Link Hunting Tips: Bad Neighborhoods

Don't use the toolbar as a guide.
The toolbar is not a useful metric. Never under any circumstance use it to measure quality. Just go to Yahoo and do a linkdomain search, you'll get far better information.

I'm a fan of backlink analysis
linkdomain:example.com site:.info
linkdomain:example.com site:.edu
linkdomain:example.com site:.us
linkdomain:example.com site:.gov
linkdomain:example.com site:.org
linkdomain:example.com site:.com

Weed out backlinks from the same site.
linkdomain:example.com -site:example.com site:.com

Then weed out backlinks from multiple pages from another site:
linkdomain:example.com -site:example.com -site:runofsitelinks.com site:.com

The PageRank meter can't deliver the richness of data that the above searches do. I'm looking for a diversity of backlinks. Too much within a network and it starts to be shady. This is especially true when purchasing links. Identify what is powering that toolbar green, don't be swayed by the green itself.

How old is the site?
If the site has been around for less than a year that's a strike against it. It doesn't mean there's something wrong with the site. For instance, amazing content can indicate a happy future for the site.

Is the whois proxified?
I like it when a site is open about who owns them. Everybody's entitled to their privacy, but I have a lot of respect for a person or entity that shows the proper ownership information. To me that demenstrates, to a certain extent, that they are legit. The toolbar doesn't reflect this at all.

What other sites are on the same IP that share the same owner?
This is another thing that isn't reflected in the toolbar. This is research that should be done if you're judging how good a link is. A lot of bones can come tumbling out of the closet. It can get ugly.

Who owns the sites that are linking to the site?
Again this is something the toolbar won't reflect but is critical for a good backlink analysis. If significant amount of the sites are being fed by the same owner or network of sites, in my opinion, that's not a good sign. It gets back to diversity of backlinks. I'm a big fan of diversity. The toolbar reflects zero about the diversity of backlinks.

Look and feel of a site
This is a gut feeling type of metric and not reliable. I've seen badly designed websites that are in amazingly good neighborhoods and vice versa, and the other way around. I don't think the look and feel of a site is a good metric for judging the quality of the neighborhood of a site. That said, some people tend to make linking judgements based on exactly that metric so as a receiver of links, presentation can help the campaign for picking up a few links.

Topic of the Site
Certain topics attract sites using dodgy tactics that put them into bad neighborhoods. However, that's a result of promotional strategies, not of the topic itself. Do the link analysis. The topic of a site may raise eyebrows but that doesn't mean it's automatically a bad neighborhood. For instance, have you ever checked the backlinks for Suicide Girls? Not bad for a porn site.

The important thing to note is that the toolbar does not reflect any of these metrics. It's easily manipulated. The use of the toolbar as an SEO tool should not just be put to bed, it should be planted next to the spot that keyword meta tag stuffing is buried.