I'm glad to hear that Spaceman, and I want to be clear that i'm reacting to this more as a general subject than worrying about specific links. If I spoke too aggressively or unclearly my apologies.

I still think that dropping links is a risky business. Just the other day I was transforming an old domain and found two links that looked bad - one went to a "domain for sale" page, the other went to a site I didn't recognize at all, one that looked as tho it had been expired and snapped up by domain speculators.

I asked about those names here, and I'm glad I did, because one name turned out to be Linksters and the other Jays - both guys who have been generous with links in the past, and who I am comfortable linking to, no matter what their domains are doing.

If you feel you need to drop a link to protect a domain, and the linker hasn't started downloading viruses or suchlike shit, you ought to consider transfering the link to another of your domains.

(I understand this gets complicated, and like me you probably have many links where you've forgotten who the link is too and where to return link is supposed to be coming from - I'm just saying don't slash-and-burn links without giving it some extra thought.)

Linking is about trust. Once we start breaking down that trust, once people see people like yourself (who have a past reputation for good linking) saying they are dropping links, it starts a process of the legitimization of link dropping for personal benefit that will hurt us all.

I've told people that you and Captain are trustworthy linkers - so if you guys talk of dropping links, that threatens everyone who links. Which is why I feel the need to speak up about it.

Hey Marc...not trying to pick on you, but you spoke up so I will use this site as an example....don't hate me |couch|

On the 1st of February, I started this thread. I have not deleted any trades, but have still been trying to figure out what to do about what seem like bad trades to me.

Now for pornoplenty. The amateur page, for example has no PR. Again, I really don't care, other than to wonder why?? That site (and that page) have been online for over 3 years. Also, I cannot find that page indexed in Google. Is this not indicative of a "problem" in Google's eyes. I don't want to be unfair, but I also don't want to lose traffic and money. Something obviously started pissing Google off about my site, and I would like to "fix" it if possible. After all, I am here to make money.

Look again.

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:...&start=10&sa=N

Ok, so I see it says it is in the supplemental results. If you just search for the url though, it is not there. Care to explain why???

No, but if you are a Goolge scholar, why don't you tell us why. ;) Then we'll all understand why you are concerned about the trade.

Because use hasn't asked me ;)

I never claimed to be a Google scholar, which is why I started the original thread. So others, who know WAY more than me, would hopefully explain a few things to me.

If you don't understand my concern from my original post, then I'm not sure I can help you.

JennyM

I think it was last summer when a hell of a lot of sites got hit with there category pages loosing PR and going supp. and even a bunch of mainstream sites(I did a lot of reserach on it and so did a lot of others and they found no good reason for it)and it was after that, That google started liking my index page a lot during the summer months

then google did another update in the fall and my google traffic fell way down and since then it's been slowly coming back...

I know it been really bothering me why my category pages are showing no PR, and trust me I been trying to get them back

I really have no agressive cross linking or spam pages out there or nothing like that

I think some of my google short comings are from having to many aff links and I been working on that to see

so give it another BL update and toolbar update and if my category PR dont come back then just drop your links to my site

My index page is a 5 going by the toolbar for those PR whores

I don't need help. I roll with the punches. I don't get concerned about the minor BS so many of you spend time tracking. And it is BS. You have nothing to validate your concerns with.

also adult link sites fall out of google grace all the time and for a long time at that, and if the link lists that you traded with, 3 to 4 years ago are worried about the "not banned" fallen out of rank site bringing down there site, then who thats in this for the long haul wants to trade with them...

me and greenguy has link trades all over and did my No PR category pages keep his site from his "Good google luck he has had lately"

NO

whoever wants to quit trading with my site because I have a temp No category - go ahead pull your links

I don't have a category trade with you, so I haven't pulled any links. Again, I didn't mean for this to come off as attacking you. I am sure you are busting your ass to figure out how to get your PR back, why it's gone, missing your traffic, etc. All I am trying to do is run a successful site that makes me money.

I traded links with you when your site was barely a month old. How much PR do you think you had????

Many people talk about not bowing or worring about SE traffic, and it makes some sense, but I have to say personally, when it's good, you sure want more and you don't want to lose it. Just my opinion.

I could be wrong but, I think the point of PR0 sites, was more, not wanting to link to banned sites. Linking to banned sites sure can't be real good for your own site. Then again, how do you tell for sure if a site is banned or not?

