Link Farms, what are they?

Ferret77 asked the question, "What is a link farm"

Compar also wants us to define what a link farm is, I guess the community has never defined what a link farm is.

See this thread below for the fight that is breaking out, I am tired of fighting with Compar and Ferret77 so I am going to turn the Digital Point Mafia loose on them both.

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=75301#post75301

I say that a farm grows things (makes new food for consumption), so a link farm would be something that creates or manufactures links for webmasters, right?

Is the following company a link farm?

http://linkexchange.piksites.com/backlink_scheme.php

Please contribute your opinions and knowledge to this thread so we can define what a link farm is for our members.

 

Netmechanic has a good overview:

http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol5/promo_no7.htm

Definitions of link farm on the Web:

[UNIX] n. A directory tree that contains many links to files in a master directory tree of files. Link farms save space when (for example) one is maintaining several nearly identical copies of the same source tree, e.g., when the only difference is architecture-dependent object files. "Let's freeze the source and then rebuild the FROBOZZ-3 and FROBOZZ-4 link farms." Link farms may also be used to get around restrictions on the number of `-I' (include-file directory) arguments on older C preprocessors. However, they can also get completely out of hand, becoming the filesystem equivalent of {spaghetti code}.
www.worldwideschool.org/library/boo...HackersDictionaryofComputerJargon/chap34.html
Definition: A set of web pages that have been built for the sole purpose of increasing the number of incoming links to a web site. This is done in order to increase link popularity and search engine rankings. Link farms usually require a reciprocal link from sites seeking listings. Link farms are a known spam tactic and sites that participate in them are likely to be penalized or banned from the major search engines.
websearch.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-link-farm.htm

A technique that attempts to increase search engine rankings by generating thousands of links to your website. This method is NOT recommended because search engines can tell when you've got a link farm set up and they will penalize you for it!
www.alphonsomarketing.com/terms_definitions.htm

 

Ah, the all knowing eye of FLAwebworks, fantastic post and avatar, thanks

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the coop, but... is it a link farm? Why, or why not?

 

Fryman, by the definition in FlaWW post # 2 the co-op is not a link farm, it says that a link farm is one that creates thousands of links......

What does the co-op produce, 5 advertisements/text links?

 

Read it again... thousands of links TO YOUR SITE

 

Come again

Does the co-op create THOUSANDS OF LINKS TO YOUR SITE

 

well duh...

Are you serious?

 

Why don't you explain?

 

I think if the coop was set up like google adwords (ie: you had to have big ads on your site like adwords - see above) then it would be different

ie: you actually had to have advertising on your site

and not

little tiny links at the very bottom of your page that no-one saw (they could even be white in white)

then it's not really an ad scheme

I think google has seen this and the last update was something to flush this out

why did we all pile in and get on the network?

greater serps of course - not advertising

I know that - you know that - google knows that

 

OK, so is it providing 5 links or thousands of links as Fryman says

Adwords are text link advertising and so are a lot of other programs, can you explain the difference, co-op versus these other programs?

 

adwords is not a real link

coop is a real static link (OK for only one refresh)

adwords as are big and relevant

coop are tiny links burried and not necessarily relevant

adwords is the generate income for your site

coop is to improve serps


all different

 

OK, your opinion is needed on how many links the co-op provides, thousands like Fryman says or 5 links?

 

thousands - depending on your weight

if all weight was equal (ie not expanded by the PR factor) and you were providing 10,000 outbound links, you would be receiving 10,000 inbound links

of course if you only had ad on one page with 5 links then you would receive 5 links in return

 

OK, so I put 5 outgoing links on my page and get 5 incoming links back.

Does that make the co-op a link farm by the definition of "thousands of links to my site"?

 

depends on how many pages you have and your pr

mosts sites have more than one page

 

Well then it is a hell of a lot different than paying someone 100 Bucks and have them point 1,000 shit links at my site.

Wouldn't you say that?

 

Anthony, the links to your site don't show up on another site, they show up on hundreds or thousands of sites, depending on your weight, so you end up with thousands of new backlinks.

 

Your argument is with Leeds, not me Fryman, he said that if I had 5 links on my page that I would get 5 links back, did he not?

 

"paying someone 100 Bucks and have them point 1,000 shit links at my site"

Do you know where that deal is?