Will google penalize you for linking to non related sites?

[JohnStew]

I've heard different opinions on this subject. I swap links with any website as long as I feel my type of customer visits those sites and if it will bring me business. Am I wrong for thinking this way? Will google penalize me in the rankings for some of these non related sites?

[dburdon]

JohnStew,

I recall a recent Matt Cutts post where he said off topic outbound links could lead to a penalty.

[Duncan Pollock]

There's the longtime rule "everything in moderation" and I think the likelihood of a penalty will have its roots in it.
In any case, what sense does it make for your visitors to find links to this, that, and the other, none of which have much, if anything, to do with the subject of your website? Surely, they'd be using a more appropriate search phrase if they were interested in something quite different from what they'll find in your own text and graphics.
In fact, even if you're talking AdSense rather than AdWords, the principle is the same, isn't it? Google isn't going to include your ad anywhere that isn't at least somewhat relevant.
In effect, the days of believing that reciprocal links, regardless of their topic, help with Page Rank are widely considered to be over. So why would outbound links (i.e. one way ones) produce any different/better results?

Duncan

[greeneagle]

I had a client that was one of the largest general wholesale product distributors on the net. His sales had fallen away something terrible a while back going through the harder alg updates... back starting around "Florida" when they (Goog and Yahoo) started integrating "TrustRank"...


I was indeed worried about the "Christian" "Find Jesus" off topic links (OBLs) he wanted displayed prominantly on his site with a graphic image and link.... We hard-popped up to over 2M page views/day anyway.....

I believe that there is a non-descriminatory tolerance level in the algs there.

Whether it is 5, 7, 10 or even 20% of total OBLs, before passing the line... I don't know where the limit is, but it is there.

I'd stay down in the dirt as much as possible.

Ken

[thecat]

Personally i would limit linking to any sites that are not related to my sites theme, ie not more than 5% of links that you show on your useful page, thats if you care about google ranking.

[simonm]

Interesting topic this. So, off topic links might not be favourable, but, take the case of a local community website that has multiple outbound links, even google adwords!

The topic of the website might be Smallbury in Kent with links to all manner of items! From the local church website, the various local shop and business websites all the way to links to online banks, the TV listings pages, energy companies, something that interests the webmaster - their blog! - you name it. All with a local / national relevance, most potentially off topic.

regards

Simon

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by simonm

Interesting topic this. So, off topic links might not be favourable, but, take the case of a local community website that has multiple outbound links, even google adwords!

The topic of the website might be Smallbury in Kent with links to all manner of items! From the local church website, the various local shop and business websites all the way to links to online banks, the TV listings pages, energy companies, something that interests the webmaster - their blog! - you name it. All with a local / national relevance, most potentially off topic.

regards

Simon

Yes an usually I only see those websites ranking for obscure terms with the city and state attached. hardly ever for popular generic phrases.

[simonm]

Yes an usually I only see those websites ranking for obscure terms with the city and state attached. hardly ever for popular generic phrases.

Agreed but that is surely the nature of the site, not that Google is marking them down.