Blackhat SEO firm had more success than whitehat me
-
I’ve been link building for a small online store. Before I took over their SEO, they hired a company who got them lots of spammy links over a 12 month contract. The spammy links didn't seem to improve or hurt rankings on their main keywords but general search traffic has almost doubled.
Now I’m doing whitehat SEO for them and getting links through emailing bloggers and giving them reasons to link to us. Over 2 months (amongst over things) I’ve obtained links from around 35 websites, mostly PR 3 – 4 with a few up to PR 7.
On my own website, a couple of links like this would produce a noticeable effect in the rankings, but I can’t seem to budge the ranks for this website.
I’m concerned that they might just want to go back to their old SEO firm for more spam links.
Am I doing the right thing? Am I getting links quick enough and how can I argue the case for whitehat if they’re getting more noticeable results from blackhat?
-
That's a good idea, to remind them that the naughty links could have their value wiped in one go at any time.
-
Thanks. If you want to outsource some work....
In this case I'm defining black hat as placing links on websites, that SEO company presumably own, which are covered by links to unfamiliar online stores using high value keywords.
We're not using Adwords but are using Google Analytics.
-
I've wondered that a lot myself. Is it possible to test it?
-
Very true. I can see that that our search traffic has a close correlation with the number of conversions. The search traffic they are getting is for high value keywords in their niche, but they aren't getting much traffic from search really. So in this case, higher ranks equal more revenue.
-
Always communicate with your client. If they want to go back to the blackhat firm, explain that the effects of blackhat techniques may very well be temporal and after the next Panda, BlackBear, Gorilla or whatever update they can be easily thrown back to the end of search results. And this "update" can happen anytime, maybe tomorrow maybe only in a year. If they're in for the long term, they have to plan for more than a year... Solid results take time, but they also stand the test of time!
-
"Now I’m doing whitehat SEO for them and getting links through emailing bloggers and giving them reasons to link to us. Over 2 months (amongst over things) I’ve obtained links from around 35 websites, mostly PR 3 – 4 with a few up to PR 7."
This is quite an accomplishment...35 organic links. Give it some time. Every SEO has their own opinion on what is black hat and what is white hat. Are you using adwords? are you using google analytics to track traffic and conversion?
-
Hi David,
Taking a shot in the dark here, especially without seeing your backlinks, etc., but is it possible that some of the previor link building tactics have been dragging down the rankings/traffic that you are trying o supplement with by using honest, more effective white-hat tactics?
Best,
W
-
It's a small online store -- how are conversions and sales doing? Traffic and rankings are great, but if I (with an online store that sells items related to RC warships and scale boats) somehow rank for rabbit cages and get a lot of traffic from it, I've got rankings and traffic, but it hasn't done me a bit of good for the bottom line. If you then come along and get me three link related to DKM Bismarck plans that have 1/10 the traffic I got from the rabbit cages traffic, but that traffic converts and gets me sales, I'm going to be happy.
tl;dr Are you and the customer focusing on measuring the right results?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What do you think of these profile links for SEO?
In my Google Search Console today, I saw a link from Creative Market. In Moz last week I saw a link from Instructables. In Moz, they have high numbers. DO you think these type of profiles have a big impact? https://artists.spotify.com/c/artist/3N1BM4dOORzK8BF6DrkEDU/profile#about (Moz-50, ahrefs-14) https://creativemarket.com/julie.gallaher (Moz-36, Ahrefs-12) https://www.instructables.com/member/jazzmansac (Moz-42, Ahrefs-13) https://moz.com/community/users/907261 (Moz-50, Ahrefs-25) https://www.are.na/julie-gallaher (Moz-25, Ahrefs-11) They all look to be do follow links
Link Building | | julie-getonthemap0 -
SEO SEA strategy
Hi, At this time i encounter the next problem as SEO at a retailer. They increased there SEA budget on branded and non branded keywords the generate more traffic on the Adwords campaign. But Now the SEO traffic is decreasing and the SEA traffic is getting bigger and bigger. Especialy on mobile devices where you only see the adwords link and no organic link without scrolling. It's also good for the conversion rate, so we have to do this. But i am curious how other SEO's deal with this thing. What will you do to find new sources of organic traffic? Are you using more longtail keywords or low volume or other things. Like to hear from you. Grtz, Leonie
Link Building | | Leonie-Kramer0 -
Is it Good For seo?
