Signals of Crap

Every time we were talking about “signals of quality”. Why don't we try and compile a list of possible "signals of crap"?

I realize that many of the list items would logically just be a perceived "signal of quality" reversed but if we all dig down into our experience then this exercise just might bring up a few unique and useful insights. I need to discuss some points of “signals of crap” (in other words draw backs in our SEO or development process). Here's a start:


1.) Reciprocal link request pages.
2.) No Privacy policy.
3.) Outdated copyright date or last modified date visible on the pages.
4.) Error pages that don't send 404 headers or send content regardless of the page requested/query string entered.
5.) Massive numbers of incoming links from link farms.
6.) Dead/404ing links.
7.) High link churn.
8.) No published contact address, email address or phone number.
9.) A high bounce rate (surfers clicking back on their browser and selecting another search result).
10.) Too much duplicate content.
11.) Whose info for the domain which is the same as other domains previously penalized or banned. (Could also be true of ad sense publisher/affiliate ID's and other identifiable footprints)
12.) Use of/links to affiliate programs that are known scams.
13.) Domains previously used for spam or that are blacklisted.
14.) Stagnation (Site never changes)
15.) excessively long URI's/URL's (query strings or folder and file names)
16.) A high percentage of affiliate links vs. regular outbound links.
17.) No / very few outbound links.
18.) No / very few inbound links.
19.) All inbound links are to homepage only.
20.) Outbound links to questionable/spammy/crap sites.
21.) Profanity or explicitly adult language on a non-adult site.
22.) Too many spelling errors.
23.) Contains unrelated subjects (ex: a site that reviews toys and tries to sell insurance or Viagra).
24.) Lack of interest from social book marking sites.
25.) MySQL or PHP errors in the pages.

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