Google: The Source Alone Of The Link Doesn't Make The Link Bad

Aug 31, 2018 - 7:52 am 24 by

Google Links

Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that the source of the link alone doesn't make the link a bad link. It also depends on other factors. For example, John asked if the the destination owner placed the link on the source themselves or not.

Here are the tweets from more context:

We know that Google clarified almost two years ago that the Google Penguin algorithm looked at the link source and not the destination. Does Penguin know how the link got on that source? I do not know.

Here John Mueller is saying that the source of the link is not the only criteria uses to define if a link is bad. Maybe Google has methods to see if you personally added the link to that source or not? Or maybe if there are enough bad links, Google makes certain assumptions.

This type of conversation I am having above is the debate around negative SEO and if Google can detect negative SEO patterns or not. That is a topic we covered here many times.

So what do you think of John's latest statement here on link sources and the intent of that link?

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 17, 2025

Sep 17, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google

Google Discover Tests Showing X Posts From Just Your Followers?

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:51 am
Other Search Engines

OpenAI Updates Search In ChatGPT: Factuality, Shopping & Formatting

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google: Searchers Want AI Summaries Over Links

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

Google Business API Q&A Feature Going Away November 3 (Changes Coming?)

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google Ads

New Google Merchant Center Suspension Video Verification

Sep 17, 2025 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Google Assistant Supports Multilingual Responses