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Is www.ugg best price.com a safe site?

If I link to my favorite online pharmacy or free porn site, will Google automatically penalize my website?

  • Google warns Webmasters not to link to spammy sites [1], but fails to make any distinction between "sites that deceive search engines" and "sites that deceive humans." It's entirely possible that a website could provide a valuable service (e.g., free porn) or a valuable product (e.g., cheap generic Viagra), despite the fact that the site has engaged in a variety of so-called "black hat" SEO strategies to unfairly increase rankings in Google. Hypothetically speaking, let's say I have a blog and I want to publicly link to my favorite online pharmacy or free porn site (or anything else that's typically considered "spammy"). Furthermore, let's assume that I specifically want to help my favorite sites rank higher in Google--because in my opinion, they provide a much better User experience than the sites that are out-ranking them. In other words, "Just use a nofollow attribute!" is *NOT* a solution. I'm not satisfied with simply helping *my blog's readers* find the best source for cheap generic Viagra--no, I want to help *everyone* find the best source for cheap Viagra, and the best way to accomplish that is to intentionally help my favorite pharmacy rank higher in Google...by sending it some organic link love. However, I also want to avoid being penalized by Google. So my basic question is: will Google see my link and automatically penalize my site's own rankings simply because of the TOPICAL nature of the link? Or...will Google base its decision (i.e., to penalize my site or not, and to what degree) on the Quality Score--the spammy "track record"--of the domain I'm linking to? Follow-up Question: If indeed Google bases my site's penalty on some kind of internal spam score of the linked-to domain, then how would I know whether or not it's safe for me to link to it? In other words, what is a Webmaster's "due diligence" when trying to determine whether or not it's safe to link to another domain? -------------------------- 1. http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf "If you're willing to vouch for links added by third parties...then there's no need to use nofollow on links; however, linking to sites that Google considers spammy can affect the reputation of your own site."

  • Answer:

    Google rates sites based on their content, and similar signals Adult and pharmaceutical websites are not necessarily spammy sites, although frequently they do engage in spammy activity. However, being porn and being spammy are not the same thing.  Plenty of non-porn sites are also spammy. Google does tag sites as well as judging their content for quality.  It will also potential tag sites as spammy, or porn.  Being tagged as spammy is equivalent to being penalised by Google.  Being tagged as adult will filter the site out of search for users with SafeSearch switched on, or to moderate. If you link to a porn site, there is a chance that the algorithms will tag you as adult content, even if you don't directly host that content.  It will partly depend on the anchor text of the link, and the content of the rest of your site.  I think that you run a reasonable risk of at least being filtered out 'SafeSearch=on' searches. That said, your site won't be seen as spammy, unless it actually is on its own merits!

John Hughes at Quora Visit the source

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A couple years back, I used to do some link building work for a local online pharmacy that considered itself legit (Oh, how fun that was...). They were attempting to legitimize the way that people purchased medications online (lobbying congress, etc). We were able to get other health related sites to link to them (due to their history and establishment within the industry). I no longer do any work for them, but the company still holds their rank fairly well today, depending on the number of other pharmacies who are spamming the top 20 results with .edu cloaking/hacking, etc. With my experience monitoring the sites that ended up linking to the pharmacy, none of them, that I recall (was a couple years back), got automatically penalized (some of them did get their PR reduced because the pages started linking to way too many sites that were garbage), but across the board, there were examples of quality sites that held their rank. If you are passionate about a pharmacy or porn site, I would link to them in a way that makes sense. Write a great article about them that links to the URL appropriately. Don't add a site wide side bar link directly to the URL. However, if you want them to have the exposure, you can add a site wide link to the article that you write about them. Like just said, Adult and pharmaceutical websites are not necessarily spammy sites, although frequently they do engage in spammy activity. However, being porn and being spammy are not the same thing.  Plenty of non-porn sites are also spammy. // Words of Caution I wouldn't suggest linking to a pharmacy or porn site if your content doesn't somehow relate. If it is personel blog, you can be more aggressive because I doubt that you compete for highly competitive keywords anyway, and if your site is commercial in nature, I am not sure why it would make sense to link to a porn/pharmacy site (especially if it isn't related).

Zachary Burruel

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