Does anyone have proof of G banning 'bad neighborhoods' ?

[LinkMaster]

As we all know, there are more rumors and unfounded speculations flying around most SEO forums than you can keep up with. I've heard just about all of them. What I haven't heard or read is any proof to back them up. Therefore, I wanted to start a thread to see if I can put together a list of real issues that will get a site removed from or penalized by Google.

It would be great to see some examples of sites that were actually banned or penalized by Google for the following offenses, but if you don't have any - please go ahead and post anything that you feel is a truthful story about this happening to a website.

Here goes:

1. Does Google ban or penalize websites that link to "link farms"? (See #2)

2. What is a "link farm"? My understanding of a link farm is a website that has nothing but links on every page with little or no valid content. However, that definition could apply to an online directory also. So, my real question is - does Google ban or penalize websites for linking to "link farms", and if so, what constitutes a "link farm" in this instance? (Please, no opinions or speculations - just facts if you have any.)

3. Does Google ban or penalize websites for invisible, hidden, or cloaked text?

4. Does Google ban or penalize websites that are full of doorway pages - and is this even a valid concern anymore?

5. Does Google ban or penalize sites that are full of Java-scripted redirects?

6. Does Google ban or penalize websites for cloaking (server side scripting that detects the search engine spiders and delivers totally different content for their algo than what is on their website)?

The reason I am asking all of these questions is because I have a link exchange program, and I want to make sure that I do not link to any "bad neighborhoods". However, I don't want to just start dropping link exhchanges with websites based on SEO rumors or speculation. I want to make sure that if I drop a link partner, it's really for a valid reason.

Thanks in advance for any information or stories that you may have!

[cbp]

I have seen lots of eg's of all those banned by Google for all of the above - I just don't have any eg's to hand to post :-(

I have also seen more eg's where Google has not detected and banned sites.

CBP

[LinkMaster]

Thanks CBP.

It's funny how there are so many rumors and speculations flying around the SEO forums, yet when you ask for proof to support them, no one seems to have any. It makes me wonder what I should really believe about the supposed bans and penalties by Google that everyone is so quick to warn about. Maybe it's just all just speculation?

[milonic]

Hi,

The only time I heard of anyone getting banned was a couple of years back. I'm sure there are more but this is the only one documented. Can't remember exactly who or what but it was big news at the time.

From past experience I personally think you need to be doing something REALLY REALLY bad to get blacklisted. I also think it might be worse if you are actually successful in beating the search engines, they just don't seem to like it. I've seen competitors do some very naughty things and they just seem to constantly get away with it.

I suppose what could happen is that the search engines tend to leave the sites alone so that they can devise and test ways of ensuring that the tactics being used are effectively restricted. Could be wrong on all this but it's just my observation over the years.

If anybody does have any docs on this, I too would like to have a peek.

Cheers,
Andy

[AndrewX]

I got a link trade request a while back from a webmaster who was participating in the links2you system, a definite attempt to manipulate link popularity.

Anyway, I'd heard that G had gone after this system, and I advised the webmaster to eschew this system for that reason. They replied that that might explain why they had lost their PR after participating (or was it rankings? sorry, don't remember which).

I feel fairly confident that Google will take drastic actions against black hat stuff when and if they detect it from the anedotal evidence I've seen.

[janeth]

Traffic Power

[PPHBusinessChecks]

Originally Posted by janeth

Traffic Power

I think this will explain janeth's post a little...

I ran across this quite a while back and it took me a while to find it again but here is "proof" (in someone's opinion anyway) I'm not personally familiar with this firm so I don't want to spread any rumors. Believe what you want...

[janeth]

Thanks Kenneth,

My bad, I should have explained more.

[bhartzer]

LinkstoYou is a classic link farm, they were one of the first "link farms" to get banned.

In fact, linkstoyou.com is still banned in Google.

[dejaone]

google bans duplicate content sites too

[MathsIsFun]

I am not so sure about a duplicate content ban, dejaone.

This has been discussed before, and if there were an actual "ban", then mirror sites, content syndication sites, etc. would suffer.

I think it is more along the lines of Google being smart how it shows results - if it finds two almost identical pages that match your search words, it will choose one to show up front.

[Kenai Alaska]

Originally Posted by Janeth

Traffic Power

AKA 1p.com and now internetadvertising1.com
We are noticing their work in more and more results lately and our email has been receiving offers from them too. This needs to be publicized more to make the business owners more aware of the potential problems of dealing with them.

[ppayne]

I had my years long blog (J-List updates) on an old site, and I moved the posts to Blogger. I got indexed by Google for a week, then the Blogger blog disappeared, presumably because of the duplicate content with my old site. I deleted the old site completely and hope I'll reappear in Google soon.

[LinkMaster]

After much research on this subject, here's the conclusion that I have come to. Google may ban or penalize for certain offenses (listed in the initial post of this thread), but they do not seem to ban or penalize websites that link to the banned sites.

Here's something to consider. What if someone posted something on an SEO forum regarding a website that has been banned by Google something like this:

I just found out that Google has banned the following website:

www.somedomain.com

Does anyone know the reason that Google has banned this website?

The next time Google crawls the SEO forum that this post was placed on, they will find that it is linking to a "bad neighborhood". Is Google then going to penalize the forum webmaster for linking to this banned website? That's the $40,000.00 question. All of my research seems to conclude that Google will not penalize anyone for linking to a website that has been banned or penalized by Google.

Google's guidelines simply serve to tell webmasters which types of content they should avoid putting in their own websites in order to be "Google friendly". They don't seem to have any rules or guidelines regarding which type of websites you shouldn't link to that would bring about a penalty by Google for linking to them.

Here is an excerpt from the Google Terms Of Service:

The sites displayed as search results or linked to by Google Services are developed by people over whom Google exercises no control. The search results that appear from Google's indices are indexed by Google's automated machinery and computers, and Google cannot and does not screen the sites before including them in the indices from which such automated search results are gathered. A search using Google Services may produce search results and links to sites that some people find objectionable, inappropriate, or offensive. We cannot guarantee that a Google search will not locate unintended or objectionable content and assume no responsibility for the content of any site included in any search results or otherwise linked to by the Google Services.

Google stated that, although they may link to sites that are questionable, they do not take responsibility for their content. That raises the question - would Google penalize anyone else for linking to these same questionable sites? My conclusion is that they would not.

Can anyone else concur with my assumptions?

[LinkMaster]

I seem to have found that several sites similar to link2you.com have been banned from Google. My question would be, did the sites participating in their program get banned from Google also? If so, was it because they were linking to the banned site? If that were the case, then every site that did a review of links2you.com would have been banned also if they had a hyperlink pointing to the links2you.com website.