|
The Dangers of Link Farms
Search Engine Optimization
By: Stephen S Alison
So you want to get ahead of the competition on the search
engines, and you decide to use a link farm. Stop! There’s danger
in link farms as with all SEO methods that seem to good
to be true.
Your website shouldn’t link to, or be linked from, websites with
any of the characteristics of link farms. Link farms are web
sites that have been set up for no reason other than to contain
masses of links, exploiting search engines’ link popularity
algorithms. They serve no real purpose, other than getting
everyone who joins to link to and from them and boosting the
rankings of everyone involved. This is a big problem, as most
people consider it to be nothing more than search engine ‘spam’.
|
|
Do not get link farms confused with directories which are
excellent places to get your site listed. The difference here is
that a directory attempts to provide its users with a nice
organized way to get to the information that they want while a
link farm simply posts a ton of links (generally at cost to the
linkee) and serves no purpose to anybody on the web.
Avoid all link farms and similar sites! If you try to use one
then the end result could be a ranking penalty, or your website
might even be banned from the search engine altogether. Being
banned from a search engine is a terrible loss for your site and
will generally lead you to creating a brand new site out of
sheer necessity. |
Remember: the number of links to your site isn’t as important as
the quality of those links. You’re trying to get people with
real, quality sites to link to you. There are even rumors (which
are being validated daily) that Google is implementing a quality
control algorithm for links which includes the amount of time
that a link has existed between two sites as well as the
reputations of the two sites based on how many links they send
out. For example, if you have a link from a site that only links
to three sites all together and this link has stood strong for
months, Google will consider it a valuable link. On the other
hand, if you get linked to by a site with a massive number of
links, Google could care less. Remember, Google is the Santa
Claus of the internet, it’s always watching.
Free for All (FFA) - An FFA is a links page where anyone
can add a link – quite similar to a link farm. Don’t be fooled
into listing your site on these or linking to them. Many
programs will submit your link automatically, to hundreds of
FFAs all over the web. Don’t use these programs! The search
engines will steer clear of your site for a long time if you do.
Who Should I Link To, and How? - Be very selective about
your outbound links and your requests for inbound links, and
avoid any site that’s anything like a link farm. Look for
websites that have similar subjects to yours, good rankings and
good traffic. Depending on the topic, they might be hard to find
– but then you should find it easier to rank highly in these
topics.
Once you’ve found a few good sites, the next step is to email
them and request a link. You should, of course, offer one in
return. You will run into some opposition with this method and
you will sometimes be ignored completely, but you should have a
reasonable amount of success. We can’t stress enough, though,
that you should be careful about which sites you link to, and
check your links regularly.
The Bottom Line - Link farms are dangerous to your
website and a complete waste of time. They can bring your
business crashing down by getting you banned from the search
engines. You should be concentrating on real marketing methods –
even though they’re not a ‘quick fix’, they can work if you give
them some time.
There are many real ways to get traffic to your website, and
using professional methods can give you a big increase in
traffic. Using link farms and FFAs is a good way to get yourself
nowhere fast.
Search Engine
Optimization Techniques -
The Basic SEO Rules for All
Websites. Search engine optimization isn’t rocket science, but
it can feel complicated at times. To have a successful campaign,
just follow these simple rules detailed here – they apply to all
websites.
The Grand Daddy of all Seo Software! Get A Top 5 Google Ranking In Under 30 Days!
The days of the dinosaurs are over! Generate massive keyword lists and spy on your Adwords competition!
|