What is a content farm?

Beverly Level X³

December 21, 2013, 6:28 pm

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What is a content farm?

Google discourages 'content farms or sites which have thin content. But many content farms such as Hubpages, Squidoo and eHow still rank very highly. Not that there is no good content on these sites, but technically they are content farms, considering how almost every subject possible is covered. So what is it about these legitimate, acceptable content farms that Google approves of, that make them an exception? And, if those sites don't qualify as a content farm, then what would?

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ricky44

I feel that these sites would be known as a content farm. I know that there is good content on these sites as I have visited them enough to know. I am not sure why google would make the exception but surly there is an explanation as to why.

12 years ago

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Theadora

The content farm a type of website that is created for the purpose of link building, where you can post content to get a link while content is not managed, it may not be in appropriate category, it may not be in proper English language etc..

12 years ago

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Kat1

The content farm a type of website that is created for the purpose of link building, where you can post content to get a link while content is not managed, it may not be in appropriate category, it may not be in proper English language etc..

Thanks Theadora. I had never heard of a content farm til just now.

12 years ago

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Beverly

The content farm a type of website that is created for the purpose of link building, where you can post content to get a link while content is not managed, it may not be in appropriate category, it may not be in proper English language etc..

That sounds like a privately managed blog network.

12 years ago

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softnwords

Google algorithm always stands strange to public and that how they make it unique. I wonder they destroyed PR of many sites in last couple of months. I am sure after a period of time Google may loose their fancy on being a giant search engine.

12 years ago

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spyindiasanjiv

content farm is use for backlinks. Main purpose of it is link building.

12 years ago

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America

There is a difference between a catch all authoritative wiki site and one that is used only for backlinking to other sites. As is, ehow and others usually only allow links to authoritative sites not affiliate sites or spammy low quality sites as you might find with a blog network.

12 years ago

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anirban09P

A content farm, also called a content mill, is a Web site whose content is written for search engine bots instead of human readers. Topics on a content farm are chosen specifically for their ability to rank highly in search engine results.

11 years ago

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Clarke

Thanks a lot for describing the term "Content Farming"

11 years ago

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kellyIMservices

kellyIMservices

the content farm is being used to describe a website-or network of sites-that publishes large amounts of inexpensive, often low-quality content specifically designed to generate search engine traffic, and, therefore, advertising revenue. This is often done through the use of many freelance writers, and heavy use of terms designed to appeal to search engines.

11 years ago

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sumoncps

But still it has some risk in using content farm, as Google may consider this as spamming.

11 years ago

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anup66

A content farm is a company that uses search algorithm data to create articles, videos and other media that is designed to rank highly in the search engines.

11 years ago

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nicholasgibson

Google discourages 'content farms or sites which have thin content. But many content farms such as Hubpages, Squidoo and eHow still rank very highly. Not that there is no good content on these sites, but technically they are content farms, considering how almost every subject possible is covered. So what is it about these legitimate, acceptable content farms that Google approves of, that make them an exception? And, if those sites don't qualify as a content farm, then what would?

Well for few pages Google cannot banned the whole website and content is not only the prime factor of ranking as you know. User engagement & website authority is also a prime factor of ranking.

11 years ago

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bhagatghanvri

A content farm, also called a content mill, is a Website whose content is written for search engine bots instead of human readers. Topics on a content farm are chosen specifically for their ability to rank highly in search engine results.

Their main goal is to generate revenue by placing ads on the page or selling contextual hyperlinks within the content. The more Internet traffic a page gets the more revenue the page can generate. Content farms often commission their writers' work based on analysis of search engine queries that proponents represent as "true market demand", a feature that traditional journalism lacks.

10 years ago

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stevexavior

"Content farm" is being used to describe a website-or network of sites that publishes large amounts of inexpensive, often low-quality content specifically designed to generate search engine traffic, and, therefore, advertising revenue. The main purpose of a content farm is to maximize page views and revenue generated by advertising on those pages while minimizing the costs and time needed to create the content.

A content farm also called a content mill is a Website whose content is written for search engine bots instead of human readers. Content farming has been likened to the “fast food” of the internet and is often referred to as social spam.

10 years ago

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idealmike

Google discourages 'content farms or sites which have thin content. But many content farms such as Hubpages, Squidoo and eHow still rank very highly. Not that there is no good content on these sites, but technically they are content farms, considering how almost every subject possible is covered. So what is it about these legitimate, acceptable content farms that Google approves of, that make them an exception? And, if those sites don't qualify as a content farm, then what would?

The thing is with those sites is you have to look at the other reasons they rank high despite having many link farms built on them. They have backlinks from resources and other high authority sites that are years old and the juice from these and their PR/Trust and Citation Flow probably far outweighs any negative results those link farm links have.

10 years ago

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limberg

A lot of content farms went down the drain half a decade ago which is kind of sad. I was making a lot of money being a writer at Knoji.com. I could make more than $300 a month just by writing articles for them. My articles also ranked pretty highly on the Google search engine. When Google changed their algorithm, everything went bonkers. Content farms could no longer make a lot of money as they did in the past. This forced them to slash some of their writers.

I agree that content farms have articles that are usually written for bots. But that's also the case with a lot of blogs nowadays. Content farms usually focus on a wide range of topics in just a single site which makes it a bit hard to follow. But what happened nowadays? People made lots and lots of mini websites focusing on one very specific niche. Usually, those mini websites just have a couple of pages in it plus a sales page slapped in. In content farms, people were given the freedom to write whatever they wanted and be paid considerably for their efforts. That's no longer the case.

Did Google change for the better?

9 years ago

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