Is this a good backlink or a bad one?

1. 68

   wyanjenposted 14 years ago

   ack. Is this good, or bad, or no big deal....?
   Yes, I put on my noob hat.
   
   
   One of my articles at Ezine is now posted on a really messed up site from Thailand. It's a food article, but the site's URL has "refinancing" in it. There are some others there from different article directories.
   All of them have been through a spinner. Some are about financial stuff and others are about food stuff... but everything is all jumbled up.
   Why would a site post articles in English but then spin them so they read like ESL? Doesn't that defeat the purpose? And why would you spin an article from Ezine anyway?
   
   
   They included the resource box, so the link to my hub is still there.
   
   so which answer fits:
   
   A.) I don't care that my article reads like a thesaurus exploded all over it, because I have a link to my hub
   
   B.) I don't want my name attached to this garbage, and the link is no good anyway because the site is so messed up.
   
   I don't quite understand this well enough. Please fill in these blanks for me!
   (My answer is A. Is that bad?)

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   1. 68

      rb77posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Google knows we have no control over who links to us so, as long as you don't link back your fine.
      
      They have violated ezines terms for publishing articles, but I don't think ezines has any clout to do anything. I questioned ezine once about this and they pretty much said I had to work it out with the site owner. As it was mentioned, the link is probably worth (less or nothing). It's one of those things that's not worth wasting much time with.

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2. 97

   Rochelle Frankposted 14 years ago

   Show people say there is no such thing as bad publicity. It is a link-- maybe it will bring people who might not "normally" find you. Question is--will they click and buy?
   I have no expertise in this area, but if it is making you feel itchy, it might be better to drop off their list.

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3. 70

   Cagsilposted 14 years ago

   I haven't met a backlink I didn't like.

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4. 66

   Mishaposted 14 years ago

   Spinning - to avoid duplicate content. I would suspect it was translated several times, not spun - this is how auto-posters work nowadays.
   
   A vs B - your call. I would go with A, but if you feel really bad about it - contact the owner with your concern, and 99% they will promptly remove your post. People who do that kind of thing usually don't want any hassle.

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   1. 68

      wyanjenposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      a ha.
      Makes perfect sense that it was translated and not spun.
      
      

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5. 65

   Maddie Ruudposted 14 years ago

   The backlink probably won't do you much good, as sites that do that don't usually have much pagerank/linkjuice.  However, it's not doing you much harm either, since it's not a word-for-word duplicate, and in my experience it's impossible to get stuff taken down from those sites anyway.

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   1. 68

      wyanjenposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      spooky.
      This was exactly my thinking, except for one question... Since I put this article up on Ezine, I'm not sure how much control I would have over it anyway.
      
      I didn't post it for a Pulitzer, I put it up there for the link. So, I don't care really about the horrible grammar. But, should I? It also links back to my own site (that's how I found this), where I publish under the exact same name. Does it matter that this makes me look like a hack?
      

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6. 66

   Mishaposted 14 years ago

   LOL Looks like our experiences differ dramatically Maddie

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   1. 65

      Maddie Ruudposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Oh?  Do share.
      
      
      
      This isn't true, actually.  A link from a domain Google regards as "bad" (a website with illegal downloads, for example) can hurt your search engine ranking.

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      1. 66

         Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I own such a software, and participate on support forums, so I sort of have the info from the other side. "What to do with removal request" question there is as frequent as "how can I increase my hubscore" question here
         
         And the universal responce is - you don't want the problems, comply.

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      2. 59

         Gleddy13posted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Maddle,
         Just wondering if you have actually ever tested this theory?  I have heard this argument so much and have never been able to prove it with my own testing. 
         
         I created two different sites in the same niche with unique content and coding.  Did legitimate link building on both until they were ranked well.  Then I spam linked the crap out of one of them and...... Nothing.  It didn't drop, but it didn't help me a bit either. 
         
         This test was repeated a few times with the same results, and I know for a fact that some of the links that I generated were from "bad" sites in Googles eyes.
         
         I just don't even think these kind of links are worth worrying about because the probably won't be in the G's index for long anyway.

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7. 60

   Ohmaposted 14 years ago

   So how do I find out if someone had linked to my Hub?

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   1. 60

      NathanSyckelposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      go to www.backlinkwatch.com and put in your hub url.
      
      It will show you the backlinks to your hub.
      
      And to the poster. There is no such thing as a bad link.

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      1. 0

         ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I beg to differ, I know people who have had problems with content being deindexed after being linked to from an Adult site. It seems Google pays attention to negative attention, however unfair.
         
         Don't think that the OP will have a problem though.

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         1. 68

            wyanjenposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah, the site doesn't strike me as dubious, just sloppy.
            Also, it's less than three weeks old.

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         2. 66

            Mishaposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            I seriously doubt it Ryan. I mean deindexing part. Likely there were other reasons, and backlinks were just a coincidence.

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         3. 60

            NathanSyckelposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Ok. So whats to stop competitive internet marketers from bombing their opponents with links from porn sites to get them deindexed? If Google worked like that, there would be rampant competition killing each other in the SERPS

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            1. 0

               ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Sunforged already said this above ^^^^

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8. 80

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   ohma - yahoo site explorer
   
   google search commands
   
   seo quake
   
   seo for firefox
   
   seo quake is my preferred tool

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9. 80

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   yeah, I vote A -
   
   I also vote C - not worth a single second more of your time to think about

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   1. 68

      wyanjenposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      
      This is my favorite answer.

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      1. 59

         DonnaWallaceposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Me too.

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10. 60

    Randy Godwinposted 14 years ago

    I was just reading about a site which has stolen thousands of articles from Helium.com writers.  The site is called EZineseekers.com.  I checked and some of the articles Helium stole from me are posted there.
    
    I haven't check for hubs yet.

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    1. 68

       wyanjenposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       
       
       damn.

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11. 80

    sunforgedposted 14 years ago

    MattCutts has fielded that question dozens of times.
    
    Obviously if a link from a "bad" source was a negative, especially as negative as a deindex - you would just add your competitors links to a "bad" site.
    
    Its pretty intuitive

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12. 79

    thisisoliposted 14 years ago

    Matt Cutts has confirmed that being in a bad link neighborhood won't hurt you as much unless the site becomes known for paid links.
    
    In the last couple of years Google has really been cracking down on sites which offer paid links, and the stes that pay for links. Matt Cutts has confirmed this too!

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13. 78

    ss snehposted 14 years ago

    Hi!   No! Absolutely Not!
    
    The content on your competitors belong to their sites NOT yours!
    
    (that particular article which is published on your competitor's site)
    
    In return, you get a back link.
    
    If that back link comes from a higher PR or some rating other than PR...
    
    (Google says more than 200 factors determine a sites ranking!!)
    
    ...then you get a fraction of rating from that link which depends on number of links on that particular page.
    
    If the back link is from a bad SEO practitioner you will NOT be affected by it.
    
    In short, it's not possible to damage a site's reputation by doing actions external to it.
    
    ( the actions have to be from - internal - the site)
    
                --Thanks

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14. 75

    LeanManposted 14 years ago

    The link won't hurt you, but it probably won't help you that much.. I keep finding all sorts of strange links that pop up when my articles and stuff appear in some very unexpected places... You can't control it so don't sweat it...

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