Linking to bad sites

[salvyy]

Hi,

I just have a quick question. Is it very negative to link to "bad" sites, such as online pharmacies, dating, adult sites, that sort of stuff? How much does linking to a "bad" site negatively affect a "good" site?

Thank you.

[MattJanaway]

Anytime, feel free to fire me a private message or add me on Skype. Im always available to offer advice if I can

[salvyy]

Hi Istvan,

Thank you for the great reply. I understand now.

All best,

• Sal

[salvyy]

Thank you Matt!

[Keszi]

Matt, thanks for the credits!

double thumbs up on your statement regarding link building: "remember that link building is always about quality, not quantity."

Gr.,

Istvan

[MattJanaway]

Great comment. I would like to reiterate this point.

You cannot control who links to you - this provides you with a safety net but does not make you invincible. You should be OK if there are one or two links which come from spammy sites (obviously if you have 2,000,000 links then you could get away with more than one or two bad links). The issue would come around if you have lots of spammy links or the ratio of spammy links to good links is too high.

As Istvan mentioned, be careful who you link to.

It is more important however to not blast links at your site. If you get too many links in a short space of time then this looks dodgy to Google.

Also remember that link building is always about quality, not quantity.

[Keszi]

Hi Salvyy,

I always told my team, that if we gain links from bad websites, that is in a some way harmful, BUT pointing out to such sites can flag us. (The same is told by Matt Cutts who pointed out that you cannot influence who is linking to you, but you can choose where to link to).

Therefore my advice would be, if it is not in your niche then don't link to these sites.

Gr.,

Istvan