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Off-Page SEO

What Is Link Farming?

Link farming is operating or participating in a network of sites created primarily to link to each other and pass ranking signals. It is one of the oldest link schemes and one Google's spam systems specifically target.

Why Link Farming matters for SEO

It is unambiguously against Google's link spam policies and a common cause of manual actions. Sites often inherit the problem by buying links from vendors who source them from private blog networks without disclosure.

Pro tip on Link Farming

Do not participate. If you inherited a profile containing farm links, audit where links come from and disavow only where a manual action makes it necessary, since Google generally ignores rather than penalises low-quality links.

Related terms

Link ExchangeA less industrialised version of the same schemeBacklinkFarm links are backlinks that carry risk rather than value

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