Definition

Link spam refers to inbound or outbound links built primarily for the purpose of influencing search rankings, rather than as a genuine editorial reference between pages.

Google's spam policies list link spam explicitly and give examples such as buying or selling links for ranking purposes without proper qualification, excessive link exchanges, automated link creation programs, keyword-rich hidden links in widgets, large-scale article marketing with optimised anchor text, and forum or comment posts with manipulative links. Sites involved in link spam can be affected algorithmically or through a manual action issued by Google's webspam team.

Examples

• Widget link scheme

  A vendor offers a free embeddable widget. Hidden inside the widget code is a keyword-rich link pointing to the vendor's commercial pages. Google's spam policies flag this pattern as link spam.

• Automated comment posting

  A tool drops thousands of forum and blog comments with the same anchor text linking back to one site. Even when comments use rel="ugc", the underlying behaviour is treated as link spam.

Sources

• Google Search Central — Spam policies for Google web search

Related terms

• Link Building
  The practice of acquiring inbound links from other websites, ranging from editorial outreach to schemes that Google classifies as link spam.
• Paid Link
  A link created in exchange for money, goods or services, which Google requires to be qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
• Natural Link
  A link given editorially by another site without solicitation, exchange or payment, contrasted with link schemes Google treats as spam.
• Sponsored Link
  A link marked with rel="sponsored" to indicate it was created as part of an advertisement, sponsorship, or other paid placement.
• UGC Link
  A link marked with rel="ugc" to indicate it was created in user-generated content such as a forum post, comment, or review.
• Nofollow
  A link attribute (`rel="nofollow"`) telling search engines not to associate the source page with — or pass ranking credit to — the linked page.
• Manual Action
  A penalty applied by a Google reviewer when a site is found to violate the search spam policies, demoting or removing affected pages from results.
• Disavow Links
  A Search Console tool that asks Google to ignore specific inbound links when assessing a site, intended for cases where unnatural links may cause harm.
• Backlink
  A hyperlink on one website that points at another. Search engines treat backlinks as one signal of how the wider web vouches for a page.

Where QueryCatch uses this

• SEO Audit
• Competitor Analysis