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.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Manual Links Vs. Smart Links
Hey Everybody, Is there any downside to the smart link plugins that I see all over wordpress? Basically in short I enter a keyword and where I want that link to go (primarily internal) and set the parameters of repetition etc and it automatically adds the link to that. Now other than the obvious situation where it might put a link in an awkward place, is there anything wrong with this sort of software? Part of me things that this sort of software would not be liked by Google, and that it isn't really getting counted as a true link, but i wanted to see if there were other thoughts or experience with this.
Link Building | | HashtagHustler0 -
RSS feed links
Is this an RSS feed link? How was this page generated? http://blog.moregoodfoundation.org/category/technology/feed What causes it to show up as a backlink in open site explorer? And how would you go about removing these links? Lots of questions there 🙂 Thank you.
Link Building | | ThridHour0 -
When pitching a whitepaper as Push Content for Link Building, is it ok to give the person I'm pitching a link to a landing page with a form on it?
When pitching a whitepaper as Push Content for Link Building (i.e. pushing out content that my client has created), is it ok to give the person I'm pitching a link to a landing page with a form on it? Or should I create a landing page with the whitepaper included on it? I’m not sure if the client will be ok with this b/c I know they use the whitepaper for sales purposes to gain leads. For example, my pitch email would include a line such as this, "the whitepaper can be found at LINK and I'd love if you could share it with your readers." I think it may be weird/a little wrong to ask a webmaster to include a link on his site to a landing page with a form to get the whitepaper. Does this make sense? What have others done with whitepapers as Push Content for link building?
Link Building | | ArketiGroup1 -
Google Link Disavow and sites with extremely heavy but poor link metrics
Need help/opinions from the SEO's out there. I am working with a site that in the past hired an SEO company out of India. Over the course of their time together, this company submitted the clients url to tens of thousands of link exchanges and directories. Around the time of Penguin, the owners told me their inquiries dried up. Literally that same week they had a new website launched (designed by a local competitor) that really butchered the site. They were convinced the reduction in traffic/inquiries was due to the new site but I am convinced otherwise (suspect Penguin). Not only does the site need to be re-structured but their link portfolio needs to be diversified. Now on the plus side, the company caters and sponsors a number of events that earns them organic, relevant links. These are overshadowed by the tons of poor, irrelevant ones though. I read a few posts recently on the Google Link Disavow tool and to proceed slowly due to the unknown nature surrounding it. I have a good idea of what links are problematic and which ones are well served. However, the number of problematic links in my estimation is quite high (thousands). I am very hesitant to dive into Google Disavow and submit such a large number of requests. What are your thoughts? How would you proceed?
Link Building | | mattylac1 -
Is link exchange a reliable source to get back links?
I read a latest post on seomoz that _“Do not buy or exchange link with anyone who contacts you. This is completely against Google's policies and if they were to find out, you could be penalized." So I went through Google's ''Link Schemes'' and found that ''Excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you")'' can negatively impact a site's ranking . _ So is it the ''excessive'' link exchanging that can cause a negative impact? Exchanging links with good quality, cached sites (without excessive doing) can do good or bad? Can anyone please explain to me in detail?
Link Building | | semvibe0 -
Panda Update: Isn't a link still a link?
I was doing some link building and some SEO's said that the Panda update affected many websites. I am going to use eZineArticles.com as my example. EzineArticles was affected by the Panda update and does not show up in the SERPs as much as before. But they still have doFollow Links coming from the articles I am submitting. QUESTION: Regardless if EzineArticles was affected by the Panda Update, isn't a "Follow Link" still a "Follow Link" OR am I completely wasting my time on this devalued website? Edit: Yes I know a PR 0 page is not as valuable as a PR 9 page. I am asking from the standpoint of the affected Panda Update domains overall.
Link Building | | Francisco_Meza0 -
Would you suggest submitting a website to a travel platform which gets backlinks from link farms?
The website of the travel platform is well designed and looks serious - without any adsense or suspicious links on it. So does the email newsletter of them. But I checked the domain in OSE and saw not less links which came from more or less linkfarms with very often the same anchor text. Would you suggest your customer to submit on the platform?
Link Building | | petrakraft0