What is Bad Neighborhood?
The "Bad Neighborhood" refers to websites that use tricks and dishonest practices to try to get better search rankings. These are the troublemaker websites that break all the rules.
They do things like stuff too many keywords onto pages, hide content from users, or excessively trade links just to boost their rankings. Tactics like these are called "black hat SEO" and are a big no-no.
Getting Penalized
Because the Bad Neighborhood websites cheat, search engines like Google punish them. You'll find these sites at the very bottom of search results, or not listed at all.
Search engines limit how visible they are or make them invisible altogether as a penalty for their spammy behaviour and breaking the rules.
Why You Need to Avoid Them
While it might not seem that bad, having any connection to Bad Neighborhood sites can really hurt your site.
If your website links to them or gets links from them, there's a risk you could get penalized too just for being associated with rule-breakers.
Search engines may decide to also crack down on your site's visibility if you're linked to such websites.
Stay Away from Trouble
So what should you do? Stay far away from any sketchy or spammy-looking sites. Be very careful about where links to your site come from and where you link out.
If a site looks like it might be part of the "Bad Neighborhood" group, don't connect with them at all. Linking to sites search engines have already punished can seriously damage your own site.
Only link to and get links from trusted, legitimate, high-quality websites that follow all the guidelines. That's how you avoid landing yourself in the Bad Neighborhood territory.