The Race for Backlinks

[Debe]

I see that this question hasn't been addressed in 2013 and while reviewing my SEOMoz stats, my competition continues to beat me up in the backlink department.  I'm wondering if anyone has advice as to how to build those backlinks without Penguin penalty.  I want to do it right and I think that's why I can't win this race against my competitors who I see have backlinks on all sorts of sites that are not related to our business.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[Debe]

Oh, and I do appreciate it!  I know that it will definitely help someone out there anyway!  I had a higher bounce rate and found out that speed was killing me so, once that was tweaked, our bounce rate continues to drop little by little!

Thanks again for your answer!

[EGOL]

That's good.  Just tossing out a possibility.

[Debe]

Egol, my bounce rate is very low so, I'm not worried at all about that but, I do miss out on even being 'seen' because backlinks are just not one of my strong suits.  I prefer to garner them organically and because my competitors don't mind going at that the organic way, I don't rank as high.  Once folks find my site, they do seem to stay!

[EGOL]

Thanks.

If people don't see what they want immediately after landing then they will leave.  If they have to think they will leave.  And, I am pretty sure that will drop your rankings.

[gfiedel]

Being the owner of a web design company, I Like that response, EGOL!

[EGOL]

Let's say that you do have superior backlinks but your site bounces traffic because it has a busy format or people don't "get it" or the landing page does not provide what the visitor is expecting.

Could that be the case?

Could a design change result in a spectacular increase in user engagement and cause more people to use domain queries to arrive at your site - because they know that YOU have what they want.

[Debe]

Thanks, Gina!  I'm not always good with those catchy titles--perhaps I need to implement that more myself too (since it worked)!!  

[Debe]

That is great news, Takeshi, and I'm hopeful that my site will once again, rise to the top!  I'm biased, I know but, if I were moving to this area, I would want clear, concise, ACCURATE information on the area and not tidbits of 'junk' information that is on the sites that are ranking higher.  I feel for the consumer here more than myself.

[Debe]

I do hope so, Karl!  Thanks again for your input as well!

[gfiedel]

Thanks, for initiating this discussion, Debe. I sure can relate. AND! Most importantly, great job on the catchy question title. It worked!! When I saw it, I immediately made note to self: "catchy question titles - gotta get better at them to get attention from the big kids".

[KarlBantleman]

I know, it's frustrating and probably happened to all ethical SEO'ers at some point. Keep at it, you'll be rewarded! Good luck for the future

[Debe]

Thanks, Karl!  I do agree and that has been my philosophy for years--and for a good number of them, I WAS ranking higher than the spammy sites.  Now, it seems that the tables have turned and I really don't understand how that could happen with the recent updates.  Backlinks seems to be where I am behind in the 'race' to be #1 but, I refuse to pay someone to link to my site who sells Viagra!  It's just a bit frustrating when you've tried for years to stay on the straight and narrow!

I do watch my stats and understand the long term nature of this challenge; it just seems like I should be ranking considerably higher than I am--especially when I personally review the competitors' sites and know the difference in quality is not comparable.

[TakeshiYoung]

Don't be tempted to follow your competitor's lead and acquire lots of low quality links, because Matt Cutts recently announced that they will be releasing a major Penguin update later this year. Don't throw away longterm growth with short term tactics, unless you're willing to lose it all.

Here is a great list of link building strategies if you're short on ideas:

http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

[Debe]

I agree, Andy!  I just wish Google could go more in-depth and rank accordingly!  

[Debe]

Moosa - Those are the ONLY backlinks that I do have but, despite the fact that mine are far more quality AND related to the business (not pharmaceuticals or movies but, real estate related), I'm still not ranking as high as the sites with lower quality and more backlinks to non-related topics.

I know it's not a race--I was just trying to draw attention with the title!!  Thanks for your input!

[Debe]

Thanks, Takeshi!  And, yes, I'm referring to Penguin.  Content is not a problem and as I compare my content to those who are ranking higher because of their backlinks from non-related businesses (mostly spam sites), it is frustrating that the consumer is driven to their site with either minimal information or misinformation.

[KarlBantleman]

I agree with the previous comments and be aware that if your competitors are building dodgy links, there is a good chance that they will get a penalty in the near future! Keep the faith with natural links and you will reap the benefits in the long term. Remember, SEO is a long term strategy so compare your stats each month and make sure you are seeing an improvement...if you are seeing an increase then keep it going, don't worry too much about those above you because there isn't much you can do about them.

[SEOAndy]

I think what we are all trying to say is... as always with SEO ...

Quality Trumps Quantity

[MoosaHemani]

Building links was never a race for me it was more like how quality my link profile is and this is how I beat my competitors and rank over them again the money making keywords.

It’s not about how many links your competitors have and how many links do you have... after the panda and penguin update it’s quite clear that its more about the quality of links your competitors have as compare to you!

I would advise you to build some high quality, valuable links within your niche so that you can easily outrank your competitors for the desired key phrases.

[TakeshiYoung]

I think Penguin is the penalty you're thinking of (Penguin targets links, Panda targets low quality content).

First of all, if you are manually building backlinks, avoid getting too many exact match anchor text links. So, if you're trying to get a page to rank about "cheap real estate", avoid having too many links that have that exact anchor text, because it looks unnatural and you could get penalized. The latest Penguin update penalized sites with as low as 50% of links with exact anchor text.

The best way to avoid link penalties is to get links where you can't control anchor text. These include things like organic mentions on newsites, blogs, and magazines. Instead of thinking "how can I build more links?" think: "how can I create content that people will want to link to?" Those are the links that are going to carry the most weight anyway, not random backlinks from unrelated sites.