when your site is linked to from a bad neighbourhood is that the link probably carries no weight what-so-ever.

The only way you can get into trouble is if you link back.

Spinal007

I hate this ranking system that forums put in as often the correct answer is ignored because a more authority poster disagree's. ArdRigh posted a very good answer to this question but was disregarded and your answer I am afraid was totally incorrect in just about everything you said. You should read again ArdRigh and post with some more thought.

People are allowed to have differing views. No-one is disregarding anything as far as I'm aware. What makes this forum a good one is the fact that there are so many different people with different opinions.

Pete.

Yes I agree. The problem is new users look at the status of the member in evaluating the comments. ArdRigh post was not perfect but it was pretty bloody good. Spinal007 was an appalling post. A user ignorant to SERPS may have assumed the opposite.

Keniki,

That's crazy. We don't work that way. Everyone's opinion is just as important.
It was not disregarded. I did not say it was incorrect. I agree with every point in ArdRigh's answer.
My reply was aimed at the original question:
Perhaps I should have been clearer about that.

I appreciate your input. Can you please elaborate? There's no point saying something is incorrect without explaining your reasons... Nobody will benefit from that.

Finally...

Like you said, everyone is entitled to their views. In my previous post, I presented my views regarding the question at hand, nothing to do with what another member had said.

My rank is merely an indication of my role within the forum. It does not in any way, shape or form imply that my opinions are more worthy than that of another member. It was however given to me as an acknowledgement of my outstanding contribution and expertise brought to this forum over the years. Just as it was given to all other staff members.

Having a rank doesn't mean we're always right, but it means we've proven to have enough expertise/experience in a certain field to make valuable contributions in a related forum. SEO is one of my areas of expertise and I would not express my opinions so strongly if I didn't have enough reason to back my argument.

Thanks for your helpful input, spinal007. I think there is just a little misunderstanding here (between the points of you and Keniki). I understand that you are not aiming at my post, rather, to the original question. But you should have quoted the question so as to make your post more clearer.

Peace guys! This is just a sign that this forum is interactive and a good source of ideas. Let's keep it up!

hi spinal 007
Yes a good forum works by everyone sharing idea's. I realise I did not fully explain why I felt you were incorrect.

A large amount of inbound links from bad neighbourhoods can indeed damage your site its called "Google Bowling".

Thanks for explaining the ranking system. Sorry I was a little hard on you there mate

Indeed, like I said, I could have been clearer about what I was referring to and it would have avoided any confusion.

I'm not a believer of "Google Bowling". Reason I'm using the word believer is because as far as I'm aware it's still only a theory. A handful of SEO companies have been spreading rumours just to gain a little publicity.

On the other hand, I have just found this website:
which suggests there are quite a few people out there who "believe" this theory to be true. However, if you carry on reading right to the end of the page, you will see this:
In the words of Google geeks themselves, there's almost nothing someone can do to harm your ranking.

I know you're all going to pick on the word 'almost' so I'll present the other side of the argument, from this website:
Finally, my view on the issue:
Should search engines do negative weighting for links?
NO because you cannot control who links to your website.

Does Google penalize for links from bad neighbourhoods?
I searched and found more information to support my opinion on the matter:
http://seo.seocompany.ca/are-you-in-...-neighborhood/
http://www.idealinternet.co.uk/google_sandbox.tpl
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3122835.htm
http://pr.efactory.de/e-pr0.shtml
Basically, you are only seen to have a connection with a website when you link to it. Only the outgoing links on your website can harm your rankings.

That's my bit...

I'm no pro with SEO, but from what I've read about it and experienced it (I had a domain with a ton of spammy query strings added onto the domain and somehow portions of the content a while ago), it still didn't hurt my rankings. Admittedly, I did a 301 redirect a month or so after seeing what was going on, but my rankings went nothing but up even though the random query strings still showed up in google for a site: search a good 3 months later.

Anyway, to tie this up, Google didn't penalize me in the slightest for sites linking to me in spammish ways. I doubt those "bad neighborhoods" are any different than keyword rich query strings. At any rate, it was highly annoying seeing a million travel, Viagra, work and adult links pointing to "site:nepharius.com"

Well, spinal posted before I finished typing up my little anecdote, but he said it well. If someone could harm another's rankings, I highly doubt Googles vast amount of accurate results would stand as they do. Google's search results are absolutely amazing considering the number of sites on the net, and I believe the algorithms they use are positively fair.

Positively being the keyword. I agree... I was jst presenting both sides of the argument so I didn't come across as being biased (which I am, Google reign, long live Google!)

spinal007 doesn't matter if you believe in google bowling,scrapers,hijackers and proxy servers are stuffing up your site or not. They do it anyway. In mean time a competitor site is promoted through "seo sith". By the way google have ammended the line about there is nothing a competitor can do to damage your site. They did that about 18 months ago.

"There’s almost"

as in:

"almost the best web site in the world"

"almost top of your category"

"almost not scraped, hijacked and duplicated content via proxy servers............as well as beeing google bowled"

Anyway thats it for me on forum. I wish you luck.

I'm saying I don't believe it because it's only a theory, it has not been proved or confirmed by Google. It's an idea that might work, in theory.

Anyway, I don't think any of our members runs a business with competition fierce enough that might actually resort to these black-hat techniques. I think it was great of you to include 'Google Bowling' in this topic... we should all be aware of what it might be....

Hm, I really know nothing on the Google Bowling subject, but if you're aware of it, Google obviously is. I'd like to think I'm not blind lover of Google, but as I said earlier: as good as their results are, I'm sure they've put a stop to anything we think we're aware of that could increase a site's ranking inappropriately (especially an issue one month ago, let alone 18).

This has been a great thread guys and is extremely informative. Based on my experience and again this is my personal view. Overdoing links to a site with the same keyword can indeed get your links down in serps (I believe this is a spam filter), eventually the site will return to its position after a few months. This has happened to me when I did way too much SEO on one of my sites but its slowly climbing back to its previous rankings.