Do shady backlinks actually damage ranking?

[yoni45]

That is, it looks like a whole bunch of sites got smacked around the penguin/panda updates, but is this by virtue of actually being hurt by google's algorithms, or by virtue of simply not being helped "as much"?

That is, was it a matter of the sites just not having any 'quality' backlinks, having relied on things google no longer liked, which would result in not having as much to push them to the top? That is, they would have been in the same position had they not had those shoddy practices?

Or was google actively punishing those sites? That is, are they worse off for having those shoddy practices?

I guess the reason I ask is I'm somewhat terrified of going "out there" to get backlinks -- worst case scenario: would it just not do much to help, or would it actually hurt?

Thanks!

[KyleChamp]

There is a lot I can say on this subject but I am going to sum it up in one sentence.I know it’s a generic answer but that’s kind of a generic question

Google can and will penalize (punish) websites for breaking any of their rules that they deem worthy of doing so.

[AndreVanKets]

Its all speculation at the moment, so the fear mongering is rampent.

In short, yes, bad backlinks can have a negative effect on your site, but it depends on how well established your site is. Negative SEO is real, but depending on the severity of the dodgy links, google just discredits them and asks you to get rid of them, rather than slapping you with a penalty.

When you say, you are afraid of "going out there" what is is that you are afraid of? Just don't be manipulative, get links on relevant websites and you have nothing to worry about. Just forget about trying to manipulate rankings, build relationships with other webmasters, after all, 1 great link is better than 50 suspect / low value links that take hours to "build"

[nyanainc]

Hi  Yonatan Stratievsky

I would suggest you to avoid the bad links. I had a site which was hitted hard because the owner use cheap paid links. For me the best links are this which I am extracting from the site explorer. Plus the natural links from the visitors. Another good technique is guest posting.

I hope that this helps

Regards Nik

[brandonjschwartz]

Yes, Google has a number of penalties that actively hurt or de-indexes websites with shady links.

Just focus on getting backlinks that would be useful to people actually visiting those websites. If a human found your link, would they respect you for it? That's the question you should ask when you build links.

[yoni45]

Well, for one, someone mentioned guest-posting. But then, guest-posting where? What if the blog is iffy? Would PA/DA give a solid indication of this kind of thing?

Or, for example, I know to stay away from "buy 40 bajillion backlinks for $3" and such, but what about an offer for an individual backlink from a high PR page, manually added potentially in the context of a guest post? Part of me thinks "okay, seems reasonable", but part of me thinks "if this is being offered then could the fact that it's being offered to others then pose an issue based on the appearance of high volume"?

Also: if there is the potential for "negative" SEO, wouldn't this be easily abusable? What's to stop me from blasting 60000 backlinks to one of my competitors?