Does being listing in bad neighborhoods hurt?

Optimizers target sites with top results, does it hurt us?

[PatrickDeese]

I have noticed that one of my websites which is a top 5, top 10 and top 20 result for several very competitive phrases (~3,700,000 results) has been frequently included in several supposed "directories" on a range of topics that are basically all variations on these and related key phrases.

Several of these websites have now shown their "true colors", either running a cloaked site - exhibiting the directory in their cached versions, but opening to a would-be competitor when humans access it - or have just junked their directories in favor of their own competitive content.

Google has give the majority of these sites very low or 0 PR.

I come across these sites when searching for very specific phrases that are not competitive which I have in my meta description tag.

My concern is that these sites will eventually put me into a "bad neighborhood", and pull down my PR or worse yet, make it appear to Google that I have willing participated in link farming.

Just tonight, for example, I came across ~15 different sites attempting this with my website. The number of sites found is even higher when checked from other search engines, like AllTheWeb.com.

Obviously, my best defense is to continue to gather real quality links to my domain, to outweigh the bad ones.

I imagine that this must be occurring on a massive level to most of the top ranked websites of forum members.

I would be interested to hear the feedback of other forum members and know what their experiences have been, and if I (we) should worry about this.

[edited by: PatrickDeese at 6:37 am (utc) on April 13, 2003]

[NotePad]

as long as you dont link to them it should be alright, it's out of your control and <g> realizes this..as far as i understand

[WebGuerrilla]

It's very common in highly competitive areas. You should actually be glad that you show up high enough to be included in those "directories."

Although the PR is generally low, there is PR being passed. The shear number of these sites can often add up to a substantial amount of links.

[Powdork]

WebGuerrilla,
What about when Zeus visits your site and two days later you receive an obviously bulk email offering to exchange links and when you visit the site they have your entire first paragraph copied with a link to your site? I am concerned about the duplicate content aspect.
Powdork

ps. Whydoes it sometimes switch to typeover old text instead of pushing it away on occasion in the middle of my posts. For example 'whydoes' I can't fix without retyping the entire sentence. Its a royal pain in the arse.

[digitalghost]

>>I can't fix without retyping the entire sentence

Yes you can, that's what the 'insert' key is for. ;)

[Powdork]

Thanks for that. I've had this problem before here. Does it mean I'm inadvertently hitting insert in the middle of my post to get it that way? That makes me a really bad typer... er typist;)

[digitalghost]

>>Does it mean I'm inadvertently hitting insert in the middle of my post to get it that way

I think that's what it means. You could also be hitting some combination of keys that achieve that result. I know sometimes when I'm typing whole browser windows vanish or the odd cut and paste shows up. Sacrificing a chicken on the full moon seems to clear it up. ;)