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link farming Last modified: Wednesday, January 29, 2003
(1) The process of exchanging reciprocal links with Web sites in order to increase search engine optimization. The idea behind link farming is to increase the number of sites that link to yours because search engines such as Google rank sites according to, among other things, the quality and quantity of sites that link to yours. In theory, the more sites that link to yours, the higher your ranking in the search engine results will be because the more links indicate a higher level of popularity among users of the Internet. However, search engines such as Google consider link farming as a form of spam and have been implementing procedures to banish sites that participate in link farming, so the term link farming has garnered negative connotations across the Internet. Also see How Web Search Engines Work in the Did You Know . . . ? section of Webopedia. There are many service providers who promise to help you boost your link popularity by automatically entering you into link exchange programs they operate, often linking your page with Web sites that have nothing to do with your content. But users should be aware of the repercussions of this action as the major search engines penalize sites that participate in link farming, thereby reversing their intended effect. A link farm is a Web page that is nothing more than a page of links to other sites. (2) In Unix systems, a link farm is a directory tree containing links to files in a master directory tree of files.
Meta Refresh and Search Engines How the meta refresh tag can affect search engine results. Search Engine Optimization Code of Ethics Most SEO practitioners understand these ethics, yet not all practitioners practice safe-SEO. Search Engine Optimization Promotion Tools This page suggests ways to optimize and improve search engine results with ranking and promotion advice, hints, tips, and clues to improve your search engine keywords relative to existing leaders. Intro to Search Engine Optimization This article from Search Engine Watch describes the basics of how search engines work and how to increase search engine optimization. SEO and the Web Site Design Process This article from Clikz.com explains how to increase search engine optimization. SEO Resources A list of Web sites that deal specifically with the issue of optimizing pages for search engines.	Related Categories Search Engines UNIX Web Development Related Terms directory link meta refresh meta tag search engine SEO site map spider traffic UNIX