Glossary
What is a link farm?
A link farm is a site or network that exists mainly to link out to other sites for SEO, usually with thin pages, no real audience and no editorial review. Many old general web directories became link farms. Links from them pass little value, and building links there at scale can count as link spam.
How to spot one
- Little or no real traffic, despite a decent DR.
- Categories for everything: plumbing, crypto, software, dentists.
- Listings with one line of text and a link.
- No review: submissions appear instantly.
- Offers like "permanent dofollow link for $5".
- Ads between every listing, broken pages, no new listings from real products.
Why they don't help
Search engines discount links from sites that exist to give links. At best they're ignored. At scale, buying or building them can be treated as a link scheme under Google's spam policies. They also send no visitors. That's why we keep link farms and general web directories out of our catalog and list only directories where real people look for products.
Link farm vs real directory
| Link farm | Real directory | |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | None | People looking for products |
| Review | None | Editorial or community |
| Niche | Everything | A clear focus |
| Listing page | One line and a link | Description, media, reviews |
Example
A "submit to 1,000 directories" package lands a startup on hundreds of general directories in a week. Its Ahrefs backlink count jumps, but organic traffic doesn't move, and a later backlink audit flags most of the new links as low quality.
FAQ
Will link farm links get my site penalised?
Usually Google just ignores them. A large, deliberate pattern can lead to a manual action for unnatural links.
Should I disavow links from link farms?
Usually not; Google already discounts them. Disavow is for manual actions or large paid-link patterns you built.
Are all general web directories link farms?
Not all, but most that still accept everything for a fee behave like one.