Will Google penalize for backlinks on non-indexed pages?

[AdamThompson]

Have a client who has a bunch of links from spammy sites that aren't even indexed by Google. Will Google penalize (i.e. Penguin) for backlinks from spammy sites that aren't indexed?

I'm guessing "Yes, Google still crawls non-indexed sites and may penalize the sites linked to from the banned site." Anyone have any data or experience with this?

Anyone have a non-indexed or banned site? Does Google still crawl it?

[Debdulal]

No Idea as such but the thing is you have bunch of spammy links from low quality sites that you have built, it is better get rid of them. Since there is some possibilities that Google may have crawled those sites earlier and when then deindexed them finding them spammy, risk is always involved.

[AdamThompson]

The links were built by another SEO firm. I'm working on getting rid of them, was just wondering what others new about links on de-indexed sites.

[Debdulal]

to be on the safe side, it is better to get rid of them

[intSchools]

I would think that Google does still crawl these sites (or have just blacklisted them). Therefore, they would still have a negative effect on your client's website.

I would recommend taking a look into Google's new disavow tool - you will be able remove the association with bad links.

Dr Pete recently wrote a great article on the disavow tool - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-disavow-tool-take-a-deep-breath