Page 41 - The Dark Side of Back Link Building

THE DARK SIDE OF LINK BUILDING 41

How To ID A Toxic

Link Farm

By Diana Martins, SEO Planner Sponsored By

Although fundamental in an SEO strategy, identifying a toxic link requires in-depth
analysis. In fact, it can be a tricky task: not every low-quality link is actively toxic. So,

how do you determine whether a link is toxic or healthy? How do you identify links
coming from link farms?

Here are some practical tips to help you!

What Is A Link Farm And How Do

You Identify One?

A link farm is a site – or several of them – that exists only to create links to other

sites. As it has no role other than that, it ends up creating a wave of spam for your
site. Check these tips to identify if your site has received links like these:

1. To evaluate your site’s backlinks, download them with your preferred tool and put

them in a spreadsheet.

2. Rank websites using the tool’s authority or quality score so you know which sites

might be healthy or not. You may find sites that are healthy but new (and therefore
have low authority), so it’s important to analyze carefully.

3. See what the website content looks like. If it’s superficial or poorly written, you’re

certainly facing spam.

4. Does the topic link or even the language have absolutely nothing to do with your
content? Be suspicious.