Bad Neighbourhood - recognise and avoid [Guide]

Definition: What does the term "bad neighbourhood" mean?

"Bad neighbourhood" comes from the English language and can be translated as "bad neighbourhood". According to the definition, a bad neighbourhood is an area with an above-average crime rate or an area with high security risks.

None of us want to live in such an area, and in the best case scenario we avoid them completely. Not least because you are judged by the environment in which you find yourself.

In terms of search engine optimisation, this means that if your website is in a bad neighbourhood, it will have a toxic effect on you.

In other words, it poisons your otherwise impeccable reputation. Google will judge you accordingly and you will have to expect sanctions such as a downgrade in the rankings.

Bad neighbourhood and SEO

Who determines what constitutes a bad neighbourhood in the SEO sector and which websites are part of one? In this case, it is the search engines themselves, i.e. Google and Co.

Let me explain again:

What makes a neighbourhood bad?

In search engine optimisation, a bad neighbourhood primarily refers to a negative backlink. In other words, a link from a website that has violated the guidelines of Google or other search engines or that disseminates offensive or illegal content on the internet.

How do I recognise a bad neighbourhood page?

There can be various websites involved. In any case, they include ...

• Sites that sell backlinks
• Sites that attract negative attention through spam measures
• Sites that infringe copyrights
• Sites that generally violate rules and guidelines

What are the effects of bad neighbourhoods?

"You get what you pay for" is an old saying. In our case, it applies in any case: If you are in a bad neighbourhood, your website will be severely penalised by Google and the other search engines.

This penalisation of websites by search engines can take various forms, such as a downgrading of the position in the SERPs or even complete removal from the index.

Of course, it also depends on whether a bad neighbourhood page links to you or whether you yourself link to a website that does not follow the guidelines. In the latter case, you should always expect more severe measures from the search engines.

Finding the cause is not always easy

The effects of the bad neighbourhood problem are not always immediately apparent to a webmaster.

For example, a poor position in the search results and an associated drop in traffic may be the result of a penalty due to bad neighbourhood - but this is only one of many possible explanations.

In fact, many other problems manifest themselves in the same way.

A precise analysis is therefore important before you take the first measures.

The first diagnosis of a poorly ranking website in search engine optimisation usually focuses on the technical programming and the content.

Only when these two areas can be ruled out should you take a closer look at the backlinks.

Here is a video on this topic:

How to recognise bad neighbourhoods

I would like to show you a method that you can use to assess whether you are affected by a bad neighbourhood problem or not.

SEO agencies like us work with special paid programmes in such cases. With these, such analyses can even be partially automated. In this way, a large number of bad neighbourhood websites can be quickly identified.

Here is a list of the checks carried out by our SEO tool Xovi:

Am I in a bad neighbourhood?

A guide to self-diagnosis

Once you have made sure that there is no error in the technical implementation of the website and that everything is in order in terms of content, you can turn your attention to the backlinks and start the self-diagnosis.

We use the Google Search Console for this. The Google Search Console is the link between Google and your website. You can read valuable information here.

Under Search queries / Links to your website, you will find a list of all links that point to your website. Under "Who creates the most links?" You can click on More >> and see all links displayed.

You will now see a list of all links. With the button "Download current links" you can download these links as Excel.

This list must now be worked through manually. In other words, suspicious websites must be searched for and found. To do this, open each individual website and look for the following things:

• Does the website look dubious in any way?
• Does it advertise sex, Viagra, pills or dubious gambling?
• Does the website perhaps have little content on its pages (thin content)?
• Check the visibility score of the domain.

Normally you can get very far with your common sense.

You can check the visibility of the websites you are checking with the free mini SEO tool from Xovi. This tool shows you the OVI. The higher this value, the higher the visibility of the website.

Websites in a bad neighbourhood have a very low OVI or an OVI of 0.

Make a note of these dubious backlinks.

At this point, I would advise you to contact an SEO agency. Especially if there are a large number of dodgy backlinks.

Countermeasures: Disavow backlinks with the disavow tool

Google provides a way to disavow backlinks from other websites. As a website owner, you cannot always defend yourself against a strange link pointing to your own website.

That's why Google provides the Disavow Tool. I can use it to say: "Google, please don't evaluate this backlink for my website any more".

You can disavow individual links here:

If there are a lot of backlinks that you want to disavow, you should do this via the Google Disavow File. Google provides complete instructions here.

But be careful! Use this tool with caution or, even better, consult an SEO expert. Because you can also damage your site with improper use.

Google says so: Invalidating a link is an advanced feature that should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, this feature can affect your site's performance in Google search results.

How to keep your site's neighbourhood "clean" in the long term

Make sure that you produce the highest quality content possible. This may sound logical, but it should be emphasised again at this point.

After all, high-quality content is the only way to generate high-quality backlinks over time. However, this does not happen overnight; you will have to be patient to create a backlink profile of the right quality.

If you want to stay away from a bad neighbourhood, you will also have to regularly check the links on your own website. This includes both internal and external links.

This applies not only to new links, but also to existing links. This is because entire page content can often change suddenly. The rights to a domain expire, the operators of a site change, companies go bankrupt ..

I don't want to go too far at this point, because I'm sure you understand what I'm trying to say.

In general, the following applies to link building: quality before quantity. The days when as many backlinks as possible - regardless of their quality - resulted in an improvement of your site's position in the SERPs are long gone.

Want to know more about link building?

If you are interested in more information about backlinks and building links to your site, I can recommend the article Backlinks & Backlink Building Tips for 2021.

There you will not only find all the important information on this still very important topic in search engine optimisation, but also important tips for link building that you as a webmaster can put into practice immediately.

We'll give you a helping hand!

If you have any questions or are looking for expert help in the field of search engine optimisation, please feel free to contact us. Simply send us a short email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. call us on +43 1 353 2 353 or send us an enquiry directly using our contact form.