What is Link Spam?
Link spam refers to any link building technique used to manipulate search results pages. Link spam is a type of link scheme. It is considered a black hat SEO technique and can cause Google to demote your rankings or remove your site from search results pages.
Bloggers who engage in link spamming will typically create many backlinks without considering whether the topics on both pages are related or if the sites are in a related niche. Such bloggers are only interested in ranking on search results pages and, in many cases, do not bother to provide helpful content to their visitors.
Why Bloggers Engage in Link Spam
Google uses backlinks to determine the authoritativeness of a webpage. The more backlinks a webpage receives, the more authoritative it is and the likelier it is to rank on search results pages.
Bloggers engage in link spam to game the system and increase the number of backlinks pointing to their sites. This would, in turn, improve their rankings and attract more traffic to their sites.
How Google Prevents Link Spam
Link spam is increasingly becoming ineffective as Google continues to develop and release algorithms and algorithm updates to combat it.
On April 24, 2012, Google released a major algorithm update, codenamed Penguin, to combat sites that engage in multiple types of black hat link-building techniques, including link spam.
This update came a year after Google released Panda, another major algorithm update that targeted sites that published low-quality, unhelpful content, which is the sort of content typically published by sites that engage in link spam.
Google has also released multiple spam and link spam updates over the years, including the July 2021 Link Spam Update and the December 2022 Link Spam Update.
On the algorithm side, Google released an AI algorithm called SpamBrain in 2018. This artificial intelligence-powered algorithm is designed to find and remove spammy sites from Google results pages.
Google also has a webspam team, which consists of humans who manually review sites for evidence of spam. If they identify spam on a site, they will issue a manual action penalty. As a result, the site will lose traffic or be removed from search results pages completely.
Types of Link Spam
Link spam is a catch-all term for multiple types of link schemes created to manipulate search rankings. Some common ones include:
- Maksulliset linkit
- Automated linking
- Aggressive link exchanges
- Spammy anchor texts
- Linkitä maatilat
- Yksityiset blogiverkot
- Aggressive reciprocal linking
- Sponsored links without a sponsored link attribute
- Links embedded in site footers and templates
- Low-quality directory submissions
- Links embedded in widgets
- Thin content
1 Paid Links
Paid link, also called link buying, is the practice of paying another site to link you. The payment could be in the form of money or other goods and services, even if it is not explicitly stated as such.
2 Automated Linking
Automated linking is the use of software or bots to create backlinks to a webpage at scale. The links are often created without considering the relevance or quality of the originating site.
3 Aggressive Link Exchanges
Link exchanges refer to the practice of mutually exchanging links between sites with the sole purpose of boosting each other’s search engine rankings. Link exchanges are only considered link spam when done aggressively or excessively.
4 Spammy Anchor Texts
Spammy anchor texts refer to the practice of excessively using exact match or keyword-rich anchor text unnaturally. Google expects anchor texts to be natural. Otherwise, it would consider them link spam.
5 Link Farms
Linkitä maatilat are a group of low-quality sites that link to one another. Bloggers can set them up, either by themselves or in cooperation with other bloggers, or pay to get links from these sorts of farms.
6 Private Blog Networks
Private blog networks (PBNs) are a group of sites that are set up specifically to link to a site. They are almost like link farms, except that the site that is being linked to typically does not link back to them.
7 Aggressive Reciprocal Linking
Reciprocal linking is the exchange of links between two sites. It is considered a white hat SEO technique but can become a black hat SEO technique and link spam when done excessively or inappropriately, for example, when two sites that are not contextually relevant link to one another.
8 Sponsored Links Without a Sponsored Link Attribute
Google expects sites to mark sponsored links with the sponsored or nofollow link attribute. That is, rel="sponsored" tai rel="nofollow". Sponsored links and content without one of the two attributes are considered a form of paid links.
9 Links Embedded in Site Footers and Templates
Many website footers and templates contain links to various locations on the site and even external sites. While this is normal, Google could consider them link spam when done widely or unnaturally.
10 Low-Quality Directory Submissions
Many sites submit their links to directories. While this is typically a white hat SEO technique, submitting your links to unrelated or low-quality directories or bookmark sites is considered black hat and link spam.
11 Links Embedded in Widgets
Many sites contain widgets from third-party sites and developers. Google may consider these links as spam if they are keyword-rich, low-quality, or hidden in unusual locations in the widget.
12 Ohut sisältö
Thin content refers to low-quality, unhelpful content that provides little to no value to visitors. These pages are typically created with the sole intent of ranking on search results pages, and Google considers them a form of link spam.