A link farm is a network of sites that link to other sites for the sole purpose of increasing link popularity. This is when a website gets hundreds of links to unrelated sites in exchange for reciprocal links. This is termed as spamming and any website that is related to link farms is penalized by removal of the index of a search engine.

History of Link Farms

Link farms were originally developed by the search engine optimizers to take advantage of the dependence of the Inktomi search engine on link popularity. That was the target of manipulation with the use of link farms by the fact that it was used by a number of independent search engines, but popular. The most popular search engines during that time - Yahoo! also used Inktomi results to supplement its own search function in the directory. Link farms facilitated the stabilization of the listings of business websites online have few natural ties of the most stable.

Link popularity is used by search engines to reach a ranking of search results. However, when link farms became the Inktomi engine was maintaining two indexes. The main index search results are limited to 100 million listings of pages with few inbound links index fell on a regular basis. While the link exchange management was informal agricultural output, several utilities were created over time to handle automated updates page for registration, classification and links to member websites.

The arrival of the Google search engine paved the way for the use of a weighting scheme link called PageRank. The PageRank algorithm assigns more weight to links that are determined to be more valuable than others. Agriculture used to help link the pages of members to increase their PageRank. This soon became an object of manipulation by unscrupulous webmasters who continue to receive the input link, but found a way to hide the links out, if not totally avoid posting any link to all their sites. There was a need to link farm managers to implement quality control and demand respect for members of the standards that have been installed to ensure fairness.

As a result, alternative agricultural products emerged as the software link to link research to identify potential reciprocal link partners. This made it possible to send template based emails offering link exchange. Directory-like pages were created to link the websites of intent to build link popularity and PageRank. The link farm movement was countered actively by search engines, as they sought to identify specific attributes associated with link farms therefore filter the pages of indexing and search results. There were cases in the whole domain had to be removed to avoid the potential influence of link farms in search results.

Link influence farm drag decreases as the search engines increased their ability to rate sites. It became unnecessary to link farms to help sites keep their positions in the primary indices. However, it remains a popular tool for increasing values ??PageRank or perceived equivalent. Inktomi technology has become a part of Yahoo!, while the term "link farm" is now regarded as an insult.

There is still an ongoing debate about the value of the use of PageRank in determining ranking of search results. Search engines are a good reputation in recommending that webmasters request relevant links to their sites instead of participating in link farms. Sites that participate in link farms are at risk of having their search rankings penalized.

Spam link farm page or not?

Link farms usually refer to sites with an almost endless list of links to other sites instead of links from one page to another within a site. Relevance of a site is not an important consideration in determining the links as the main purpose of the link is to a high rank among search engines. The provision of good information for users no longer the goal of these websites, and that focus on achieving the popularity of search through the many links.

When a specific website, said he was participating in a link farm? The current indication seems to be pointing to no more than 100 links on a page as a security measure. There are fears that have many internal links will be interpreted as a link farm.

A link farm consists of a set of web pages that link to all the websites of the group. Can be created manually, but is most often created through automated programs and services. It is sometimes called spamdexing since it is a way to spam the index of a search engine. A term that is often associated with it is the "spaghetti code" that is a code with a structure of complex and tangled control using structured branching constructs.

The first algorithm that emphasizes the voting power of "authority sites" behind the processes of manipulation of link farms. It is this assumption that link the pages related to each other and authoritative pages tend to link to other sites of authority. On the contrary, is linked to spam sites or sites that use Black-Hat SEO degrades the reputation of any site. Association with reputed bad sites affect a site position in search engines as it is to be classified as a site irrelevant.

As spammers valid for all purposes of the linkage, the value of reciprocal linking continue to decline. Many irrelevant links provide no value and can be seen as spam by human experts and the search engines. A directory of links to categories are not clear, organized, clear links can be interpreted as a link farm, especially if there are more than 50 links on a page.

TrustRank is used to combat the various techniques used to achieve higher rankings that actually deserves a search engine result. It uses a technique that identifies the pages reputable seed and uses your link structure to discover other pages that can be good too. Its aim is to avoid spam and deliver the actual content that is desired by the search.

There are a number of ways to ensure that the directory of a Web site link does not end up being classified as another form of a link farm. The inclusion of a link directory on a web site has its own advantages, but be careful not to have too many outbound links on a page that dilutes its value. If the web site links are varied and tend to be involved, you will need to be categorized to be relevant to the other.

The use of titles clear, concise descriptions of the categories will help users (humans and search engine spiders alike) understand what a particular category has to do with what measure of relevance on success can be determined. Not required to accept all link exchange requests, especially if the site requests can not be considered a good representation of the theme of a site and values. It is highly recommended that regular monitoring approved link exchanges are done to determine the status of links and determine if the relationship continues with them is still acceptable. It is possible that, although some links are initially present as good connections have been banned, broken, or moved. These are situations beyond the control of anyone what is best for a website to work hard to maintain their links and content relevant to continuing to attract qualified traffic to itself. Link farms may be considered obsolete in a sense, but continues to pop up in different ways today.