Conned into linking to a bad neighbourhood?

Does trying to create revenue change how google sees a website?

[hugh]

I recently discovered I was conned into linking to two websites in a bad neighbourhood (a scam and a phisher) by a would be advertiser after I started selling exposure on my website last year. At the time I'd had authority status for years and I used to dominate certain SERPS both of which were badly hit (half PR and lost A.S) although I initially thought this was the result of some rather crass mistakes ("sponsored links:", no rel="nofollow" & no javascript). Anyway I can't help wonder whether my SERPS weren't usurped by a rival and whether this sort of thing happen a lot...

[tedster]

It's not the fact that you try to monetize that creates ranking trouble, but rather the way that you do it. Links to bad neighborhoods and selling ads that pass PR are two actions that Google has explicitly mentioned they will penalize for.

[hugh]

I see the mistakes I made but what interests me here is the experience of other webmasters in relation to aggresive competition between websites for SERPS...

[trinorthlighting]

This is a reason why you should use the no follow tag. You never know who will take ownership of a domain over time. Be very careful of your links out.

[trakkerguy]

selling ads that pass PR are two actions that Google has explicitly mentioned they will penalize for.

"penalize" may be a misleading word choice here.

I don't believe Google has ever said a site's ranking, or PR, would suffer from selling links without the "nofollow" have they? Only that the site may lose ability to pass PR in their outgoing links.

[jomaxx]

I'm sure lots of sites inadvertently have a handful of links to bad neighbourhoods. When I do link checking, I frequently come across sites that have turned into parked domains or worse. I don't think that in itself would lead to a disproportionate penalty (losing half your PR).

OTOH, if you provide links to these sites on every page, that could be a big problem.