link farms not allowed right?

[needhelp]

I found one of my competitors using a definite link farm - sticky mail me if you want to know the url (pretty sure I can't post actual urls here). Wierd thing is...when you try to go to their site from a link on one of the member's sites, it takes you to Microsoft's home page! Very clever cover!

I'd be shocked if Microsoft had something to do with this! If so, how do I sign up! Just kidding all! Only straight-arrow stuff for me!

Should I report this to Google, or are link farms not a big deal? I've found all 5 sites above me in ranking are doing some sort of spam or another, even tried reporting some of the blatant stuff. But, alas...

[spaciba]

Hi needhelp,

i'm relatively new to this myself, but have found all of the info on this site to be incredibly useful. Actually i've just been a voyeur for the past few weeks...this is my first post :)

Based on what I know to date...

1. link farms are a pretty big faux pas with google
2. there's some controversy surrounding the most efficient and effective methods of reporting spammers...i've included the link to a recent thread that dealt with this in case you haven't seen it yet...may be of some assistance. I'm not sure if link-farming is a 'reportable' spam in the same way that hidden text would be, maybe someone else could elucidate?

[webmasterworld.com ]

Kelly

[mack]

You coudl fill out a spamm report @ google

Pretty clever trick though to forward your domain to MS via htaccess. wonder if MS will receive a pr0 as a result of it :)

now that would be class.

[needhelp]

I think after reading threads about reporting spam, I'm gonna stay away from it from now on - seems it can be hazardous, that's a shame!

[edited by: WebGuerrilla at 4:33 am (utc) on Dec. 1, 2002]

[needhelp]

Sorry all, false alarm I think. The link seems to be a banner exchange, not a link farm. And I think it actually is Microsoft's. Still fishy though since I still can't pin down how a site becomes a member - not that I have any use for banner exchange.

Unless banner exchanges somehow act to boost link popularity? Any thoughts?

[spinnercee]

I can only say that while a link-exchange could be considered a "link-farm in a box" they generally only present three links on any particular page (prev-curr-next)...

With respect to Google, it seems like antything you can do to get a link to your site on "other" pages is good... the smaller the web-ring in terms of the number of sites it contains, increases the likelihood your link will be found by a bot... Visibility is always good for your site, period.

Jus my 2 cents (US$) :)

[Dante_Maure]

Aloha spinnercee, and Welcome [webmasterworld.com] to WebmasterWorld. :)

Just so things don't get any more confused than they already are... you're describing a WebRing. WebRings are a legitimate form of site promotion often used by hobby type sites and are entirely different from Link Farms and other types of link exchanges.

To my knowledge there are no known penalties associated with WebRings, while Link Farms can cause very serious trouble for the participating sites.

[mistafeesh]

So what constitutes a link farm?