SEO Junkie

The term “bad neighborhood” refers to a site or group of sites that have been penalized or can be penalized anytime by search engines for using unethical techniques to inflate their rankings.

Craig Wilson defines bad neighborhood as:

“A bad neighborhood is the name given to a single web site or a collection of web sites that either use spam techniques or host material that is deemed to be of an unethical nature. To have your site associated with one of these types of sites can cause your site to slip in rankings, when requesting a link from a site or linking to a site, make sure the site is what you deem to be ethical.”

What Exactly Constitutes a Bad Neighborhood?

There are certain things that search engines do not like which are called spam techniques. These techniques are all about tricking search engines robots and using those spam techniques which are strongly prohibited by them.

Whenever a search engine algorithmically tracks or is reported by a surfer about such site that is using unfair means to get their rankings and doing things that are forbidden, it either lower its rankings or completely or partially delist it from its index. Thus, it becomes a part of bad neighborhood.

These are some, but not all, of the spam techniques that are strongly prohibited by major search engines that can mark a site as bad neighborhood:

• Hidden text or links
• Cloaking
• Sneaky redirects
• Excessive keyword repetition
• Duplicate content
• Doorway / gateway pages
• Linking to FFAs (Free for all) or link farms
• Little or no original content
• Deceptive affiliate content
• Excessively cross-linking
• Excessive Pop-up windows
• Adult content for non-adult search
• Machine-generated page (cookie-cutter)
• Deceptive title/description
• Illegal content
• Pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware
• Misuse of competitor names
• Registering misspellings of well-known websites
• Deceptive, fraudulent or provide a poor user experience and so on

How do you spot a bad neighborhood?

To verify whether a particular site is bad neighborhood in the eyes of a search engine, run this query there:

Yoursite.com

and

Site:Yoursite.com

If it does not return any results, then it is most probably penalized by search engine provided that it is not new when you check its domain registration date at http://www.whois.sc.

Is Linking to Bad Neighborhood Bad for Your Site?

Yes. If you are linking to a site or group of sites that are part of bad neighborhood, then your own site can experience low rankings or even get delisted from index altogether, depending upon trust level that your site has built overtime in the eyes of the search engines.

In addition, you should not link to a site that is linking to bad neighborhood or it will affect on your rankings.

Are Links from Bad Neighborhood Bad for Your Site?

No. Search engines know the fact that it is something which is not under your control.  Therefore, you shouldn’t be concerned about being liked to from bad neighborhood. Google even states on its guidelines page:

There’s almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index.

In short, you need to ensure that you are not linking to any site which is part of bad neighborhood or which is linking to bad neighborhood like FFA and link farms.

The term “bad neighborhood” refers to a site or group of sites that have been penalized or can be penalized anytime by search engines for using unethical techniques to inflate their rankings.

Craig Wilson defines bad neighborhood as:

“A bad neighborhood is the name given to a single web site or a collection of web sites that either use spam techniques or host material that is deemed to be of an unethical nature. To have your site associated with one of these types of sites can cause your site to slip in rankings, when requesting a link from a site or linking to a site, make sure the site is what you deem to be ethical.”

What Exactly Constitutes a Bad Neighborhood?

There are certain things that search engines do not like which are called spam techniques. These techniques are all about tricking search engines robots and using those spam techniques which are strongly prohibited by them.

Whenever a search engine algorithmically tracks or is reported by a surfer about such site that is using unfair means to get their rankings and doing things that are forbidden, it either lower its rankings or completely or partially delist it from its index. Thus, it becomes a part of bad neighborhood.

These are some, but not all, of the spam techniques that are strongly prohibited by major search engines that can mark a site as bad neighborhood:

• Hidden text or links
• Cloaking
• Sneaky redirects
• Excessive keyword repetition
• Duplicate content
• Doorway / gateway pages
• Linking to FFAs (Free for all) or link farms
• Little or no original content
• Deceptive affiliate content
• Excessively cross-linking
• Excessive Pop-up windows
• Adult content for non-adult search
• Machine-generated page (cookie-cutter)
• Deceptive title/description
• Illegal content
• Pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware
• Misuse of competitor names
• Registering misspellings of well-known websites
• Deceptive, fraudulent or provide a poor user experience and so on

How do you spot a bad neighborhood?

To verify whether a particular site is bad neighborhood in the eyes of a search engine, run this query there:

Yoursite.com

and

Site:Yoursite.com

If it does not return any results, then it is most probably penalized by search engine provided that it is not new when you check its domain registration date at http://www.whois.sc.

Is Linking to Bad Neighborhood Bad for Your Site?

Yes. If you are linking to a site or group of sites that are part of bad neighborhood, then your own site can experience low rankings or even get delisted from index altogether, depending upon trust level that your site has built overtime in the eyes of the search engines.

In addition, you should not link to a site that is linking to bad neighborhood or it will affect on your rankings.

Are Links from Bad Neighborhood Bad for Your Site?

No. Search engines know the fact that it is something which is not under your control.  Therefore, you shouldn’t be concerned about being liked to from bad neighborhood. Google even states on its guidelines page:

There’s almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index.

In short, you need to ensure that you are not linking to any site which is part of bad neighborhood or which is linking to bad neighborhood like FFA and link farms.