Linking to a site that Google banned?

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Linking to a site that Google banned?

maximus12

10:15 pm on Aug 17, 2010 (gmt 0)

I recently found out that a site that I link to on at least 10 of my pages was banned from Google a few months ago. I run a rather large forum and blog that has a few affiliates sites listed as well. I have a few pages that compares each sites prices. One of them is this banned site.

It does not generate much income and I had though about removing them from all my pages but they have been on my site for 3 years now.

Anyone think there could be some sort of penalty towards us in removing this banned site from our pages? Or do you think it will benefit our site.

I know google does not feel to happy about sites that link to banned ones but I am rather cautions on removing them.

Would you:

a) Remove the banned site ASAP from all pages, like now.

b) Slowly start removing them, a few pages at a time, spread among several weeks or days?

Any ideas?

Thanks
Maximus

aristotle

12:47 am on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

Since it was banned a few months ago, that would probably be enough time for any bad effects on your site to show up. So maybe there isn't any urgency. But I still recommend that you get rid of the links, however I would do it gradually, one page at a time.

maximus12

2:42 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

Thanks aristotle, I started doing it gradually. I removed their links from 3 pages so far. I do not think that much harm can be done by removing links from your site, or is there? They were no=follow to being with.

tigger

3:26 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

But I still recommend that you get rid of the links, however I would do it gradually, one page at a time.

why?

If I found out I was linking to something banned I would remove all links ASAP - I don't see why this should be done slowly

Yellow_Sun

3:32 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

I agree with tigger, get rid of all the links ASAP, it will help your site far more than it would ever hurt it.

maximus12

3:33 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

I don't know tigger. I have become Google Penalty paranoid of the past year, ever since one of my sites got one and I barley made it out, I have been scared of getting one again.

So every change I make to my site, I analyze first, to see if it can cause a potential penlaty!

For example:

I also need to add some banners one of my wordpress blogs to monetize a little, since traffic has picked up. But I am looking for the best way of doing this, should I use a banner plugin, just a a banner through a text widget? Will google see this as a negative and penalize the blog? Ahhhhhhhh...

Simsi

3:39 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

Why would Google penalise you for linking to a banned site if the link was in place prior to the ban? That doesn't seem at all logical. When BMW got banned, did that mean every site linking to them got penalised?

Also, just because a site is banned by Google doesn't mean that the information on it is not useful or unimportant. It might just mean they did something bad SEO-wise, hardly a reason to penalise everyone else IMO.

tigger

3:42 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

I don't know tigger. I have become Google Penalty paranoid of the past year, ever since one of my sites got one and I barley made it out, I have been scared of getting one again.

So every change I make to my site, I analyze first, to see if it can cause a potential penlaty!

agree, you have to watch what your doing, but if someone sent a request asking for a link to a site that you saw was banned would you do that exchange? no I would assume, so why leave links in place - get them off, I can't see how this will do any harm to your site

tigger

3:44 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

just a a banner through a text widget? Will google see this as a negative and penalize the blog? Ahhhhhhhh...

sorry missed that - I use a text widget and have no problems with G getting upset

maximus12

4:08 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

Thanks Tigger. Do you link the banner with no=follow directly to the affiliate or link of your advertiser? I am going to include a banner on my blog that compares a sites products and have a comparison page on my site. I was thinking of adding a text widget banner with the banner link my own /the-comparison-page.html on my site. This way no outbound links to the affiliate site are needed.

tedster

4:32 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

Thought I'd add my take on the opening question. I don't think Google would penalize you for linking to one banned site - it's a pattern of many links to bad neighborhoods that would be problematic.

One of my clients checks their outbound links on a quarterly basis, and they always find a couple where the target domain has turned bad and they do remove those links. They haven't seen rankings problems from Google, even when they've accumulated a higher number.

However, they have about 2,000 indexed URLs with a links to at least 1,000 different domains throughout the site, so it's always under 1% of the links that point to a bad neighborhood, and those domains were healthy sites when the links were first indexed.

maximus12

4:41 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

Thanks tedster. Do you recommend removing the links from all pages at once or gradually?

I have started already and removed the links from 3 pages. But their link still remains on about 9 of my pages, including several price comparison pages.

Do you also think it will have no negative effect, although the links have been on my site since I started it?

tigger

4:44 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

I don't use no-follow just link straight to the affiliate

tedster

4:58 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

If it's only a total of 12 pages, I'd just go all at once.

maximus12

4:59 pm on Aug 18, 2010 (gmt 0)

Ok, but just to be safe, no-follow might be the best idea.