Page Rank and Link Farms

Should I not care?

[steveb]

I learned the hard way last month how important linking is on Google when one single site "accidentally" dropped their link to me and I fell a lot on my keywords. (The single site is the main one in the field.)

I get a lot of requests from (what I consider) link farms to exchange links. They are not precisely on my topic but, well, if my site was about the "Planet Earth" these sites would be about "This Solar System". That sort of relationship... semi-related.

Anyway, I assume I don't get great value from these, but what I read about linking is really non-commital on this point so I'd like as clear feedback as I can get (thanks).

Is exchanging links with a semi-related site with scores of links a bad idea? Even if "bad" is it so minisculely bad that I shouldn't worry about it?

[Brett_Tabke]

I don't believe so at all. As long as it is a quality site and on topic, don't give it a second thought.

[ann]

On the other hand,

If you are talking zeus like directory themeindex then yes, do indeed worry!

Ann

[Beachboy]

Whatever you do, check to make sure that other site has PageRank, and it wouldn't hurt to check your outbound links periodically. One thing you definitely don't want to do is be caught linking to a place that Google has suddenly deemed to be a so-called bad neighborhood.

[rogerd]

I'll echo Beachboy's comment - check the PR of the sites you link to. One or two links to PR0 sites probably won't hurt you, but you don't want to have gobs of them.

As far as inbound links, I'd take any I could get. Except in unusual circumstances (e.g., Google concludes you are involved in some kind of link scheme), it's doubtful that inbound links will hurt you. If the link is on a PR0 site, it certainly won't add to your PR, but it won't hurt you.

[Marcia]

I have just discovered some of those horrid link farm sites newly linking to one I look after. No email even to have the courtesy to ask, just added the link. One is an atrocious site with a vile filename. And yes, they're PR0 and they have the usual link back on them to you-know-where.

Links from sites with no value I don't care to have, and it's particularly bothersome to be linked to by several of them without consent, which is associating sites with bad neighborhoods against their will.

Roger, it hurts me by association with bad reputation. It looks extremely tacky in looking at the back-links. Aside from which, I am the legal copyright holder of that title and description, which is why I keep copyright privileges and have a link on every page - which is reason enough for Google to understand perfectly well why people MUST have link & copyright on each and every page of a site they design.

What would the little lady who's site that is think if she saw those links? She doesn't know enough to look, and wouldn't know how to begin to deal with it. She's be mortified, particularly with one of them.