Link Farms… or Spam Farms?

A Link Farm can be defined as a group of web pages containing hundreds of links to unrelated or interlinked websites created with a purpose of increasing their link popularity and search engine rankings . These Link farms are usually created by programs and software and not necessarily produced by human beings.

Although Link Farms have a benefit of being a one stop shop for any website to attain hundreds of links at once, the major drawback of getting linked to them is the deteriorated quality and value of links. Unlike the related and valid links which you could have otherwise obtained by linking to the sites with related information, links you would be obtaining by participating in link farming would be with totally unrelated sites.

Practicing link exchange with the help of Link Farms is also referred to as Link Stuffing. This is because the sites listed in these link farms mostly do not carry any quality or worth with them. These are just stuffed on to the web pages of the Link Farms for the sole purpose of increasing the link popularity and ultimately, link popularity by linking to hundreds of links, obtained easily through these web pages. The quality and value of these Link Farms is deteriorated because, they contain thousands of links to other sites, but they themselves do not offer little or any content which is original, genuine and relevant to them or any other sites they are further linking to.

Often we can observe that the content contained in these sites are either copied or plagiarized from other various websites, without their knowledge or permission. This is solely done with a purpose of gaining some weightage and validity of these Link Farms with the Search Engines.

[Top]

Also, the sites or links listed with these Link Farms hardly hold any relevance with each other and the visitors coming to these link farms are diverted to sites which are hardly of their interests. Therefore, it is always better to exchange and include links with the relevant and related sites, which can help your visitors to explore more information of similar interests by clicking on to those links.

Another reason to avoid using Link Farms as a source for Link Building is, that although Link Popularity is vital for obtaining high search engine rankings, all links are not given equal weightage. Bad linking strategies can also get your site banned by certain search engines. And Link Farms offer exactly that- Bad or Irrelevant Links, which are not related to each other.

If we talk in terms of Search Engines, then Google hates link farms! It has also started labeling the links generated through Link Farms as spam. And slowly, all the other major Search Engines are following the suite by discouraging the links being gained through such dishonest methods. They have also started applying strict measures and penalties on any sites indulging in spam links by getting them removed from the index, especially if they are affiliated with link farms.

Links are always encouraged by all the Search Engines, but only if they are related to your theme or subject, providing your visitors with valuable information on those topics. But link farms rarely provide such useful content to its visitors.

For example: If your site is devoted to a Clothing Brand and its accessories and you include links to the fashion designers' personal sites, celebrity customer sites, and links to stores that sell that Brand, then it cannot be considered as a link farm, but, a relevant Link Exchange practice. This is because, here, you are providing your visitors, access to other related sites which contain more information of their interests.

[Top]

The main disadvantage of using methods like Link Farming, Free for All Links and Link Stuffing is that such practices are done with the sole purpose of deceiving the search engines as they assign rankings to a site, according to the number of web pages that link to its specific page. The plan is to make the search engine believe, that the promoted page is extremely popular because of all the pages that are linking to it, eventually tricking the search engines into giving it a high ranking.

Search engines these days are pretty good at recognizing dishonest links. They are quick to punish sites that try to use spam links to gain popularity, with the help of unrelated links.

Good Linking Strategies always work with the search engines. If you practice Link Building staying within your theme, keeping your links focused on your site's topic. Also, Search engines don't just go by the quantity of links, but, they comprehensively evaluate the relative importance of both, the inbound as well as the outbound links. Therefore it is very important to consider the quality and relevance of the links before linking to them.

Also, automated link generators should be avoided as they send monotonous automated emails to other webmasters, offering to trade links with them. This practice is rarely effective. What is required is a personalized e mail which contains the request and the reason for it, showing the webmaster that you have taken the pains to go through his site and are genuinely interested in linking to it.

By applying a good linking strategy, you can turn your website into an expert on any particular topic, which has your content as well as the related content of your link partners to add to the information source. Visitors interested in a particular subject will flock your website for information and since you will be carrying genuine content and relevant link partners, search engines will love your content. And what's more, you won't have to spend much time fishing for good links, as people with related websites will themselves come looking for you.

Applying honest linking strategy to a website containing genuine content, with links to related websites offering same or related products and services, will help you receive high search engine rankings, and will help your visitors by providing them the information of their interest.