On the World Wide Web, a link farm is any group of web sites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Although some link farms can be created by hand, most are created through automated programs and services. A link farm is a form of spamming the index of a search engine (sometimes called spamdexing or spamexing).
SEO Professional Beware
Looking for good inbound links is quite a job and can be hazardous to your search engine ratings. Do not get involved in a link farm. Luckily there are some indications that the organization you are working with is a link farm…
1) There is a fee involved, it is never free.
2) Promises of HUGE traffic.
3) Talk of a large network of websites.
4) Lots of testimonials
These points do not guarantee the site your’re dealing with is a link farm but they should set off alarm bells in your head. These points indicate that caution is required.
How do I know for sure?
You don’t. There is no list I am aware of and even if there is I will venture to guess it will never be totally complete. For me, if it sounds like a link farm, walks like a link farm and smells like a link farm… its a link farm. Better to lose a link opportunity than have my Search Engine rankings destroyed.
Safety
When I am working on a recip link program I do my homework and research the web site I am planning on working with. I do some searches, I check the ranking web sites and even look at the whois.org information. This does not mean I will ever be involved with a link farm but it is as far as I can go.
If you know of a link farm and would like to warn the rest of us please include the website in a comment here.
Think of a link farm as one of the mines in the minefield of SEO. Be careful.
Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!
great post as usual!