With all due respect, I don't really need anything to validate my concerns. It is my site, and I decide who to trade with. I could have declined the trade to begin with. So, what? Are you saying if I decide to trade with a site, I am stuck with that trade forever?? Wrong. I haven't deleted any of those trades yet. I am still trying to read up on some things, and hopefully learn some shit. If/when I decide to no longer trade with certain sites, that is my business.

I dont wanna fight and argue with anyone

jennyM were cool

and captain you should have told me and if I sounded harsh then I was just having a bad day

Jennym, I don't know squat about SEO but it's already been said that PR really doesn't mean |bullshit| . Why are you worried about linking to a site that has PR 0? I think if they had traffic, and from your stats you can see if they're sending any, that would be enough to keep links up and not worry about it.

Thats a good outlook - unfortunately I guess there are others that feel that they should just pull links based on their own opinions without notifying anyone and get the benefit derived from having PR3 and 4 category links pointing back to their category pages |crazy|

Useless Warrior the "so what" is that google frowns upon you linking to sites that are penalized and may penalize you for it if you link to enough of them.
How do I know? A page that used to have pr that now does not is a pretty good sign. If they do not show up in the serps, that's another good sign.

I've been doing this for 11 years now and have never pulled links other than when the page that I was linking to either went away, re-directed, tried to install viruses, changed the page that I was linking to to an advertisement, etc. That is the case here with the exception that I am also pulling links to pages that are obviously penalized by google. IMHO the purpose of a link exchange is so that both parties benefit from it. If one party is possibly bringing the other down, then obviously that is not a fair exchange.

Along those lines, if I keep trades to a "bad neighborhood" and hurt my own site obviously I am also not doing right for the other good sites that I'm linking with.

Because most people agree that linking to what Google considers "bad sites" will also "hurt" you Google-wise. We don't always know FOR SURE what sites are bad, but there are indicators. The things I have mentioned here, and in my other thread seem to be indicators. At least that is what *I* believe. And, since it is my site, then what *I* believe matters. |loony|

Does this mean that you think my LL is now a bad neighborhood since I notice you have pulled all my category trades?

|popcorn|

I guess when your a bad neighborhood you dont get no notice

Google rot is affecting the whole adult arena, including some of the biggest people, and has been hitting the midsize and small linlists particularly hard.

We were discussing this in another thread.

There's not a lot of evidence that google rot is caused by "linking to bad neighborhoods", and a lot of evidence that it is caused by:

1. Heavy reciprocal linking.
2. Heavily duplicated anchor text.
3. Lack of one-way incoming links.
4. Heavy phrasing - too many related keywords on pages.
5. As well as the clear fact that by google's standards 99% of all adult sites are spam, because they are affiliate sites whose primary purpose is to drive traffic to sponsors.

The whole form and structure of the midsized or small linklist is just begging to be google-rotted.

But betraying each other because we want to preserve our income is going to fuck us all in the end, because it's not like we don't all want to preserve our income. We're all here to make a profit. If one starts because google is shitting on everybody these days, why should anybody honor their trades?

There has to be a more effective solution, or at least a compromise.

Linkster, I'm looking at my old category link trades and don't see any to linkforsex.com. Is that the domain that you're referring to? For some reason you're listed in the free sites area (not the link exchanges section) of some of my categories, but not all of them. I'm kinda puzzled on this one? How long ago did we do a trade? The only thing that I can think of is that I had a person working for me that may have put your links there instead of the in the link exchange section. I did not pull any links to your site. I'd be happy to add them if you wish.

Bill - I agree with all 5 of the things you posted. I have been trying to address those exact things on my pages recently. The issue I have is that a lot of people consider this all a "bunch of BS". Which, to me, means that they will not do ANYTHING to try to "fix" the problems on their sites. I am just trying to better my site. Like I said, I am trying to see where other people stand on this as well. Not really getting much of a "discussion" though.

I truly enjoy watching people and their knee-jerk reactions to things they cannot possibly quantify. This makes me respect circle jerk TGP owners who bypassed all this nonsense. No need to worry about those pesky and uncooperative search engines.

Preacher created this topic to warn about links he chose to pull due to dead and abandoned sites, not SE voodoo. He has asked me why I don't pursue link trades since I so obviously have very few on my sites. Now he knows why: my fellow webmasters are crazy. I'll stick with whatever the SEs trickle my way and play with purchased traffic, thank you very much.

personally I think that the algo needs to be adjusted for adult sites and I hope in the coming months that it will be

I have been doing things to make my site better for google bot

and I too am gonna look at my trades next as I have trades on my index and trades on my main page