After Create i backlink use google add url tool to index the backlink url in google . is this method is good for seo
Link Building | | watchwrestling0 -
SEO Consulting Agency for Strategy and Link Removal
We need your guidance on SEO Agency we can consult for strategy planning for our websites. We received manual Partial penalty on both domain few months back and since then have seen tremendous fall in rankings for both of the domains. Have been trying to remove all spam links we found out of links we got from webmasters and disavow one's we were not able to get removed. But yet request for penalty removal not accepted. Would appreciate your concern on helping us out if we can take help of some agency for aggressively getting our spam links removed and plan for a better strategy to improve our rankings. Please suggest one of the best in this domain we could reach.
Link Building | | amitjain0 -
Mat Release SEO Impact
How do Mat Releases affect SEO? Does google recognize that your are syndicating duplicate content even if the content is being syndicated across top media outlets? Do these back links still carry any authority or can we even be penalized for the duplicate content? I came across mat releases here: http://matrelease.com/ An example of article syndication outlets: Guaranteed Placement on 800+ Media Sites. Generate guaranteed article placement on more than 800 respected online media outlets. Our digital distribution network includes: The LA Times; The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (JS Online); Las Vegas Review Journal; Hearst media sites for the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle and Connecticut Post and others; local TV news affiliate sites from ABC, CBS, FOX and others; and hundreds more trusted sites.
Link Building | | bloomnation0 -
Do inbound links to download .exe files improve SEO?
The site, (http://www.bartenderbarcodesoftware.com/) sells barcode software. They also provide free printer drivers on their site. During a recent domain change (before I started helping them), they began looking at their inbound links and found quite a few external sites linking to these download files. However, when someone clicks on the link on one of these sites (i.e. http://vvs-motor.com.ua/barcode-printer-drivers) it immediately begins downloading the file (i.e. http://www.seagullscientific.com/downloads/drivers/archive/7.2/7.2.4/Unimark_7.2.4.exe) without taking the visitor to the site. The owner would greatly prefer this traffic to engage with the site and is considering 301 redirecting those download links to an actual webpage. Question: Would this look suspicious to Google? Would this have a positive or negative effect on SEO? The last factor to consider is that many of these sites will likely just recreate the list based on the new links at some future point. Thanks for any help!
Link Building | | motosantiago0 -
How do all these SEO companies link build, and isn't it technically black hat?
Amateur hour over here, and I'd appreciate a kick in the right direction! I've done a fairly good job link building organically, but I need to start ranking better so I can actually have a good shot at catching up with my competitors. I've contacted companies that perform SEO work, and each one of them has said that link building is one of the most important things that can be done to increase page ranking on SERPs. For a set amount of money each month (in one instance, $6,000/month), they promised me many quality links with keywords in the anchor text and on the first page of SERPS for those keywords against competitors who have Domain Authority of 65+. How can they possibly do this? I've tried doing research into how they can get so many quality links, and I have a theory: these SEO companies have a very large network of websites they work with. The SEO groups charge me money, and in turn pays this network of websites to create pages that link to my website using desired anchor text. Additionally, perhaps the SEO companies have a network of websites that they actually own and simply create new articles about your company and link to it. Is this how it's done? Is this how SEO companies actually operate? And if so, isn't this technically black hat SEO seeing as the customer is paying for links (from what I've read, Google hates this). Could it be possible that if I pay for these links, and Google somehow found out about it, I could really pay the consequences later on? Appreciate any insight you can give me before I spend any money on SEO work. Thanks so much! I'm a new user and really, really like this community!
Link Building | | CHEATERS0 -
What are the benefits of SEO?
If a client asks "why should I spend time and money on SEO?", how would you answer? Is "to be found in search engines" the answer? If so, wouldn't it be more cost effective to use PPC instead of SEO? Is link building a waste of time and money? Is it better to just concentrate on quality content?
Link Building | | SharpKiwi0