If you’ve ever done link building, you’ve definitely come across link farms before.
And even if you don’t actively build links, chances are you have received countless emails trying to sell you links from random domains.
In this article, we’ll discuss:
- What are link farms and how to spot them
- Whether or not backlinks from link farms are worth getting
- How to build white-hat links from high-quality websites
Let’s get started.
Link building cheat sheet
What is a Link Farm?
As the name suggests, a link farm is a website that’s primarily used for selling links or participating in excessive link exchanges.
At a glance, you might not be able to tell if a site is a link farm as they often have decent SEO metrics.
Don’t be fooled – after digging a bit deeper and clicking through a few blog posts, you’ll notice a pattern: tons of links, often to seemingly random pages.
Zupyak is a prime example of a link farm – it’s a self-publishing website where anyone can publish a guest article with absolutely zero quality control.
And if you take a look at the website’s performance, you’ll see that it has consistently gotten next to zero organic traffic, with sporadic spikes.
This is a telltale sign of a penalized website – avoid it at all costs.
But why? What’s so bad about a few extra links?
Surely a couple won’t hurt, right?
While it’s true that 1-2 links from a link farm likely won’t incur a penalty to your own website, you should still avoid them.
Here’s why.
Why Should You Avoid Link Farms?
Link farming is a black-hat tactic considered a “link scheme” and all parties involved risk a Google penalty:
Okay, the link farm gets penalized, who cares?
The problem is if you have a lot of links from it, the algorithm treats you as part of a link scheme – and you really don’t want that.
The worst thing about link farms is that any site can become one, even if it has a good reputation and legitimate traffic.
Sometimes a domain expires and a new owner restores it and abuses its reputation to earn some extra bucks on the side.
Other times, an inexperienced website owner takes part in too many reciprocal linking exchanges and unknowingly turns their own site into a link farm.
Regardless, to keep yourself safe, you need to be able to tell the difference between a legitimate website and a link farm.
Which brings us to the next section.
How to Spot a Link Farm
Lots of Links on Page
First things first, take a look at the content.
If it looks like this, in 99% of cases it’s link farm:
In 1% of cases, it’s a legitimate site that outdid it with internal links.
Either way, you don’t want links from it even if it’s legit.
The more links on one page, the less link juice each one is able to pass on – so the benefits of a link from a page like this would be miniscule.
Poor Design
Next, a lot of link farms are built with obviously little effort.
For example, you can tell at a glance that Time Business News was created with a template.
It also sells guest posts, which is something grey-hat link builders and even some agencies take advantage of.
Speaking of guest posts, checking bio sections and the website’s “About Us” page is another way to see if it’s a link farm.
This particular website doesn’t name any of its own journalists and the most recent post is by “Fresco SEO” with two homepage links in the first 3 paragraphs.
From the templated design to the tiny featured image and obviously commercial links, everything about this website screams “link farm”.
Unnatural Outgoing Link Profile
Beyond just looking at the content another way to spot a link farm site is to take a look at its outgoing link profile.
You’ll need backlink monitoring software like Ahrefs or Semrush for this.
There are several things to look out for:
- Excessive linked domains
A healthy website links to other sites when it’s relevant—for citations, further reading, or providing additional resources.
Link farms, however, link to an unusually high number of different domains, frequently with no clear connection to the site’s topic.
An unnaturally large number of inbound links is also a sign of a link scheme.
In Ahrefs, the “Linked Domains” report shows how many unique domains a site links to.
A very high number, especially combined with other warning signs, suggests external links farming.
- Irrelevant links and over-optimized anchor text
Legitimate websites usually link out on partial-match anchor texts, meaning some variation of your page’s target keyword.
Link farms, on the other hand, often use keyword-stuffed or exact-match anchor texts.
The article on Time Business News we talked about above is the perfect example: with two links on the “cigar and smoke shops” anchor right in the intro.
Would a real blog owner give some random shop two commercial links?
Probably not, unless it’s their own shop, or they are selling links.
- Sudden spikes in outgoing links
A natural website’s outgoing (and inbound) link profile grows gradually.
A sudden, dramatic increase in outgoing links, is a signal that the site may have started selling links.
