What is a Link Farm?
A Link Farm is a group of websites that all link to each other with the goal of increasing each other’s link popularity. Link Farms are nothing new and date back to the late 1990’s when link popularity was one of the main factors in determining which websites appeared high in the search results.
Link Farms are typically generated with software and can be identified by hundreds if not thousands of pages of uncategorized links. Adding your listing to a Link Farm usually requires a reciprocal link to be placed onto your website. This link is usually found on a hidden page on your site that contains a page or pages of links back to all the different websites where a link to your site can be found.
Why are Link Farms Bad?
While useful in the past, today Link Farms have no use. Despite this fact, they still exists and some website owners still fall into the trap of signing up with them. Today, having your site listing on one is a sure fire way to get the search engines to red flag your website. As a result, most SEO experts place Link Farms into the Black Hat category, however there are still some SEO Firms out there that still register their client’s websites with them. As a result, business owners should make sure that Link Farms are not in the toolbox of any SEO firm that is hired.
