link farm

[burachde]

Hi gang,

I am tired of wondering if Google is going to axe me because about a year ago, before I began trying to optimize for any particular engine or directory, I joined a link exchange program named linkstoyou.com. It seemed like a good idea to have a chance at 500 links pointing at my page. My question is this : Is a program like linkstoyou.com a liability, neutral or a benefit?

Thanks

burachde

[spatters11]

burachde,

I did the same thing a couple of years ago with one of my first websites. I removed the link a few months later and still to this day have some of the links showing up as backlinks on Yahoo, but Google doesn't show them anymore. I don't think it really ever hurt my site, but like I said I removed the link within a few months once I understood what the SE's might do to my site. I think as long as you do not link to linkstoyou or anything that might be considered a link farm you will not be penalized.

[burachde]

Thanks Spatter
That's about what I figured. I removed the link also from my page. Still, the engines have the link backs listed. I'll ride it out.

Take care

burachde