Link Farming
-
Are link farms still bad? I still am not sure about this question. I know that some people still do link farms. If they are bad, wouldn't a directory be considered a link farm? For instance I can get my site on a .EDU, but it will just be a list of links. Is that bad?
-
I believe there is a significant difference between a link farm and a directory. And although there are likely going to be differences in how everyone views the two, the basic differences to me are:
Link Farms:
-No editorial discretion in who is linked to
-No editorial discretion in how one is linked to
-Often generally require a return link or triangular link
-Free for all approach to posting a link
-Often no real review process in terms of quality
-Do not have clearly defined guidelines for the process
-Allow you to link in any way you want (link anchor)
-Do not have content and promotional guidelines for content
-Created specifically to manipulate SERPs via surgical text link manipulationQuality Directories (I believe there are about 15 total of these on the Internet myself)
-Editorial discretion in who is linked to
-Editorial discretion in how one is linked to
-do not require any link to be listed
-Review process in terms of quality
-Have clearly defined guidelines for the process
-Link to you as a business
-Have content and promotional guidelines for content
-Created to provide value to searchersI would stay away from link farms to be sure.
-
it's just a page on a .edu full of cool sites that the person likes.
-
For instance I can get my site on a .EDU, but it will just be a list of links. Is that bad?
I don't know what your definition of a link farm is but mine is a site that has at least a few SEO links stuffed into every page.
What you are describing to me could be a curated list of outstanding resources done by an .edu librarian or professor. Those can be some of the best links on this planet... but without more info we can only guess. It could be an untended forum page or a student site stuffed with naughty links.
-
Google's PR doesn't mean anything to SEO. Use Open Site Explorer to really evaluate the site. (They could have just purchased that domain with a high PR). I would also spend a bit of time and evaluate the other links you would be grouped with. Again, if they are quality sites in your industry, then that may be alright. But if they are just a bunch of spammy sites, then keep away.
-
Well it will have unique content on it. Perhaps I will put more on it than just links than
-
It's all about quality unique content. The reason a lot of .edu's do well is because they have a lot of domain authority and a lot of them have been around for a long time. The directories that pass good link juice have this going for them as well. If you create a link farm on an .edu domain, you won't be fooling the search engines. It'll be a brand new site with no links to it that has no unique content which links out to a bunch of sites which may also be spammy, aka a link farm.
I'm not sure what your goal is with this site. If your goal in creating the site is to give an SEO bonus to these site you're linking to, I doubt it do any good. If your goal is to create a site that is a directory that is useful to people, and people start using it, linking to it, sharing it, then it could work. If your goal is to put up a site that has some links for your own enjoyment, go for it! If Google thinks your site is a link farm, it's not like they're going to dispatch agents to your house in the middle of the night or anything.
-
But if it's a PR 5 isn't that a solid link? Who cares if there are other links on the page.
-
Yes, they are bad. Keep away and focus on good quality links.
If it is a reputable directory with good DA (Domain Authority) and PA (Page Authority) and relevant to your site, then go ahead. Google's latest updates are really focusing on quality links from quality sites.
In the long run it will do more damage then good.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Refferal links
I have a site where I can pick up where my hits came from. So if somebody clicks from another website link to visit my website, I will then pick up from which website they came from and also which page they landed on. Will google penalize me for this and see this as paid advertising?
Link Building | | Heinwest0 -
When link building yourself where would you advise are the best places to add links?
Hi I am not having much success with SEO companies so am looking at link building and doing SEO myself. Where would you advise are the best places to add links? Also is it better to add links to specific pages or just to the home page? Thanks in advance
Link Building | | Briggzy0 -
Link building
Hello everyone, I am building links for an e-commerce site and I need to increase the value of the links we get by placing them on specific pages in order to pass more juice to inner pages. Which part of the website should I point the links to? Because there is no content section on the site what I can do is either link to the homepage (not an option) or link to inner pages such as category/subcategory/product pages. My doubt is that it wouldn't look natural to link to products pages from a piece of content or from a site where people go with the intention not to buy but to get information. Any opinions on this?
Link Building | | PremioOscar0 -
Many competitor's backlinks are in content anchor links. Ho do I get these same links?
Hi I managed to open up OSE. I'm finding that much of the competition's backlinks are in content anchor text links. Am I supposed to get backlinks from these same pages using the same anchor text but linking back to my page or is that allowed? If so, how do I get these in content blog post links? Thanks. Sunil.
Link Building | | sunilmuse0 -
Links on the same keyword
When is linking from one particular keyword to much. At what point could link building from one keyword be considered spam and potentially delist a site ? Is it possible for a site to be delisted for having to many links from the same keyword ? Heard linking from the website name is more important following recent changes. I try and link from a selection of 3 to 4 keywords. Thanks for your help
Link Building | | onlinemediadirect0 -
Are 36 links from one site to nested pages better than one link to the root domain?
I have a Driving School website www.1stclassdriving.co.uk. The site is structured geographically with 36 area pages, one
Link Building | | Brian_Worger
page per area post code and one page per Driving Instructor. I am trying to develop links and have found a site (da91 pa
63) where I can create area links to each of my area pages if I
wish. Is it best to just create one link to the root page or
should I create 36 individual links to each area page? - which is most valuable?0 -
Social Media Links
I use a social media plugin to link my blog to my social media profiles, and there is an option to make these links nofollow. I'm not worried about losing link juice to my social profiles. Is there any advantage in this case to using nofollow?
Link Building | | waynekolenchuk0