All about Link Farms

Michael Buczek - February 8, 2008

There are many link strategies available that can help your site achieve the rankings you are looking for. You can submit your site to directories, write articles and push out press releases. One practice to watch out for is link farming. This black hat practice has been around for a long time and continues today. Be wary of link farm schemes and other tactics like this.

The idea behind link farming was to get as many links from websites as you could. It didn’t matter if the sites were relevant or not, as Search Engines would supposedly consider a site more “Popular” because it has so many links pointing to it. Most of the links in link farms have no relational subject matter to each other. They will most likely have a page on a site with a laundry list of hyperlinked keywords called Anchor text pointing to the various sites in the farm. When search engines see that a link farm has formed, they will penalize all involved, thus dropping ranks. Some have reported increased rankings at first, but soon after report a drop to lower than they were when they started.

Signs of a Link Farm

• Require reciprocal linking — this means that you have to put a link to their site, before you can have a link on their site. If you come across this don’t do it.
• Laundry list of sites on a Deep Level Page with no description about the site.
• Unsolicited emails telling you how great your site is and you should form a partnership with them.
• In some cases, there will be a page called “Link Partners” or “Links”.
• No discrimination for sites included.
• Ask for a link on your links page even if you don’t have one.

If you should run across sites that have one or many of the characteristics, do not participate. If you are still unsure, contact your Strategist at MoreVisibility and they will gladly assist you in determining the right link building strategy.