Can poor inbound links affect a site?

[sbcal]

Just curious, can inbound links from link sites (not added by website owner) harm the website?

Also, since it could be added at anytime, would Google view this be as a duplicated submission? For example, one could be submitted as http://yourdomain.com and other, http://www.yourdomain.com.

Thoughts, anyone?

[Will.Spencer]

Originally Posted by sbcal

Just curious, can inbound links from link sites (not added by website owner) harm the website?

Google used to say that inbound links could not cause you to be penalized, but recently their answers have been much more vague.

At this point, I strongly believe that inbound links can get your site penalized -- but that it is very difficult to do accidentally.

Originally Posted by sbcal

Also, since it could be added at anytime, would Google view this be as a duplicated submission? For example, one could be submitted as http://yourdomain.com and other, http://www.yourdomain.com.

Google has experienced some truly horrible bugs handling www and non-www versions of domains. Google claims they are fixed, but Google has erroneously claimed that serveral times in the past.

I strongly recommend that you use Apache's mod_rewrite to 301 redirect your domain to the www version of your domain.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.example.com(:80)?$
RewriteRule ^/(.*)                http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301]

[sbcal]

This is certainly good to know, I guess inbound links may be counted as points toward your site, and could provide you a higher placement. It may be good to review all link exchange partners before accepting them. Also, to avoid any websites that use doorway pages or hidden text.

Now, onward I go to rewrite my .htaccess files. Appreciate the clarification!

[Will.Spencer]

Originally Posted by sbcal

It may be good to review all link exchange partners before accepting them. Also, to avoid any websites that use doorway pages or hidden text.

Oh yes! Outbound links to "bad neighborhoods" can really screw you.