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This is Grumpy SEO Guy, episode 142, trying to build backlinks Avoid Link farms. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the grumpy SEO Guy, and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and. And trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because when a lot of people find out that they need backlinks, they get them from link farms. Okay? So in this episode, we're going to talk about what link farms are and why they are a problem. So before we do that, a couple reminders. Email me at hellogrumpyseoguy.com ask a question in the subreddit@Reddit.com r grumpyseoguy. If you want to support the podcast, you can do so at patreon.com grumpyseoguy. If you have a complicated question and you want to set up a Zoom advisory call, you can email me. And please subscribe to the podcast if you like it. Okay, let's get started. But before we do that, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical. And based on my experience, this podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Okay, back to the show. So what is a link farm? A link farm is basically a website that has too many outbound links on it. Obl. Okay. That outbound link. Right. So the reason I'm making this episode is we were recently doing some research for a client. And as some of you may know, before we start building backlinks, we spend a lot of time doing research into a client's website and their competition and all the things. Right? Because we need to make sure that, first of all, there's no changes to their website that they need to make before we start building backlinks. And second, we want to make sure that we maximize the benefit that our backlinks provide. So, anyways, we were looking at this website and we noticed they had some backlinks from a couple link farms. And I said, you know what, that would be a good point for a podcast. So anyways, look. Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, like, right away, I'll just tell you it wasn't a big deal for this client because they had a few hundred referring domains and they only had, like a small number of link farms that were linking to them. So, like, it wasn't really a big deal. Okay, but anyways, let's talk about link farms. So, as you know, on Grumpy SEO Guy, I don't name things that are bad. So for example, if there's a tool that I don't like, I won't tell you the name of it. If there's a service that's horrible, I won't tell you the name of it. And if there's a website that's spammy, I won't tell you the name of it. But I will describe this link farm website so that if you ever see a link farm, you will know it's a link farm. Okay? So there were, and like I said, there were a number of these websites that were linking to the client anyways, so on the front page, okay, it was just link after link after link, and there was no content, there were no articles, there was no context. It was just links. So there was a link and then there was a new line, and then there was a link, and then there was a different line and then there was a link and it was all the way down. And there were dozens or hundreds or thousands of these outbound links on every page. And usually link farms have hundreds or thousands of pages. So you can see how spammy this is, right? A link farm is a website that is only on the Internet to provide backlinks. Okay. And they usually don't even have content. It's literally just links. Okay, so does that. Do you see why that might be spammy? Okay, so. So let's talk about some of the problems now with these link farms. Okay? So the first problem is, even if they have any authority, there's a very good chance that you're not getting any of it. Okay? If you have a thousand outbound links per page, each website is barely going to be getting any authority. Every website and every webpage has a specific amount of authority it can provide. So the more outbound links, you have the less authority each link will provide. Okay, now this isn't confirmed, but it's really likely to be how it works. Okay? And if it didn't work that way, then link farms would be beneficial. Number two, this client that I was just talking about, they had a number of these link farms linking to them, and they were all on the same ip. Okay? So you've got a website that's already spammy, right? Because it doesn't have any content. It's only links, right? And so that's already spammy. Then you put all of these websites on the same ip, right? And we have numerous episodes that explain the difference between good backlinks and bad backlinks and why you do not want multiple sites that all link to the same site on the same ip. So if you've got a spammy website, fine. If you've got a lot of spammy websites, okay? But if you've got a lot of spammy websites all on the same IP and they're all linking to a specific website, that is a big red flag for spam. Okay? So not only are they poorly made sites, but they're poorly developed sites because they're all on the same ip. But even if they weren't, they would still be low quality. Okay? Okay, so does that make sense? So basically, a link farm is a website that has mostly outbound links. It has no blogs. It doesn't have anything else. It's just hundreds or thousands of links on a page and hundreds or thousands of pages of on the site. Okay? Now these sites are very spammy. So remember I said it's very unlikely that they have any authority at all, right? So the reason for this is because I'm pretty sure the search engines can tell that these websites have no value whatsoever to people. All they do is provide links. It's as if they are trying to do SEO. Okay? And so if a search engine can recognize, hey, this website is only links, and it doesn't even have any content or anything, there's a very good chance that if it has any authority, it would be devalued and it might even be de indexed. Okay? So they're bad. I don't know what else to tell you, but here's a question that some of you might have, okay? Because you're gonna say, well, you're saying that websites that are just full of outbound links are bad. So are you saying that I shouldn't have any outbound links on my website? No, you should have outbound links on Your website, because that is organic. You. It is normal for a website to have outbound links. In fact, that's how the Internet works, okay? If nobody linked to anybody, like, how good would the Internet be? It would be terrible, okay? So anyways, look, here's another question because some of you might say, well, I have a page on my site that's full of links. And by the way, that's totally natural. And let me tell you what I'm talking about. So maybe you've seen a website that it's just a normal website, but then it will have a different page and it will say links. And you click on that link and it takes you to the page on the website with all the links. And usually these are links to other websites that are in the same industry. Okay? Totally normal. That is a good way to help people find other websites. That's totally normal. I have even done that on my own website before. Totally normal. Not a problem. See, a link farm is when that's the only. Only thing on the website. But if you've got a normal website and then you have a page on your website with outbound links and many, maybe you even have. Maybe you even have a couple dozen outbound links on this links page, that's totally fine. But when every page on your website is dozens of outbound links, that's not good, okay? That is a link farm. So anyway, you might see these link farms, and if you buy backlinks from somebody and they're on link farms, probably don't buy backlinks from that person anymore, right? Like, probably don't buy backlinks from that person anymore. Okay? But look, if you have some link farms that are linking to you, it's probably not a problem as long as you have other good quality backlinks, right? It's probably. Everybody usually has a couple backlinks. Now you might find a link farm and you might see an option at the top because sometimes they have a little section where you can add your own website. You should definitely not do that, okay? Even if it's free. Link farms are a bad idea. It will not help you. It will not help you, okay? If anything, you will get no benefit from it because it's spammy. And it might even increase the likelihood of you getting a penalty if it's spammy enough and it looks like you're trying to game the system, okay? So you should avoid link farms, okay? And now you know what a link farm looks like, right? It's a website where every page has dozens or hundreds or thousands of outbound links, okay? Just link after link after link with no. No blog, no content, literally nothing. Link, link, link, link, link, link. That's bad. You do not want backlinks on that. A lot of people accidentally buy them because when they learn that they need backlinks, they go out and they buy backlink package because they don't know the difference between helpful backlinks and hurtful backlinks. Okay? And then it turns out they got some link farm backlinks. Well, they're probably not going to hurt you. Unless they're probably not gonna hurt you. How about that? But they're not gonna help you. So make sure that you're buying good quality backlinks. Do not buy link farm backlinks. Okay? They're not gonna help you. Now you know what a link farm is. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll talk to you later. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and if you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is Grumpy SEO Guy. You can visit the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit or you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders, because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder and it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks, and I think those words will classify an email and as spam. And if you want to support the podcast because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet and it's free, you can do so@patreon.com grumpy SEO guy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday for another episode. Sat.