Did you know that link farming exploits the importance of backlinks to deceive search engines with artificial links and ranking?
According to Backlinko’s study, web pages with more backlinks tend to rank higher on search engine result pages, with the #1 result having 3.8 times more backlinks than results ranked #2 to #10.
While high quality links earned through ethical strategies can benefit your site’s ranking, many websites resort to underhanded tactics like link farming which can do more bad than good.
Keep reading to discover the risks involved and how to safeguard your site from link farms with GrowthOG backing you.
Understanding Link Farms
A link farm is a network of websites connected through hyperlinks to increase the number of incoming links to other websites. These are often low quality sites and have little to no original content.
Is a link farm a private blog network? No, it’s not, but it could be part of one.
While a private blog network aims to send link juice to other websites outside of the network, link farms only link to their own link farming member websites.
The sole purpose of link farms is to artificially inflate a site’s domain authority and its importance in the eyes of search engines. This is a form of spamdexing that brutally violates Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Therefore, link farming is considered a black hat SEO technique that genuine SEO experts strongly discourage site owners from using.
As a trustworthy outsourced backlink-building service, GrowthOG takes search engine guidelines very seriously. By focusing on ethical, whitehat SEO practices, we are committed to delivering real value and meaningful link results that help businesses maintain a healthy SEO score and take off.
The Problem with Link Farms
On the surface, link farming may seem like an instant energy dose for boosting your search engine ranking position.
However, this seemingly too-good-to-be-true practice carries potential pitfalls that can ultimately harm your website’s ranking on search results.
Keep reading to understand why it can be detrimental to your website. But first, let’s break down how this practice came to be.
History and impact
Link farms emerged in the late 1990s when search engines like Inktomi and AltaVista were dominant players in the market.
Their algorithms relied heavily on link popularity to create their search rankings, making link farming an effective tactic.
The primary Inktomi index limited its search results to 100 million listings. This meant that any websites with fewer inbound links than that certain number would fall out of the Inktomi index.
To handle this nail-biting problem, early SEO practitioners developed the strategy of creating a dense website network interconnected like spiderwebs that could supply links between each other. This ensured a steady stream of inbound links among the sites, offering a safety net by leveraging the strength of the numbers.
However, as search engines evolved, link farming became increasingly ineffective and risky. Google’s PageRank algorithm was a game changer, evaluating link quality rather than merely tallying links.
Google’s stance on link farms
As Google prioritizes high-quality backlinks, it has consistently advanced its algorithms over the years to detect and filter out unnatural linking patterns. Google Penguin exemplifies Google’s efforts to combat black hat link-building techniques.
Link farming generates spammy links solely intended to deceive search engine algorithms and offers no value to users, making Google hate link farming and deem it a violation of its Spam Policies.
There are two main penalties for link farming: manual penalties and algorithmic penalties.
Algorithmic penalties are automatic punitive actions related to Google’s core algorithm updates.
If a site receives a warning from Penguin (aka “link penalty”), it means your site has been involved in link-trading setups and violates its guidelines. This warning serves as an alert, indicating that webmasters must refine their sites to meet Google’s algorithm standards.
On the other hand, Google’s manual penalties are issued on your site when human reviewers discover that your site is manipulating Google’s search index through spammy behavior.
Compared to algorithmic penalties, manual penalties are more severe and challenging to remove. Sites receiving manual penalties will experience a downgrade in search engine rankings or may be omitted from search results entirely.
On top of that, Google’s “SpamBrain” update in December 2022 officially nullifies inbound links from link farming, penalizing reciprocal linking.
Ahrefs’ 2020 study shows that 73.6% of websites already use reciprocal linking. Among these websites, 43.7% are top-ranking pages.
Two years after the release of SpamBrain, Google has identified and penalized over 200 times more spam sites. This illustrates Google’s determination to crack down on manipulative linking practices.
Identifying Link Farms
Link farms look very similar to any legitimate website at first glance. The following indicators and techniques will help you recognize if a website is a potential link farm.
- Excessive outbound links and low-quality content: Not only the website will have an unusually high number of outbound links, but the links are unnaturally or forcibly inserted. Also, the content is very poorly written and stuffed with keywords.
- Exact same anchor text: If most of the anchor texts are keyword-rich and descriptive, it’s likely that the site’s SEO is manipulating links.
