Not so long ago, we had these online farms carrying a lot of links. And nearly every webmaster was involved in this (link) farming, in order to improve its website’s SEO rankings. After all, all the links were green and fresh, acting as steroids to boost the SEO rankings.

But one day, Google sprayed its new algorithm (Panda or Farmer update) on these farms, resulting in making all its links poisonous. So, these links, instead of boosting the website’s SEO rankings, now have a disastrous effect on the rankings of your websites (if you are using them).

The above story is a “small & sad tale” of how the face of link farms have totally changed. 

How Link Farming earned its Bad Reputation?

A few years ago, link farms were very popular among webmasters, in improving their websites SEO rankings. But thanks to a lot of spamming in this area, Google had to come up with its “Panda Update”. And because of this, Link Farming is now considered as “Spam”, with serious implications. So, it must be avoided at all costs.

What is Link Farming?

Link Farming is a process where multiple websites, of a single webmaster or group of webmasters, link each other for effective link building and improving their SEO rankings.

What is a Link Farm?

A link Farm is a network of websites, in which all of them link to each other to build their link popularity. A lot of websites used to link to these link farms with an aim to boost their SEO rankings. But it is of no use now, as google has banned all these link farms.

A link farm is considered by Google as “Spamming the Index of Search Engines” (also known as “Spamdexing”). And with Google considering it as Spam, it is a sure shot way to get yourself in a big trouble with Google.

Why did Google Ban Link Farming?

Over the years, Google has become very much concerned about its users experience. It wants to offer more websites, to its users, which can enhance their browsing experience. And, link farming was doing complete opposite of it.

A lot of people started using link farms, in an unethical way, to boost the SEO rankings of their websites. Spammers created a lot of websites, under one group, and linked each other in order to unethically improve their rankings on SERP.

And that is the sole reason why Google came up with a “Panda or Farmers” algorithm update,  which imposed a ban on all the Link Farms (involved in unethical link building).

Effects of Link Farming on SEO rankings of a website

Not so long ago, one could use Link Farming, without having any negative effects on his website’s SEO rankings. But, at the present time, with Google coming up with its Panda algorithm update, any website starting its own link farm, or associating with another link farm, would be committing suicide.

It has become very easy for Google, and other Search Engines, to identify Link Farming activities of a website. It would not just destroy its SEO rankings, but it can also be banned from Search Engines (forget about improving its Page Rank). And, of course, this will devastate the entire reputation of your website, instantly.

That is why, it is advised by all SEO experts to avoid Link Farms at all costs. You should request (other relevant websites) for relevant links to your website, but you must not participate in link farms.