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Link Popularity News
SPECIAL REPORT: Link Farms and Link Farming
Search Engines Allegedly Cracking Down on "Link Farms"
This story broke in the fall of 2002. Google's actions led to a lawsuit and Google backed down. However, link farming and related activities continue to be scrutinized by search engines and should be avoided as a way to try to increase link popularity.
By Ken J Wagner ©2002
The QUALITY of the links increasing a web site's link popularity is now far more important than the QUANTITY of links pointing to it. In some cases "link farms" are allegedly being penalized and even de-listed. A "link farm" is a collection of links pages that serve no other purpose than to increase link popularity.
Another allegation bouncing around the rumor mill is that a web site that links to a link farm can even be penalized and/or de-listed. Remember that your web site cannot be dinged for links pointing to you. The implication here addresses sites your pointing to. It is wise at this time to be very careful of what link popularity services you become involved with. Most likely, any service that requires you to link back to them should probably be avoided. This doesn't count one-for-one link exchanges, but carefully inspect any link exchange you may be associated with to be sure you're not linking to a link farm.
A final note, when creating your own link exchange or links pages, don't name the pages "links" (links.html, or file /links/), because this may reduce its odds of being indexed by search engines. This is not a standard, not a new rule, but just a wise move these days. Don't worry about pages that already exist with these file names or extensions.
- why is link popularity so important? This page gives you the overview of link popularity, its necessity and benefits.
- Have more questions? Check out our list of Frequently Asked Questions.
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