Definition
Link spam refers to the practice of generating a high volume of artificial, low-quality backlinks to a website to artificially inflate its authority in the eyes of search engines. These links are typically placed in blog comments, forums, low-quality directories, social site profiles, or sites created solely for that purpose. Google has deployed several algorithmic updates, including SpamBrain and Penguin, specifically designed to detect and neutralize these links. Google's Link Spam Update directly targets these practices and can nullify the value of these links or penalize sites that use them.
Key Points
- Google SpamBrain automatically detects artificial links at scale
- Link quality far outweighs quantity
- A single link from an authority site is worth more than thousands of spam links
Practical Examples
Blog comment spam
An automated tool publishes thousands of generic comments on WordPress blogs with a link to a target site.
Link farm
A network of hundreds of auto-generated sites link to each other and to client sites, creating an artificial link ecosystem that Google detects and penalizes en masse.
Frequently Asked Questions
Google uses SpamBrain, an AI system capable of identifying artificial links by analyzing patterns such as acquisition speed, source site topics, anchor diversity, and overall link profile naturalness.
Google claims to ignore most incoming spam links, but a very high volume of toxic links can potentially affect your site. Use the disavow tool in Search Console as a precaution.
Go Further with LemmiLink
Discover how LemmiLink can help you put these SEO concepts into practice.
Last updated: 2026-02-07