as far as i know... a link farm is a static html page with a list of links on it... a directory is a database driven list of links. now from what i have learnt so far... google hates link farms, but wouldnt google see a directory as the same thing?

*Bump*

Can anyone tell me if google see's a directory as a link farm?

Google dosn't see a directory as a link farm.

It's pretty easy for a search engine to see if the links are in relevant structured system of pages and catagories rather than being just dumped on a page.

thanx for the reply stOx

Anyone have any tips in making a search engine not end up seeing your links section as a link farm but instead as a directory???

What exactly defines the difference of the two?

Would just putting H1 headers of categories and then the links below make it so a search engine doesnt see it as a link farm???

or should you make a navigation system with seperate pages for each category???

or does just grouping links of similiar nature together on the links page work???

Im in the process of redesigning a links section on one of my sites and I would like to avoid it being seen as a link farm.

Thanks

I think I might have figured out a way, let me bounce this off you people.

I make category titles with h1 tags, and then under each link I write a few sentences describing the content of that site (keyword rich of course).

So if my thinking is correct this would not only make the page not look like a link farm but at the same time boost the page rank, is this correct?

Originally Posted by Static

as far as i know... a link farm is a static html page with a list of links on it... a directory is a database driven list of links. now from what i have learnt so far... google hates link farms, but wouldnt google see a directory as the same thing?

Hi Static,

Well, that definition would make about 90% of the home pages on the web link farms.

Aren't all our home pages static?

Don't all our home pages have links on them?

Nowadays, the term "link farm" has almost no meaning due to over use.

It's like "spammy site" or "crappy site" or "bad neighborhood".

No one knows exactly what those terms mean, but they use them anyways and so the words gets more and more vague everyday.

I could understand this "word abuse" if it were coming from a person that speaks English as a second language, but that's not the case.

The newest case of this type of word abuse is "sandbox". No one can define it, but they love to say it. I just can not get it into my head why a seasoned webmaster would tell a new webmaster: "You're in the sandbox", when, in fact, the seasoned webmaster can not clearly define "sandbox" and has no proof of the existance of that "sandbox". But then, considering that 70% of Americans believe in angels, maybe I should not be quite so suprised with this behavior. People love to create their own gods, both benevolent and malevolent.

When I was a kid my older sister told me, "Never use a word you don't understand". I've tried to follow that rule, cuz it makes sense, don't you agree?

Oh well.

Thanks for reading an old man's ramblings,
Bompa

I dont know where you are from but I know some "Bad Neighborhoods"...

and to me a "Bad Neighborhood" has a high crime rate and a place you wouldnt want to be at during the night alone...I could name a few blocks in the North End or the Frog Hollow Sections of Hartford CT

But I think I understand what you are saying

Originally Posted by CasaPages

I dont know where you are from but I know some "Bad Neighborhoods"...

and to me a "Bad Neighborhood" has a high crime rate and a place you wouldnt want to be at during the night alone...I could name a few blocks in the North End or the Frog Hollow Sections of Hartford CT

But I think I understand what you are saying

North End? Sounds like Boston heh.

I'm from Worcester, Massachusetts, but out of the country atm.

I know what a bad neighborhood is offline, but online there's just no such thing, unless it refers to a webring of banned sites hehe.

Yah, don't link to them

Bompa

LOL!... thanks for the replies guys

was just asking because i read somewhere that google hates link farms (i.e pages with just links and not much decent content)
i was going to start a directory on my site and was just wondering if it would hurt my ranking in google (if i ever get a rank in google that is)

No one knows exactly what those terms mean, but they use them anyways and so the words gets more and more vague everyday.

i create my own interpretation of those words... so when i use them i know what they mean LOL

Well google doesnt like sites with lack of content period...soooooooooo Im guessing if all you had was a few links on a site google probably wouldnt like it to much...

Note I say FEW

I could be wrong here....please correct me if I am

A link farm is where all participants in the scheme have to host pages on their sites with links to all the other participants.

the bad neighboroughood thing, could be any kind of site. You have to use your own judgment.

I hate to bring this old post up but the other day I stumbled upon googles web master resources and guidlines for making sites google friendly...They say to try and keep pages with under a hundred links..

So I suppose that and what chrishirst said applys when setting up directories

You can see where google talks about the less than 100 links at the following

http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

Originally Posted by CasaPages

Well google doesnt like sites with lack of content period...soooooooooo Im guessing if all you had was a few links on a site google probably wouldnt like it to much...

Note I say FEW

I could be wrong here....please correct me if I am

That's what everyone says, and that's why I question it.

In my niche, (mail order brides), the #1 site is a directory, the #6 site is a
directory, and the #7 site is a directory.

Sure, they have a few articles, but mostly they are just pages of links.

Why are they in the top ten? Because they require a reciprocal link from the
listing's homepage. Since homepages normally have the highest PR, (and
relevance), of a site, the directories get lots and lots of good links.


The "Content is king" adage might be true for some, but not for my industry.

Anyways, the original poster was asking the difference between link farms and
directories. As Chrishirst said, with a link farm, each participant downloads a set
of pages every month. It must be every month in order to include new members.
Each page contains the links for a certain category. Every member uploads
the exact same set of pages to their site, with all the exact same filenames
and exact same content. See the pattern?

That is the original meaning of 'link farm' regarding web site links.

Now, most people, use the term 'link farm' as though it's a curse word.
(One dog barks at the wind, and all the others follow).

Hmmm, what about all the web directories that use a dmoz.org feed?

Link farms? Duplicate content?

Listen, when the Google Public Relations department tells you to avoid link farms,
it does not necessarily mean link farms are "bad", nor does it necessarily mean that
Google is detecting them, or discounting them, or devaluing them, or penalizing them.

What it means is that Google does not want you to use link farms because you'll be
getting links in such a way that messes up their idealistic theory of the web being
a "uniquely free democracy" with every link being a true 'vote' of importance.

It screws up their theory and could jepordize their billion dollar business.


Bompa

Well then DMOZ should be dropping in rank soon?
And so are news sites that have XML RSS FeedS?
But if you were to have a rated database of links for friends, that ranked it, or a affiliates page with a bunch of links for affiliates, woulde that be considered bad?

And since its affiliates your affiliates prolly havethe same page... so isnt that duplicate content?

Bompa, that makes a lot of sense...

Execute, one thing about the DMOZ... Google uses it for there directory...

I think the whole limiting 100 links to a page is to ease the burden on googles database... Since all a SE crawler does is go out grab the links and store them for another crawler to go and check... It is not like the crawler stumbles over a link on your page and then heads off to that page...

This whole google thing is almost a sicence in itself....

So to sum it up one can say avoid dealing with sites that seem shady, dont get involved in prorgams that provide you and hundreds of other people with content and links that are identical...and content isnt always king...

Then again in your example Bompa the directory sites that are number 1 probably have a good amount of links to good sites in that genere, hence one could say they do have really good content...