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  johnboydawg · Member · Mar 14, 2013 at 9:52 pm

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  I have heard of something “bad” called a “backlink” that WordPress doesn’t like.

  Very simply, I’d like to know: How do I know if I did this bad thing or not?

  Thanks.

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  staff-blorbo · Staff · Mar 14, 2013 at 9:59 pm

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  Backlinks by definition are fine. If you link to my blog, I might link back to yours if I like it. In that practice, which is pretty much definition of the word, we don’t care at all.

  Lately, backlinks have become more of an advertising tactic. “I’ll link to you, but only if you link to me,” or “I’ll pay you $200/month to link to me.”

  We don’t discriminate against backlinks in general, but advertising is forbidden by our terms of service.

  Similarly, due to their prevalence in advertising, Google is not too fond of backlinks, but their penalties (if any) don’t appear to be too high.