Will Google penalize you for linking to non-related sites?

[suzee_lk]

I've heard different opinions on this subject. I swap links with any website as long as I feel my type of customer visits those sites and if it will bring me business. Am I wrong for thinking this way? Will google penalize me in the rankings for some of these non related sites?

 

[Jerlene]

Well, search engines see irrelevant link exchanges as just a way to gain backlinks for your site and try to fool the search engines into ranking you higher.
Live is already banning sites that do this excessively.
I wouldn't be surprised if Yahoo! and Google were next.

 

[jitendraag]

Normally, I wouldn't do reciprocal linking at all. But if I decide to go for it I would choose my reciprocal partner very carefully and definitely not just based on PR of the page (as many others do).

Avoid linking your sites to unrelated sites, it also impacts your adsense earnings because unrelated text and links on your site may result in non-targeted ads being shown.

 

[shockie]

if there really is no purpose for linking to a non-related site, then you should avoid it. in general, i don't think that google will specifically penalize you for linking to an unrelated website (other than any usual outlink), but you might get flagged if you do this a lot.

also, even just a few links out to "bad neighbourhoods" could also get you in trouble.

 

[Hafsoh]

Outbound links to unrelated sites, especially bad neighborhood sites, may have a detrimental effect on your site rankings. Try getting links from relevant and general sites that could have some thing related to your site.

 

[SEOFocused]

no, you will not be penalized for getting links from non-related sites. relevant backlinks worth more, but links that are not related will still give you some value as long as they are not from bad neighbourhood

 

[mdamin76]

Google won't penalize you, but they would love a site with relevant links more.