Thanks Chris. I thought you might like this conversation and I was wondering where you were.

Find any site online with a few hundred pages and there are going to be broken links. Pages change URLs all the time or disappear completely. For those who have been paying attention there's been talk lately that the Yahoo/Overture keyword tool is going to go away. For now it's still there and the plans are for Yahoo to eventually put out what they say will be an improved tool.

The current tool sits on the overture domain and I would think the new one would be on the Yahoo domain. So everyone who's linking to the current tool will in a few months at most have broken links. And there are a lot of links pointing to that tool. I know I've easily added a link to it a dozen times on this forum.

Some sites will fix those links. Most probably won't. The ones who don't aren't going to find themselves in 'bad neighborhoods' though.

Chris your last point is the most important one. When you link out from your site just make sure it's a page you're fine sending your visitors to. That's really all it takes to stay out of 'bad neighborhoods'

Glad you like the metaphor Chris. When it came to mind it seemed to fit well.

Okay, this brings up a similar question, since we're talking about linking out.

Is there going to be any effect if I start linking to a handful of sites that don't have much or anything to do with mine, but are unquestionably not part of a bad neighborhood? Mainly some FireFox add-ins that have been extremely useful, an open-source program called Notepad++ with syntax highlighting for html, and whatnot? My site has nothing to do with web dev, but that shouldn't stop me from having links that are useful in general, right?

If the links are useful to your visitors then add the links. Sometimes the best approach to SEO is to take the search engine completely out of the equation. Not everything we do has to be done for a search engine.

The worst case scenario is you link to those sites and they link back and search engines see it as an unrelated reciprocal link. Chances are all they would do is not give much weight to the link coming into your site.

If the majority of the links coming into your site were unrelated reciprocals then maybe it would have ill effect, but there's nothing wrong will having a few if it makes sense for your visitors.

I link out to sites I designed in my portfolio and testimonials. I also have links back from those sites in the form of a credit. The sites though have very little to do with my topic of web design and seo. It doesn't matter to me how a search engine sees any of those links (which I think they are perfectly fine with). It makes sense for me to link to the sites in my portfolio so people can see what I am capable of doing and it makes sense to have my credit on those sites so anyone who sees and likes them might want to see who created the site.

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

What gringo said.

Some of the sites/pages that would be classified are:

1) Link exchange pages that serve no other purpose other than to exchange links.
2) Link farms.
3) Sites that cloak.
4) Pages containing sneaky redirects.
5) Sites that have been banned from a search engine at some point.
6) Sites that promote something thoroughly useless and stupid (e.g. one-page sites full of yellow highlighting and bold red text talking about making millions in your underwear.)

You can't avoid a link FROM a bad neighbourhood. They control the horizontal and they control the vertical when it comes to their sites. However, you can avoid linking TO a bad neighbourhood by well...avoiding linking to one. Link to good stuff that you feel is topically appropriate. That's it. That's all.

this is a good explaining . totally , i agree

Originally Posted by vangogh

angel_face I would suggest the proof needs to be the other way around. If you think a broken link implies or is associated with a 'bad neighborhood' then offer the proof.

parussa please share your research. Saying your research shows something isn't proof of anything.

Is it possible that a site in a 'bad neighborhood' has broken links? Absolutely. But it's not the broken links that place it in that neighborhood. Would I link to a site where all the links were broken? No, but it's not because that site is in a 'bad neighborhood.' That would be more like a ghost town.

It's not a proof, it's an opinion. To see what bad neighborhood is, read this: Definition of bad neighborhood.

Where in that definition does it say broken links having anything to do with 'bad neighborhoods'?

Sorry if I implied you were saying it was proof. I think I meant that more in reference to another poster.

I do agree with that definition of a 'bad neighbrood' by the way, though I don't think the issue is one with PageRank.

I guess I missed this discussion too. I was too busy customizing my new N70 smart phone. Installed Opera Mini and I surf from it. Vangogh, I bookmarked your site for daily visits ! Ok. I don't want to spam this thread.

So, do you think getting links from Link Vault is "bad neighborhood" ? It surely was banned from Google. I've heard this somewhere else that Link Vault is a link farm or something. I would surely appreciate if someone can answer this question regarding Link Vault because I'm seriously planning to start a campaign there.

(P.S : I'm not posting a direct link to link vault. What if it is a "bad neighborhood" ? WT would be in trouble.)

I don't know whether Link Vault was banned or not, but I feel safe in saying search engines don't like the sort of link exchanges they engage in.

I think they would be an example of a 'bad neighborhood' though that's just my opinion since I haven't done any kind of research on them

Since they do something search engines don't like then it's logical to assume search engines work on ways to ensure these kind of link exchanges don't carry much weight. So becoming part of the program probably won't help the way they promise it will help.

Are they a 'bad neighborhood'? I can't say for certain, but I would think they aren't a 'good neighborhood' If you do decide to use their program and a search engine decides that program is something they don't want to see in search results your site stands a good chance of being guilty by association with them.

It may not necessarily mean your site (or theirs) gets banned, but it most likely does mean the links from a site like this won't help.

link farms, banned websites, site using blackhat SEO. the most important thing is not to link to these, I think if a bad neighbor links to you this will not hurt you but will if you link to them.

You're right, you definitely don't want to link to them. If the bad neighborhood links to you it can possibly hurt you if you haven't gotten any decent links. If all your links are junky or if you're a new site with little to no links then having the bad neighborhood link to you can get you in trouble. You're best defense against it is simply to get good links.

You can use this < removed > to see some bad neighborhood linking to your site

What a ridiculous piece of useless software that "tool" is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


apparently 3 of the sites that I personally run are flagged as "bad neighbourhoods and so is Webmaster Talk!!!!

What??

Hello! The real world is over this way

Originally Posted by chrishirst

apparently 3 of the sites that I personally run are flagged as "bad neighbourhoods

You've just lost all credibility

Cowboy.

Bad neighborhoods are defined as follows:

• Anywhere a spammer lives
• Any place where stray dogs outnumber the residents
• Any neighborhood where the ratio of junk cars to running vehicles is greater than 50%

Hey! Some of us live in those junk cars. Watch it, city boy!

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Hey! Some of us live in those junk cars. Watch it, city boy!

I rest my case... (hehe)

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

You can't avoid a link FROM a bad neighbourhood. They control the horizontal and they control the vertical when it comes to their sites. However, you can avoid linking TO a bad neighbourhood by well...avoiding linking to one. Link to good stuff that you feel is topically appropriate. That's it. That's all.

Unfortunately, even if you buy a link from a quality site, say directory, and later it's not moderated any longer. It gets spammed with autosubmission and turns into a bad neighbourhood.