- Low website rankings: This is a sign that Google doesn’t see that site as high-quality or valuable.
- High domain authority: Don’t be fooled by this SEO metric trick from link farms. They may be built on expired domains with high domain authority but provide no real value or SEO benefits.
- Unsatisfactory design: Low quality websites with identical layouts, fonts, and structures, may indicate a network of websites operating link farms.
- No real author identities: Look for websites that use anonymous authors like “team members” or “guest authors” with stock photography for their articles.
- Nonsensical “About Page” information: Link farms are websites created solely to sell links to those seeking a higher rank in search results. Typically, the “About Page” on these websites is poorly maintained and contains minimal information, making it impossible to find any contact details or data about the site owners.
Below is an obvious example of a link farm website.
The site covers various categories, including food, education, health, finance, etc. Upon first glance, it appears to be a legitimate website.
However, with further inspection, you’ll find low-quality content, anonymous authors, and an empty “About Page.”
Additionally, the websites’ layouts look the same. They also lack any significant organic traffic.
Google will penalize link farms and the websites that the link farm links to. That’s why you – as a webmaster must avoid linking to websites that may be link farms at all costs.
When seeking out backlinks, be aware of any link farms in disguise. Thoroughly inspect the sites for similar categories and sections that may be designed to sell links.
You can also analyze a website’s link profile using backlink checker tools like MonitorBacklinks to ensure its links surpass link equity.
At GrowthOG, your website and your peace of mind are free from harmful links. Our team utilizes advanced tools and conducts thorough manual reviews to ensure your backlink profile remains safe and protected from potentially damaging links. Get in touch with GrowthOG’s team for assistance!
Risks of Using Link Farms
Link farming brings more harm than good.
Paid link farms might seem like an easy way to get hundreds of backlinks, but they can actually put your site at risk in the long run.
Google has zero tolerance for malicious links. It can detect link farms, and if your backlink profile contains any, you may face penalties, removal from search engine indexes, or even a ban from search engine results.
Plus, low-quality links generated by link farming can significantly hurt your backlink profile, raising questions about your site’s trustworthiness. This harms your website’s reputation and leads to decreased organic visibility.
By now, you should be concerned about your website’s SEO performance if you aren’t already.
Whether you’ve noticed a sudden drop in traffic, rankings on search engines, or sales, the best course of action is to conduct a thorough backlink and site audit, address any issues you find, and hope for the best. Delaying action will only cost you time, money, and effort.
Why risk using link farming when you can acquire high-quality, relevant links through GrowthOG? As a reputable link-building agency, we create sustainable SEO strategies that protect your reputation and organic visibility.
Fixing unnatural links from link farms
Don’t panic if you accidentally have unnatural links from link farming in your backlink profile! Follow these helpful tips.
Identify the problematic links
Backlink analysis tools like Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker are a boon to a website’s link profile analysis.
It provides a comprehensive breakdown of your incoming and outgoing links with all SEO metrics, broken links, and more. This makes it easy to identify low-quality or suspicious links that may indicate link farms.
Evaluate the links
When scanning backlinks, Google inspects for repetitive or unusual linking patterns. These may include links from forums, link farms, blog comments, private blog networks, mass-produced content, and so on.
Google identifies these patterns as indicators of manipulative practices rather than natural links.
When checking for unnatural linking patterns, look for identical anchor texts or links from unrelated sites. These are strong indicators of spam.
Determine how these links affect your search rankings and overall SEO health. Then, create a list of which links you should remove or disavow.
Disavow unnatural links
As Google’s John Mueller stated, disavowing or cleaning up bad links to your site can help Google’s algorithm trust other links to your site. This emphasizes how important this action is. Regardless of the link types, whether it’s dofollow or nofollow, you should disavow them all.
Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush have built-in disavow link spam features for managing disavowed links. These tools allow you to combine spammy backlinks into disavow files and easily import those files into Google’s Disavow Tool.
Once you’ve created the disavow file, submit it to Google Search Console to prevent these links from negatively impacting your rankings.
Remove links manually
This task involves contacting the link farm website owners and requesting link removal.
You should have a list of spammy links that need to be removed, as well as the contact details for each website.
Since link farms usually provide limited contact information, you may need to use a tool like Whois to find registration and contact details.
Remember to document your efforts to remove links, as this may be useful if manual action is required.
