Linkfarm: detecting and avoiding unnatural link patterns
What a link farm is, why it is risky and how you better assess problematic patterns in the link environment.
The topic is especially important when rankings, trust or the evaluation of external signals are unclear. In practice, it is almost always worth looking at quality, context and risks instead of pure quantity values.
What a link farm is, why it is risky and how you better assess problematic patterns in the link environment. This wiki page arranges the topic practically and shows, When priority arises, which mistakes are often and how you derive concrete measures from them.
Example: Many domains show the same linking pattern
Several websites publish similar short texts and point to the same customers with identical anchors. Check samples, topic references, and recurring placements. A single common layout is not yet sufficient as proof for a link network.
Document the pattern before deducing consequences. A high number of linking domains can hide the low independence. For own partnerships, comprehensible target groups and real editorial content are more important than the size of the network.
What is the purpose of a link farm?
Websites need backlinks for SEO that strengthen their ranking. Normally, these should be set as voluntarily as possible from other sites, because a web presence has so much valuable content that other webmasters like to refer to it. That would be absolutely in the sense of Google and other search engines.
A second possibility is that the webmaster of the page to be optimized installs landing pages and blogs and links to his own page from there and from press portals, forums or social networks – but only from meaningful content. This method of targeted link building is also allowed. A link farm, on the other hand, serves only to manipulate the search engine algorithms, against which the search engine operators defend themselves. The pages from which links are made contain no added value for the users. But creating this is the top priority of every single page on the Internet.
Who sets up link farms?
As a rule, they are or have been operated by dubious companies that offer webmasters to operate the OffPage SEO for their page with backlinks. The webmasters concerned should buy the backlinks. Those who respond to this can observe a short-term effect: The ranking improves for a few days or a few weeks until the Crawlers discover the unauthorized backlinks and the website Penalty (Penalty) cashed, which can mean a reduction in the ranking and, in the worst case, a ban from the index. The link farms themselves or their operators are also punished. However, they can be re-established again and again.
How do Google and other search engines work against link farms?
For a long time, the search engine algorithms have also evaluated the content on a page. If this is marginal or meaningless, which can be seen from the dwell time of the users, and at the same time lead many links from the page to other pages, it must be a link farm. First, the crawlers devalue these links, and they usually block this page for the index quite quickly.
Can Link Farms Still Affect SEO in 2021?
As mentioned above, they can be refurbished again and again and can bring their customers short-term success. At the latest since the Penguin Update For the Google algorithms from 2012, link farms are identified very quickly and purposefully, which is why practically all SEO experts strongly advise against buying backlinks.