Would You Exchange Links With a Penalised Site?

[dodger]

A site I suspect may have been banned from Google wants to exchange links, they get good traffic but I ptresume this would be a bad idea for me?

[plasma]

Why do you think that site got penalized?
I don't believe Google is penalizing anyone except really bad guys.
Most sites I've seen that seemed to be penalized just had technical trouble.

[Stefan]

If you are fairly certain that they are being banned/penalized, then it is not a good idea to exchange links.

If they are suffering from florida problems, and maybe just filtered on particular searches, then it probably won't make any difference.

What makes you think that Google hates them? Do you know that they're doing something that might get them booted? Do they rank well in other SE's?

ADDED: Funny thing... the post sits there for hours with no reply, then suddenly gets two at virtually the same time. Plasma, you beat me by a matter of seconds.

[ogletree]

Actually from my research that is the best thing to do. Sites that are gone are replaced by sites they were pointing to. A one way link would be better though. A page with more incomeing links than outgoing seems to be prevalant.

[satanclaus]

If you think its a bad idea don't do it. Its only going to bother you and give you another variable to consider when something goes wrong.

[dodger]

Since Florida he's been dropped altogether but before that I think he was taking shortcuts. risks and he was caught out, I'm not absolutely sure but that's the drift I get.

He is in a similar industry and has other positions that are excellent - to have a reciprical arrangement would be good from that standpoint but I don't want to tbe seen to mixing with the "wrong crowd". Would it hurt if he linked to me but I didn't link to him?

[wellzy]

If you have ANY doubts, than don't do it. It could be your site next if you do.

[jimbeetle]

Since Florida he's been dropped altogether

Is that just because you can't find the site in the SERPs for certain terms? Have you checked to see if any of the sites pages are indexed (try site:that domain.com thatdomain.com)? Or is it because toolbar PR has suddenly turned gray?

Haven't heard of too many actual bans coming out of Florida and WW's where you would here of them first.

[dodger]

The toolbar is greyed out completely for him and he confirmed he is gone. He can't undersdtand it but he's had problems before and I don't want to catch anything from him. It's going to be a bit awkward when I tell him "no" deal.

It feels wrong to refuse this opportunity but I don't want to take any chances.

[jimh009]

If you'll be losing sleep over this, then the answer should probably be no. While the odds are in your favor that nothing bad will happen (I've inadvertantly linked to penalized sites before), by linking to penalized sites you do put your own site at risk. How much risk really depends I suspect (just a guess here) on how many penalized sites you may link to in comparison to how many total outbound links you have on your site.

Jim

[dodger]

I dont link to any banned sites as far as I know and I'm very well indexed in Google, came back very well after Florida.
You can't stop people linking to you so if he linked to me would that be a problem? It would be a substantial link whereby people search my site for products from his site (different products to his)

[tribal]

Rumor is incoming links from bad sites can do you harm, yet I still have to see proof for that. Ofcourse that does not mean it is not true, there's just too many factors to consider nowadays.

About the linktrade: if you're overly worried and may potentially lose sleep, I'd say, as above, don't do it. If you check his site manually and you see no sign of portals, cloaking, spammy stuff etc. then I don't see why just a grey bar would keep you from trading links.

Think about G's policy: "would you do it when there where no search engines?"
Would you even consider turning him down if there where no SEs?

[dodger]

I can't see how incoming links could be held against you unless there was a VERY strong pattern of spamy sites and plenty of them.

I would do it if it wasn't for the SE's but I won't because I can't afford to take the chance.

[tribal]

Then you'd better not do it, if you can't afford to take the chance, and one link probably won't make that much of a difference (unless it's a VERY good link with a linktext of choice ;) ).

Ofcourse it would be unfair to have G punishing sites on behalf of incoming links, but since a few weeks my opinion on what G will/won't do changed. Instead of thinking about what's fair or not, all they want is clean SERPs.
If they have the chance to take out lots of spammy sites, but with the side effect of taking out large informative good site, I don't think they will hestitate to do that anymore.

[Excel]

A site I suspect may have been banned from Google wants to exchange links, they get good traffic

So where is all there "good traffic" coming from? VERY few sites get banned. Only link *to* sites that are ontopic and if they truely are banned, don't link at all.