You can use SEMrush to simplify this tedious task. Its backlink audit tool can filter toxic backlinks from link farming, add them to removal lists, and send them to website owners with a pre-written email draft. You just need to input their email addresses, edit the template, and send the emails.
Don’t forget to follow up on and keep track of your link removal progress. Verify that webmasters have removed the links as requested, and analyze how link removals affect your site’s performance.
Monitor your backlink profile
It’s essential to regularly check your link profile for any new, unnatural links. Doing this helps you promptly identify and remove suspicious backlink activity that could damage your site’s credibility.
Additionally, using alert and monitoring tools like Moz, Monitor Backlinks, or Ahrefs can keep you informed about any changes in your backlinks.
Implement preventative measures
It’s not uncommon for blackhat SEO link builders to use link farming tactics to sell inbound links to their clients.
In such cases, you must avoid engaging with link-building services that display these “red flags”:
- Promises of quick results or guaranteed links.
- Suspiciously low cost.
- No proven case studies or testimonials.
- Lack of detailed measurements and results.
Participating in these dubious services not only wastes your time and money but can also damage your long-established SEO efforts. Instead, focus on developing a robust, organic link profile through ethical SEO practices for juicier link rewards in the long haul.
Seek professional help if needed
If you’re searching for the fastest and most hassle-free way to protect your website from unnatural links, think about hiring an SEO professional or agency to help with link cleanup and strategy.
They have the expertise and tools to perform thorough link audits. Additionally, they are skilled at premium link-building through reliable and valuable networks with website owners.
Acquiring authoritative links will resolve any problems caused by unnatural links. Ensure that you select reputable agencies that adhere to ethical SEO guidelines and prioritize long-term growth over quick fixes.
Alternatives to Link Farms for SEO
Instead of relying on artificial links from link farming to yield results, it’s much wiser and safer to concentrate on sustainable and ethical SEO link-building strategies.
Ethical link building strategies
Here are some “old but gold” tips on how to build links ethically and avoid penalties from search engines:
- Focus on creating high-quality content on relevant websites that naturally attracts genuine links.
- Reach out to reputable industry websites for guest posting opportunities to earn mentions.
- Maximize your link impact and restore your SEO performance through link reclamation.
- Prioritize user experience and satisfaction over temporary ranking boosts.
- Build high-quality, relevant links to your website through valuable content, partnerships with authoritative sources, and genuine outreach efforts.
- Foster genuine connections, and engage in authentic outreach and relationship-building with reputable websites.
Good things take time! Put your faith in ethical white-hat SEO practices, and you will reap fruitful rewards.
Best Practices to Avoid Link Farms
By following these best practices, you can avoid link farms and build a strong link profile for your website.
- Monitor your backlink profile regularly to track down malicious backlink activities.
- Disavow any spammy or suspicious links that you identify.
- Adhere to search engine guidelines for quality content and ethical SEO practices.
- Avoid link-building services that promise quick results or guaranteed links at suspiciously low costs.
- Examine your link choices carefully. Choose corporate blogs of businesses that prioritize high-quality content and credible links.
- Opt for obtaining editorial links from legitimate business websites. That is a wise long-term strategy.
- Diversify your backlinks by acquiring links from various sources, including high quality sites, social media, and directories.
- Focus on building high-quality, organic backlinks through valuable content, authoritative partnerships, and genuine outreach efforts.
At GrowthOG, we hone in on crafting genuine and impactful links through relationship-based link-building with authoritative websites within the industry. Our team of experts will help you supercharge your business with healthy, sustainable SEO strategies, ensuring you avoid the risks and penalties associated with illegitimate practices.
Over to You
Is link farming good? Heck no!
Is link farming worth investing in? Absolutely not!
Acting as link-building shortcuts, link farms attempt to increase the number of links pointing to a specific website to manipulate search engine rankings and inflate domain authority. This practice is considered spam and can result in penalties for your website.
Say no to link farming as it can tamper with a website’s SEO and reputation. Instead, focus on building high-quality, relevant links to your website through above-par content, authentic outreach and credible partnerships with reputable sites.
Trust GrowthOG to build a robust, penalty-proof backlink profile tailored to your business through a comprehensive, personalized SEO strategy.
With GrowthOG, Google penalties won’t stand a chance!