Link farms (also see private blog networks) are one of those concepts that have gotten a bad reputation in the world of internet marketing.

The conventional wisdom says that link farms lead to “low quality” links that can lead to a site being penalized by major search engines.

The truth is that link farms are no different than any other site that you may link to, as long as you make a few smart choices.

First, the definition of a link farm is a group of sites that link to all other sites in the group. Link farms were first used by search engine optimization firms in the late 90s to help sites build the links they needed to gain higher search engine rankings.

The practise has continued, and there are a large number of successful link farms that can give new websites a hand up when they are attempting to start generating traffic for a website.

Consider this- today’s conventional wisdom suggests that website marketers focus their attention on creating content that will be picked up and linked to by other sites.

In fact, say search engine optimization experts, the more content, videos, and articles you submit to other sites in hopes of backlinks, the higher your search engine ranking will be.

The goal of submitting videos, content, and articles to as many sites as possible is to gain as many links as possible, right?

Essentially, you are doing exactly the same thing that link farms do- you are creating a large number of links between your site and other sites, even those sites that are unrelated.

What we know about this technique is that it works.

The more often site owners submit content to other sites that create backlinks, the higher their ranking becomes.

So how is this different from using link farms?

The truth is that link farms not only help raise your search engine rankings but are also a proven way to generate hits and traffic to your page.

Link farms do exactly what you need them to do- they put your domain and web address where people can find it, making them more likely to click through the link to your page.

It doesn’t matter how much great content you have, how informative your page is, or even the great offers you have for your visitors. If internet users can’t find your page, your time and effort to promote and market your site is wasted.

While link farms are not the only way to start generating links between your site and others, they are one of the fastest ways to get those valuable links.

As internet marketing strategies continue to evolve, and as site owners and SEO experts better understand what makes a site likely to be picked up and ranked highly by search providers, many companies spend so much time trying to sell you on their new idea that they forget why existing strategies have stayed around.

Using link farms to begin driving traffic to your site is like getting a head start for your online business.