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
-
Does an external link to an image file on my site help my SEO?
I found a few websites that are displaying images from my site. Curiously, they have also linked these images to the source image file on my website. I found these because Moz showed these sites in my list of backlinks. I assume that means it impacts my Domain Authority. But does this actually help me in search engines since it's not linking to a page on my site?
Link Building | | AlexLenhoff0 -
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 -
Removing links from rubbishy 'blog' sites
I need to remove around 800 bad links, probably about 500 domains as a very rough estimate. These were built by a previous link building company. Here some example domains: http://globalweddingblog.com
Link Building | | Coraltoes77
http://theweddinginsider.net
http://www.couturefashionissues.com
http://www.topfashionlabels.com
http://weddingworldnews.com
http://www.savingsdistrict.com
http://bestfemalesblog.com
http://mylatestfashion.com
http://lastfashion.net
http://womansonlineblog.org I have already tried emailing a hundred or so with a manual link request - with zero outcome. Hardly surprising when you consider the types of sites they are. I've had a quote for a link removal service, but I'm not sure if it's wise to pay someone to do this work - not sure what resources/tools they would have above and beyond what I can access and there could be increased risk. Any advice?0 -
Attaining quality links from sites of a different language.
Working on a campaign for a Bed & Breakfast within non-english market. The possibilities of establishing quality links is very limited. However, as it is most of the time, there are plenty of english sites we can target. What is the latest news on achieving link presence on a site that does not match your own site's language? Given this campaign relates to travel; there shouldn't be an issue in achieving links on foreign sites, is there? Does the PR flow through just the same?
Link Building | | SpadaMan0 -
My Question : why site explorer not showing yahoo directory link
why site explorer not showing yahoo directory link i have tried many different sites which listed in yahoo directory but site explorer not showing ?
Link Building | | amreen8470 -
How to improve (ASAP) the linking root domain, the followed linking root domains and the linking C-Blocks? Linkbuilding (or whatever) techniques.
I have a small site (.com) like any website in my sector. 30-90 pages. I have no crawls errors. Everythings is fine, just I need to improve my linking root domain, the followed linking root domain and the linking C-Blocks. Example: my competitors have 300 (one of them have 1300) of total links. I have 30. Anyone know some good strategies? techniques? tips? I just dont want to be in a farm directory, I want free links. I'm already running two strategies but it works so slowly. I want something faster at this moment. Also, any recommendation will be thankful.
Link Building | | NicoDavila0 -
Our competitor, Gaiam.com is able to get links back from Youtube. How are they doing this?
When I use Open Site Explorer to look at our competitor's link profile, I notice that Gaiam.com is getting lots of valuable links from their videos on Youtube. We have a lot of videos on Youtube as well and are not receiving links back. What is the secret? Our website address is fully shown in the profile and we seem to match them - what are we missing? Thanks
Link Building | | dahnyogaworks0 -
Why does Open Site Explorer list Twitter and Facebook links for one of my sites and not others
One of my sites has the nofollow backlink listed for Facebook and Twitter while 2 other sites do not. All 3 sites have had accounts for over a year. Does the amount of interactivity with the social media profiles have to do with it? I know it is a nofollow link but I was just curious as those profiles might help with the brand signal etc.
Link Building | | 4wheelparts0