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Signs a guest post site is a link farm
Some sites exist only to hold paid links. A few quick checks will catch most of them before you spend anything.
18 October 2026 · 5 min read
Google's spam policies describe link schemes and large-scale link-selling networks as spam. A link from a site that exists only to sell links may do nothing for you, and in a bad case it can sit next to a pile of other spam on the same page. None of these signs proves a site is bad on its own. Several together are a good reason to walk away.
Signs on the site
- No focus. Casino, pet food, loans and web design all on one site with no link between them.
- "Write for us" everywhere. Menus, footers and pop-ups all push paid posts.
- Old or thin posts. Short pieces that say little, no comments, no dates, or a last post long ago.
- Odd authors. No profiles, repeated names or stock photos.
- Lots of outbound links. Articles where almost every paragraph links to a different commercial site.
- No real company. No about page, no contact beyond a form, no signs of a person behind it.
Signs in the numbers
- High authority score, tiny traffic. Scores can be built with links alone. Compare the score with real visits, as explained in how to read a traffic number.
- Traffic from places that do not match the language. An English site whose visitors come mostly from countries it does not write for.
- A sudden jump or collapse in the trend. Look at several months, not one screenshot.
Two free checks that take a minute
- Search Google for
site:theirdomain.com. If almost nothing is listed, Google is not showing the site. - Search for the site's name by itself. A real publication usually has a footprint beyond its own pages.
What to ask the seller
Ask for the site's name before paying, which tool the traffic number comes from, how many outbound paid links a typical post gets, and whether the post is labelled. Our own checklist is in how to judge a guest post site, and our standards explain what we look at before we list a site.
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