Check SEO Performance
Google hates link farms, so most of them are either currently under a penalty or have received one in the past.
Let’s return to our Time Business News example.
Until fairly recently, it was receiving decent traffic, had a great Domain Rating and definitely fooled many SEOs into thinking it’s not a link farm.
But it is, and it was inevitably hit by a penalty.
If you see a website’s organic traffic suddenly drop to almost zero, you can be sure it was hit by a penalty.
Even if it’s a previous penalty that the site has since recovered from and is getting real traffic now, treat it with caution.
Emails Offering Paid Links
Have you ever received an email like this?
You have. We know it.
Each one of these sites is a link farm.
How to Build White-Hat Links?
Now that you know how to spot link farms, let’s talk about ethical link building and how to find natural link building opportunities.
For this, we’ll be using our own tool, Respona.
More specifically, its blogger outreach campaign template.
First, access your Respona account and go to the “Campaigns” tab.
Choose the blogger outreach template and input your target keywords along with what you’re offering potential partners (like a spot in a future guest post on your site).
Respona can also do quick keyword research with AI and suggest related keywords help you find more link building opportunities.
Once you’ve filled in the details, click “Use this template” to create the campaign and enter the editor.
Next, you’ll set up your email sequence. Respona provides a starter template, but we recommend taking some time to really make it your own.
A good sequence usually has an initial email and a follow-up.
Make sure your offer of value is clear from the start – that’s the most important bit.
Consider adding an AI-generated personalized opening line to each email to improve reply rates while keeping the follow-up concise.
Now, let’s automatically find promising link building opportunities.
Respona automatically uses the inurl:blog search operator to focus on pages that are part of a blog.
Click to proceed and refine your results using SEO metrics to ensure the sites are good collaboration targets.
On the next screen, check the contact finder settings.
By default, it is set up to find website owners, content and SEO managers, content marketing and digital marketing managers, and other relevant people for link building partnerships.
Here, you can also give the AI more instructions for personalization to make the emails sound more like you.
Adjust the algorithm settings and, if you want, give examples of your past personalizations for even better accuracy.
Turn on the recurring search option so Respona will regularly rerun the search and add new opportunities to your campaign.
Click to start the automation process.
Respona will then find link building opportunities, their contact information, and personalize your emails automatically.
You don’t have to wait for the whole search to finish; results will show up in real time. You’ll get an email when the search is done.
In the final step, Review & Launch, Respona will fill in all the variables in your email sequence, including AI personalizations.
This is also where you can make manual edits if necessary.
Before launching your campaign, Respona will do final checks to make sure there are no missing placeholders or variables and that you’re not contacting people you’ve already reached out to recently.
From there on, it’s just a matter of monitoring your inbox and managing your partnerships!
Link building cheat sheet
Now Over to You
In conclusion, you should avoid link farms because Google might give you a penalty if you partake in link schemes.
To spot link farms, check the website’s content for excessive outgoing links, poor web design, or use an SEO tool like Ahrefs to evaluate its outbound link profile for unnatural patterns.
Need help getting quality links from reputable websites?
Don’t hesitate to start your 14-day free trial with Respona to see how we can help.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What exactly is a link farm?
A link farm is a website or a private blog network created primarily for the purpose of manipulating search engine ranking through artificial link building.
They often feature low-quality content and an excessive number of outgoing links.
Are links from link farms good for SEO?
Absolutely not. Links from link farms are a black hat SEO tactic and can result in penalties from search engines like Google. These penalties can negatively impact your website’s search rankings and visibility.
How can I tell if a website is a link farm?
Key signs include a large number of outgoing links on each page, poor website design, irrelevant or keyword-stuffed anchor text in links, and a sudden spike in the number of linked domains.
SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush can help analyze a site’s backlink profile.
Will a few links from a link farm hurt my website?
While one or two low quality links might not immediately trigger a penalty, it’s best to avoid them entirely.
Associating with a backlink farm, even minimally, can still negatively impact your site’s reputation in the eyes of search engines.
What’s the alternative to using link farms for link building?
The best alternative is white-hat link building, which focuses on earning high-quality links from reputable websites through valuable content creation, genuine outreach, and building relationships within your industry.
