Interesting link to a competitors site
-
I recently found a very interesting link to two of my competitors sites. The companies are number 2 and 3 in Google for my targeted keywords (for some reason Wikipedia is number 1) and are both linked from the home page of this site.
I don't want to leave a link for linkers site because I don't want them to be able to see that I'm snooping on them but, here is the scenerio:
The site that they are linked from is a .org site. It is basically our targeted keywords in a .org. Something like bluewidgets.org. At the very bottom of the home page are some tabs, you click the first tab and it opens about 20 new tabs, when you click any of those 20 tabs it displays some text at the bottom of the page. This text is of no value to visitors, it is obvious to me what is happening here. Both companies are linked with targeted keywords in the anchor and title text.
I'm wondering if I should also pursue a link from this page. I know there is value in a .org link but this site seems to be built to link to those two sites.
Anybody else ever run into anything like I'm describing. Should I post a link to this site?
-
Hi Brandon
If you haven't seen this already, an awesome video here on SEOmoz entitled "I'm Being Outranked by a Spammer - Whiteboard Friday" is well worth a view, it was posted last Friday and Rand has some really insightful and valuable information to share.
I would suspect, though obviously can't know, that the links from this .org site to your competitors will not be the reason they are ranking so highly. If those links are being counted, it will be a small part of those rankings, takes a lot more than 1 good link usually.
Just because it's from a .org doesn't mean that the links carry any weight, it sounds like a site with little value from the way you've described it, I'd suggest focusing on creating and distributing some valuable content rather than chasing the links of competitors. Link Analysis of competitors is of course important, just don't worry too much about individual links, especially if they are questionable such as in this case. With some great content, you can attract some valuable links of your own that your competitors may not have.
I hope that helps,
Regards
Simon
-
I don't think a better link will be possible from this site. It's very strange, all of the content describes bluewidgets.org as if it's a company offering services. But there is not company name anywhere, not even on the about us page.
I just filled out their contact form to try to obtain more company information.
-
Personally, I would pursue a better link from them, right within the content. Don't just get even, get ahead
As for the .Org being better:
From what I've read in a couple blogs, I've never tested this, it's not that a .Org is just better. What makes .edu's and .Org more desirable is that they are typically more authoritative sites. A typical university has a 80+ Domain Authority, where a .Com will vary greatly.
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 will the SECOND link from a site do for me
Say I have an opportunity to get another link from a high authority site that has already linked an important article from me (a page I REALLY want to rank well). Now a month later, they are interviewing me and asking what I'd like to link. I have plenty of good content I can offer, but I really want that page they already linked to to climb a bit in the rankings. So my question is, how is that second link best spent? Would linking to the same page give it a boost? Or does Google see it as "oh. Another link from the same domain. Yippee." Would that link do more for a different page on my site at this point?
Link Building | | cbrant7770 -
Interdomain linking from partner sites
I'm looking for a bit of advice on best practices when it comes to linking domains that are operated by the same umbrella corporation. Are links from the header/footer no longer beneficial? Is there such a thing as too many links among domains? How would you reap the SEO value of a small network of sites that were associated? Thanks!!
Link Building | | ElizaDay0 -
Whats the Best Link Building Strategy for News Sites
Hello, I have a news portal and l am working with 3 editors, they are writing 3-5 daily unique news articles. I would like to know if whats the best link building strategy for news sites that l need to keep getting links from? What sort of sites l should find links for best link building? Please inform me. thanks.
Link Building | | rk19800 -
Link building for a product review site
I'm doing SEO for a product review website, and I'm curious what link building opportunities are best for this category. Assume only the following: The website is basically a blog Most of the articles are reviews on cosmetic products, though there are also articles regarding news, product roundups, tips&tricks and similar content The website is in a local, non-english language Disregarding low-value opportunities such as directories, what kind of websites should I aim for outreach purposes? So far, I'm thinking the following: Product manufacturers (very low success chance, as the review site is fairly new and in a localized language) E-commerce sites selling the products (average to low success chance, since a lot of them use CMSes that might not allow integration of a review) Other cosmetic blogs, particularly for guest blogging (average to low success chance, since the website is fairly new) Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks!
Link Building | | mihaiaperghis0 -
Competitor links on unmaintained pages
hey all, this is my first posting... I have a webpage that is a great resource (ranked 3rd for my keyword) , and unarguably better than the site that is taking the first 2 places. Because my page is a much more useful resource for the same thing I have been looking at who is linking to them and asking them to take a look at mine in the hope that they will replace their link with my more up to date page. The problem is a LOT of the high value links they have (many .edu links) are from old, now unmaintained pages, where I have no chance of getting a link (or even contact with a webmaster) Its frustrating that they have so many good links to such an out of date page. I just wondered if any of you have had a similar situation. It just seems very hard to knock someone off that top spot if they have been established a long time, regardless of the quality of their content. I guess there is no solution to it except to find lot of other high value links myself - so not so much a question as a comment really! but happy to hear peoples own experiences of that sort of situation.
Link Building | | ricalebro0 -
Should a site run it's own affiliate program to get inbound links?
I've recently signed an ecommerce client who runs their affiliate program through Commission Junction. If they were to bring their program in-house and eventually get all those affiliate links pointed to their domain, would those links be counted?
Link Building | | HunterW0 -
Link to those that link to you? Worthwhile?
We have thousands and thousands of sites that link to a domain we are working on, many with low page authority and high domain (bloggers, forum posts, etc). Has anyone experimented with linking to the pages that link to you (not from your site) but from other means in an effort to boost their quality? I'm not sure what method we would use, maybe some relevant blog comments or social votes. But curious if this could be an effective method.
Link Building | | iAnalyst.com0 -
Why aren't links to my site showing up in open site explorer?
My site is http://www.thesquarefoot.com Google analytics shows many more (though more than a handful of links that we have gotten recently still don't show up there). Definite newbie here so please be kind... Thanks!
Link Building | | TheSquareFoot0