Link scheme
A link scheme is any arrangement to create links to a site to raise its search rankings, such as buying, swapping or mass-producing links.
A link scheme is any arrangement made to create links to a site so that it ranks higher in search. Buying links, swapping them, trading products for them, or setting up sites only to link to yourself are all link schemes. Google has long used the name for the practices its policies forbid, and today it covers them under link spam in its spam policies.
It matters because the penalty can be bigger than the gain. Google can ignore the links, lower the site's rankings or remove pages from its results.
What counts as a scheme
The test is intent. A link given because someone liked your page is fine. A link that exists because of a deal made to move rankings is a scheme. Common ones are:
- Paying for links, or paying in free products, without marking the links as paid
- Agreeing to link to each other in large numbers
- Article campaigns that place the same piece on many sites, each with a keyword-rich link
- Networks of sites run by one owner to link to another site
- Software that adds links to forums, comments or profiles in bulk
For example, say a supplier offers Kestrel Roasters a deal: 40 links from "coffee blogs" for a monthly fee. The blogs share an owner, carry no readers, and every link says "best coffee beans UK." That's a link scheme, even if Kestrel never touches the sites itself.
Why it doesn't help in AI search
AI platforms name brands they read about on pages people trust. A network of empty blogs gives an answer nothing worth repeating, and Google's AI features are built on Google Search, so pages pushed out of the results by a penalty can't be shown there either. The work that gets you named is the same work that earns links honestly: being on the reviews, roundups and directories people read.
In Recommendations, we never suggest links you pay or trade for.