Can link building have a negative affect on your ranking?

I posted this as a comment in another thread but it comes up so much I thought I'd start a discussion on it that we can refer people to in future.

This is just my take. I encourage everyone to add their own thoughts and experiences but please try to have some evidence to back it up where possible

---

On the subject of manipulative link building not being detrimental I think everyone is seeing it from too extreme a point of view when the "truth" (ok, my observations) sit somewhere in the middle.

First of all, let's deal with a big link building myth straight out of the gate. "Manipulative link building can't hurt my site because then I could just derank all my competitors"

GiftCertificates.com was pipped for the number 1 spot by FindGiftCards.com because the latter owned and operated 123counters.com, a free stat counter that handily provided a link back to FGC.com. This scam was outed by Stephan Spencer (founder and president of Netconcepts) and Google swiftly dealt with it to restore order.

Full details here -

Analyzing Competitors' Search Engine Optimization

That article was originally published in 2004 but it was reprinted almost word for word in the recent SEO book "The Art of SEO" because it's as relevant today as it's always been.

Google absolutely do not want you manipulating their search results and have to take action against stuff like this to send a message to everyone involved. "Don't do it"

So there, unequivocal evidence that manipulative tactics can and will get you busted down the rankings ... in some situations.

Matt Cutts' job is to weed out SE spam and manipulation, so of course he's going to tell you that the Google spider is the smartest thing on the planet and to give up before you try .... strangely that doesn't stop a lot of people doing really well with it.

So wait a minute Andy, what you're saying is that manipulative tactics work but they also don't work ... what gives?

My point is that, in highly competitive SERPs, that are widely monitored and receive a lot of attention, direct manipulation isn't going to work. But if you want to do some link blasts to get ranked for "blue widget product redball factory cat" then no, no one is going to care.

So where's the cut off line?

The line is somewhere between where it's profitable for you to do it and where it's profitable for Google to stop you. And that line moves in Google's favour everyday.

So work out what your goal is. If you want to rank this site now (and that's often very desirable) and you are doing so in the long tail, you're going to be alright for a fair while to come.

If you are doing long term corporate SEO then you better make sure the main efforts you put in are above board, Google endorsed tactics and save the spammy stuff for related sites that it won't hurt you if they get canned. A good example being setting up a number of long tail niche blogs to work alongside your client's main website. The main website remains untouchable with long term strategy involved. The niche blogs receive get ranked fast tactics to deliver results quickly and effectively.