Can I get harmed by an inlink?

[mozalbin]

Hi! I'll jump right in to my question.

There's a webpage with the following stats:
PA 80, mR 4.70, mT 5.00. Pagerank ZERO.

Now, these are some beautiful stats for every webpage, except for the pagerank. The reason to why the pagerank is so low is that the inlinks to this site is partial spammy (hidden links and other bad naughty black-hat stuff that I hate). (It's not my webpage, I don't even know whos webpage this is..)

I happen to have a backlink from this page. A clean dofollow, in-content link to my site. The total amount of external links on this page is five and there's no spam on the page or hidden anywhere else.

My question #1:
Is this particular inlink to my site harmful? Will I get penaltized for getting a backlink from this site? I mean, Google have figured out the spam factor of the links to the page that is linking to me. But I'm innocent, the link to me is just lying there... (Why or why not?)

My question #2:
IF (and only IF) the link to my webpage is harmful. Are links from my page harmful? (Why or why not?)

Thank you very much for using you awesome knowledge to answer this

[onlinemediadirect]

I asked a similar question related to this issue. It was from a slightly different point of view where I was worried about spam attacks. The logic being if a competitor could try and get a site delisted on google by posting lots of spam links. The kind of replies I received all mentioned that at the end of the day you can't effect or control who or what links to your site.

So unless you have done any known link building with paid links I don't think you have anything to worry about. It is probably just a matter of time but as Rand says page rank isn't everything...

[adriandg]

Short answer is no.  It would be all to easy for black hat SEO's to knock down the competition by setting up links like these to competators.  Google wouldn't allow such activity as it would make their SERPs all to easily gamed.

I wouldn't worry about it.  Just keep link building high quality links from trusted sites and you should be totally fine.

[seanmccauley]

I note you state So unless you have done any known link building with paid links I don't think you have anything to worry about

That is the question I have.. How can Google tell whether you have paid for any bought spammy backlinks or your competitor has organised these backlinks to get you penalised??

[SEO-Doctor]

Just one bad link would not harm you, but it IS possible to damage a site with bad links.

[seanmccauley]

Gareth

Do you have experience of sites being penalised on this fashion?

Thanks

[mozalbin]

I can see the logic in that so I'm going to believe you. Thanks for the good answer

[mozalbin]

If someone reports the site that sold links and the one that bought links?

In this scenario, no links are bought. I'm keeping my business out of that.

**Thanks for the good answer Garry Pickles! **

[AnthonyYoung]

It is certainly possible for a site to be harmed with manipulated inbound links from bad neighborhoods. It is a trademark tactic emplyed by black hat SEOs against competitors. Granted, a handful of links wont make a difference but a concerted effort on a negative link campaign can and will get your site hammered. This is especially true in highly contested market verticals such as insurance, credit scoring, mortgage, etc.

[seanmccauley]

As this is a tactic often used by black hat SEO, how can Google know when to penalise?

[ClickValueMedia]

Hi Anthony,

Just curious how you know this? for me I've never understood or agreed with all the mentions on here ( an other sites ) about being penalized by Google. It's like SEOs are afraid to create a link on a site that other marketers use for links ( article directories etc ) for fear of being "penalized". It's crazy to think that. Worst case scenario is that they are discounted ( I think you still get a little bit of juice ), even from abused methods like blog comments or forum profiles etc.

I have a personal site that's about 3 years old and been on the 1st page of G for 2.5 years that has nothing but links from "low quality neightbourhoods"

D

[AnthonyYoung]

It's not so much that it is an oft used tactic but more in how the tactic is executed. It is precise in how it is accomplished. Placing inbound links on rotten c-blocks known for spam, spam rings, or malware hosts; placing paid links (i've known folks who have gotten hammered with just 10 paid links) on well-known txt link brokers, etc. All your competitor needs to do is find a sleazy corner of the internet to target you and it can be flagged by google with astonishing speed. There are black hat forums that post this sort of targeting information.

[ClickValueMedia]

Thanks anthony, It's amazing to think that it's possible to do that with companies spending so much on SEO and online reputation management.tey can then be targeted by links from known spam  c blocks. It's an interesting topic that I'd love to get m,ore clarity on.

D

[AnthonyYoung]

Hi Derek -

Great question and thanks for engaging. First of all, let me say clearly that I don't engage in black hat tactics. I'm Dir of Search Marketing for a lead generation company and so must protect our properties from such attacks. It can be a very dirty business.

I've had many discussions with other professionals in our field and it appears that Google's web spam team (which is quite small, relatively speaking) doesn't have the bandwidth to police all market verticals at once and they can't rely on doing this algorithmically with 100% accuracy. So there are gaps in coverage, etc. They'll generally go after verticals that have had a large number of FTC complaints, abuses, etc. A lot of dark corners such as 'payday loans' are generally left alone... do a search and look at the link graphs for the entire 1st SERP... pretty amazing stuff.

I agree with you that there is a lot of bad information put out by the woefully misinformed. You can still rank sites using inbound links from forums and low quality sites (generally in concert with manipulated anchor text) with no problems. Some neighborhoods are worse than others - I dont know your site so can't really do anything more than speculation here. The kind of attacks I am talking about are highly targeted and with a very specific goal in mind: to burn your site.

[AnthonyYoung]

It is extraordinary and thankfully it's an exception not the rule. Although Google claims that it is not possible for a malicious attack of this type to be successful, I've witnessed it first hand. Also, one just needs to read through the forums to a get sense of what is possible.

Be well!

[seanmccauley]

Sorry to butt into the conversation again though your comment;

I don't engage in black hat tactics. I'm Dir of Search Marketing for a lead generation company and so must protect our properties from such attacks.

Are you suggesting that  not engaging in black hat tactics protects you from black hat attacks. A sort of Do no Evil and no Evil will be done onto you?

(I do understand that competitors in a vertical can get upset if a competitor indulges in a lot of black hat seo to leapfrog them, then a tit for tat situation can evolve and descend)

[ClickValueMedia]

Thanks for that Anthony, I apprecaite your reply. I'm not a black hatter either but when I got started online I started building sites for myself and did all the usual link type stuff, articles, blog posts, comments, profiles etc ( you know the drill ), and as you mentioned I ranked these sites and they have maintained their rank.

I've since moved to doing SEO for other people so now I am much more concerend and aware of building links from these types of sites. The last thing I want to do is damage my clients site, even though I have successfully used these types of sites on my own websites.

So, as a director of search, can I ask if your you and your tem use links for web 2.0 properties/article sites etc?

D

[AnthonyYoung]

No, I'm not suggesting that at all. My company chooses to build sites with longevity. However the lead gen space is rife with churn and burn operations and all the scalliwags that go with the territory. We have indeed lost sites to pirates but we've rehabilitated sites too.

A lot of groups get into the tit-for-tat snitching on each other that ends up hurting all parties involved (in the eyes of Google)... most of our sites have enough authority, trust and age that makes it easier to fend off attacks. Developing new sites is generally a daunting task and an acquisition is usually a smarter move that starting from scratch.

[AnthonyYoung]

Are you asking if we use content from article sites, etc? I'll try to answer as best I can but fel free to correct me if I've misinterpreted your question.

We have sites that use syndicated content but I am moving all new properties away from this practice and developing 100% original copy, etc in light of recent Panda updates.

[SEO-Doctor]

Yes just looking at an email in webmaster tools right now

Dear site owner or webmaster of ....

We detected that some of your site's pages may be using techniques that are outside Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.

We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you've made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google's search results.

If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.
If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.

Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team