Will Google Penalize Me For Having a Poker Site Link on My Site?

Anyone know or have experience with this?

 

I don't think so, but why take a chance. Apply the "nofollow" attribute to be safe.

 

I personally avoid linking to any shady industries....gambling, porn, pharmacy, dating, etc. It's not worth the risk when you hear so many people saying to avoid linking to bad neighborhoods. While there are many respectable companies within those niches, they are likely not related to your site.

 

Penalize? probably not but having any association with such links does absolutely nothing for you unless you are in that industry.

 

If the link is relevant then link to it, otherwise no. Never link to an unrelated website, ever. If it doesn't help your visitors (think about why they are at your site) then don't post it.

 

I hate all no porn, no gambling, no blah blah links. Why? Just because they are slightly taboo in society doesn't make them automatically bad to link to. Google is not a person. Would making a site about pooh rank any worse than a site about feeding orphans based solely on the subject?

 

hi

buddy its not that you would be penalized for this
but then too you should try not to have links of other sites which are not of your niche

but if your site is of the same niche then it is completely fine

ankur

 

yes i agree with everyone here. Do only legal sites and legal products and no shaddy stuff and sleep better at night. There are plenty of legal things that you can do and make a huge income. just my 2 cents.

 

People refuse to link out to gambling and porn pages due to the potential effect it may have on Google's perception of their pages, not due to some half-formed moral issue. Before you get so wound up about it, consider that.

I think you missed the point. Nothing he's suggesting is illegal, or even immoral - we're talking about how the SEs view outbound links to "bad neighborhoods."

 

Hey why gambling sites like poker are made illegal for SE... Gambling is legal in many countries..
I have seem people are promoting gambling sites also and. are getting top ranks in google with gambling articles on their site..

 

It is not a question of legality. Porn is also perfectly legal, but linking out to porn sites may harm your sites' SE ranking (depending on your site's topic). This has more to do with a history of abuse and gaming in certain niches, rather than a moral judgment.

Can we just take the whole idea of legality out of it, please? I don't know which idiot tossed that into the ring, but it's totally irrelevant.

 

Did you sell them a link on your site and they do not want you to use the nofollow attribute?

 

I agree with you. And my own experience shows that if you like to a porn site it won't hurt rankings unless the site you are linking to is already banned from Google index.
Of course if most of your out going links and incoming links are from gambling sites, then your site also will labeled as one which could hurt you. Another thing to consider is the quality of the site you are linking. If that site is a pop hell with lot of malware etc. then you could be in trouble. Like someone mentioned before, keeping your out going links relevant is the key.

One or two links to clean porn sites will not hurt your ranking at all. (I do have lot of adult as well as mainstream sites).

-Neo

 

I never got any penalty from having a poker link on my blogspot before but Blogger has it deleted without them notifying me.

 

You are right, and @damnIneedAjob you can use nofollow tags for unrelated links.

 

No. Poker is a legal past-time. If the link is relevant then it will be fine. If you think about it religion, hospitals and politics have harmed far more people than poker

 

simple answer - no, you will not get penalised.

 

I was approached about putting a link to a poker site on damnIneedAjob. They offered to pay a decent amount for it. I am of course skeptical about the offer and will probably decline simply out of caution. I have no moral qualms with gambling or porn for that matter so that isn't the issue. Thanks for all the input and helping me think through it.

 

No you won't get penalized as long as your site is related to gambling / poker. If it is not related you might want to remove it.

 

I work at a company where people play video games for money. The video games are considered a game of skill which are legal in most states of the US. Do you think that would have the same issues as poker?