It’s no secret that links are an essential ingredient to use to get a website that ranks well. It is because of this that many of us resort to quick fixes and short cuts that, while they may be great in the short term, can negatively affect your website overall. One of these shortcuts is the use of a link network. Link networks are known by many names such as blog or article networks with their degree of danger dependent on whom you ask.

It’s important to realise that Google is not a fan of ‘unnatural’ links and these can certainly fall under that category. Although having only a few links coming from a link network may not pose a threat at all, this would not be the case if you were totally dependent on these types of links, especially if the network is penalised. It is worth thinking about the entire picture and weighing up the pros and cons before taking the link network shortcut.