How to Avoid Link Farms While Building Backlinks Through Guest Posting

gabrielakvisionfac
Sep 30
3 min read

Updated: Oct 28

Author: Magdalena Simova

What are backlinks? Backlinks are very important for your website, whether you're writing a blog or running an e-commerce store. They are also important for SEO because browsers such as Google, Bing, etc., see them as a sign of trustworthiness. More high-quality backlinks mean a higher position in search engine results.

Browser window with "BACKLINKS" in bold pink and black text. Chain icons at corners, black and pink grid background, and checkerboard pattern.

What Are Link Farms?

Link farms are websites that exchange links with each other without providing real content or value. Their only goal is to manipulate search engine results.

They belong here:

Websites with a lot of backlinks without context – for example, a website has an article about cooking, but in this article, there are backlinks to an online casino or cryptocurrency.
A group of websites that are all connected to each other - Each website links to another, and they all form a loop by linking back to one another.
Websites with low-quality content and excessive ads – the website contains many advertisements and very little valuable content. The entire site is crowded with external backlinks.

Scrabble tiles on a wooden surface, spelling "RISK" in center. Various scattered tiles surround, creating a playful and strategic mood.

Risks of Using Link Farms

If you use link farms, it is a very risky strategy because search engines like Google have strict regulations against them. The indexing robots that scan your website are unbiased and can detect manipulative link practices. Your website may drop significantly in search engine rankings or even be de-indexed. If this happens, you will face penalties and will need to rebuild your site’s credibility. If your website isn’t consistent, your own customers may perceive your content as untrustworthy.

Guest Posting as a Safe Alternative

Guest posting is an SEO and marketing strategy where the author publishes their article on someone else's blog or website. You, like an author, create valuable content and post it on another site, but the article includes a backlink to your own website. The goal is to gain high-quality backlinks, improve search engine rankings, and reach a new target audience. If you want to avoid that, then choose a reputable website that operates in your niche and has an active community on social media. If you want to check domain authority, use Ahrefs. Check if their blog and articles are of good quality and if their writing style matches yours. Find out which websites accept guest posts and reach out to the site owners to ensure the collaboration will be a win-win for both sides.

Identifying Safe Backlink Opportunities

Check domain authority and relevance - Use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to check domain authority. Make sure the content on the site is similar to or relevant to your topic. For example: A blog about cryptocurrencies that also publishes articles about health is not a good match.
Avoid sites with excessive outbound links - A website filled with external backlinks can be penalized by search engines. Always check that the site doesn’t look like a link farm.
Ensure content is meaningful and not spammy - Readers appreciate quality content that offers solutions to their problems. Spammy websites won’t help you. Choose websites that publish professional articles with well-researched and credible sources.

Best Practices for Link Building

Link building is the process of acquiring backlinks. It is an off-page SEO method used to improve search engine rankings.

Search engines like Google consider backlinks as recommendations and evidence of the quality and relevance of your content, which translates to your SERP.

Quality link building includes creating valuable content and collaborating with other websites. Remember, link building is a long-term process.

Focus on:

Quality over quantity - In this case, more doesn’t mean better. One quality backlink has greater value than a thousand links from low-quality websites.
Avoid buying links - Be careful with massive backlink purchases, because Google sees everything, and your website could be penalized.
Maintain natural anchor text - Anchor text (in link building) should appear natural, not spammy. Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. For example, in the sentence “Read it on our blog,” the word “blog” is the anchor text, which links to another website or your own website.
Diversify backlink sources - Try to build backlinks from different types of websites, such as blogs, professional magazines, social media, and news portals. This way, your site’s credibility will increase.

Conclusion

You should include link building in your SEO strategy if you want to improve your website’s rankings. Avoid link farms at all costs. They might seem tempting, but they’re not worth it. It’s a long-term process, so be prepared to be patient.