is this a link farm?

[hawkwind dave]

Hi all,

One of my sites www.swalpacas.com has tons of good inbound links, from other alpaca related websites. However, the google toolbar shows no back links. I'm aware that google does not show all back links, but there's over 30 of them, so I'd expect to see some of them showing.

When I checked all the links (into my site), all the link pages I looked at appeared pretty much the same (same links, same order, same text).

My concearn is that all these alpaca websites linking together is considered a link farm.

How does Google tell the difference between a link farm, and themed sites which are simply supporting each other?

[jestep]

You cant be penalized for incomming links, only outgoing links. The only one that you are linking to that I might be concerned with is www.seaviewalpacas.com .
Also when you open a new window for each of your internal links is very annoying in my opinion. I think it is OK to open a new window for a link that is leaving your site, but not internal links. Just my opinion.

[hawkwind dave]

Hi Jestep,

Thankyou for the reply, the link you pointed out concearned me also, I'll remove it and see what happens.

Thanks for pointing out the new window also, it's been winding me up all morning, this time next week, it's history.

Does anybody have any clues as to why Google is beeing so fussy showing backlinks? I can understand that Google 'may' put new links on 'trial', or whatever, but the links on www.swalpacas.com have been there for well over a year.

[jestep]

When google does show backlinks they only show a sample and usually only show PageRank 4 or higher links. They also only update the link listinge every 4 - 6 weeks so it takes a while to see any update at all. The links are counted usually as soon as they are indexed, so it doesn't mean that google doesn't use them, it just means that you cant see the results when searching for them. Also try using the search @www.mysite.com , you have to pick through the sites, but it shows a better example than the link: search.

[pedstersplanet]

Originally Posted by jestep

You cant be penalized for incomming links, only outgoing links. The only one that you are linking to that I might be concerned with is www.seaviewalpacas.com

Which is http://www.asksearches.com (Dmoz? Hmmm) if you click any of the links.