Forum Moderators: martinibuster
For example, there is one that in it's advertising states that it turns up near the top in a Google search for "link exchanges" and "link partnerships". Does that mean that Google approves of them? If I link to them will it be an advantage or will I be penalized? I just want to make sure before I mess up anything.
Free For All links. These are places that allow anyone to add a link...
From the Link Development Charter [webmasterworld.com]:
FFA Link Farm: A link farm FFA or (Free For All) are farms where anyone can add a link. Many of these FFA/Link Farms have been banned.
A link farm is pretty well defined.
:) Y
Hmmm, I beg to differ. Only FFA Link Farms have been defined, being a subset of Link Farms in general. What is and/or is not a Link Farm is still very much open to debate.
Hermosa, you bring up a valid point that the SEs tacitly encourage linkage by including it in their algoss. Drawing a fine line between exchanging links for traffic and exchanging links purely to influence SERP position is difficult and certainly worthy of discussion.
The difference as I see it lies somewhat in the area of intention, which is difficult to ascertain by mathematical or programmatical means.
My advice, if you are worried about showing up in the SE's radar, would be to seek out link exchanges with on-topic or complimentary sites who are themselves under the radar. Top position for [Link Exchange] might be a warning factor.
Onya
Woz
Fiction: Joining a link exchange or "free-for-all" link program will boost my rankings.
Fact: Linking schemes do not increase a given site's PageRank, and will often do a site more harm than good. Many sites that advertise link-sharing programs not only offer little value, but will distribute your email address without your permission, resulting in an increased volume of unwanted mail to you.
Within the above statement Google lists three defining criteria:
1- Joining a program specifically aimed at increasing your rankings
2- Programs that are schemes for increasing rankings (a "scheme" being commonly defined as a systematic plan or program for the achievement of a specific goal)
3- Sites that advertise their link sharing programs
Google singles out link exchange programs. In a program the intent is fairly clear.
There are unadvertised programs you can opt-in to join if you agree. Those programs are by invitation only. I doubt Google can spot them, though.
Link farms vs link exchanges
Nothing wrong with exchanging links. Probably best to exchange links with similar sites within your neighborhood. The concern is raised when it's a link exchange program.
So the next question is naturally, can Google spot a link exchange program? Well if the search engines were whacking the websites that promote them you probably wouldn't be able to find them on the search engines. But you can find them. However, if you go to the dmoz directory for link popularity you'll find some brand new gray bars in there which seems to indicate there's some weeding going on. But those are the exceptions not the rule.
So does that mean the search engines aren't scrutinizing link exchange programs? Maybe not as much. But that doesn't speak for the future. That might lead to the conclusion that the search engines aren't sophisticated enough to cope with all the schemes. They probably aren't but that's not necessarily a reason to throw away caution.
I think the difference between a link exchange and a link farm is fairly clear if you define a link farm as a systematic link exchange program designed for influencing rankings. But as Woz mentioned, there's the issue of intent. Yet the issue of intent is resolved if you throw in the word advertised- if the intent is clear on the website. But then we're back to discussing the search engines inability to cope with all the schemes out there.
So in the end you're left to exercise your common sense with a few loose guidelines.
I suppose this isnt a link farm due to the fact you can only swop a link if its on topic? Correct?
So how can you identify a link farm
Start by going back in time. It used to be that links were links and they all counted for something. Back in them good 'ol days when PR was still a virgin and AltaVista was king of the pond, the first networks of interlinked sites were being created to scam the engines on link popularity. Sites would be created that were nothing but pages and pages of links to other sites. These were not FFA, where anyone could sign up for them, these were farms, each page a field of links. They were set up to create link pop for a chosen set of sites. A link farm might have 10,000 to 1,000,000 links on it.
I can't recall the last real link farm I saw, but it's been at least a couple of years. You'd be out of your mind to try to do something like this today. That's probably why I haven't seen any real link farms around lately.
Google's warning about link farms has been up since I can recall, at least since link farms existed and could be found. So, in a way, it's referring to a legendary entity that doesn't exist anymore in its original form. It would be prudent to assume that other linking schemes of similar intent are also to be avoided. Even so, there is really no modern beast of an equivelent nature to link farms. Its closest cousin would probably be heavily cross-linked networks of domains.
"Excessively cross-linking to inflate a site's apparent popularity, including participation in link exchanges or "link farms".
That clinches it for me.
