Frustrated with spammy backlinks from competitors

[jgower]

I've only been doing SEO for my company for the last month and I've made some headway but what is really frustrating me right now is a couple of competitors that have OBVIOUS spammy links ranking in the number 1,2,3 stops all over the board for the keywords i'm going for.  One competitor in particular has anchor text links EVERYWHERE that make absolutely no sense...junk like...

"I have never been more saddened by anything in my life than when my grandfather got cancer.  I told my uncle he needed to buy some auto insurance.  I really like pork."

I mean, these links are the pages with the most page authority and page rank out of all of the ones they have...and I'd venture to say that almost all of their backlinks are like this...well, half of them are just random links with good anchor text on the sidebar of a bazillion spam websites (diapers, toys, fake blogs, etc.)...while i have about 3k links and most of my top competitors have about 5k links...these guys have over 33k.

Worse yet, when I look at something like Alexa rank, they have pretty high overall traffic rank but it shows traffic rank in MX (mexico) instead of the US...these guys only sell in the US!  I mean, they're black hat if I've ever seen such a thing and they rank superbly on all keywords.

What can I do to compete with this junk?

[randfish]

Don't have much more to add to what David said here (and Egol's excellent replies below).

I would check out http://raventools.com/blog/mozcon-2011-how-to-earn-the-links-the-lazy-link-builders-buy/ and Wil's blog on http://www.seerinteractive.com - he gives more great advice around how to beat black hats with white hat tactics.

[EGOL]

I just thought of something else that I should start posting every time someone starts a thread complaining about spammy links on competitor sites.

If I look at my own backlinks there are a lot... I mean a freeking ton... of links from scraper sites.  Tens of thousands of them.

I did nothing to build those links.  Not one.

This type of stuff happens when a site has been up for a long time and gets decent traffic.

So, some of the people who post here could really be saying.... Wah! EGOL is beating me with spammy links!

Spammy links appear on their own... they are gifts from the blackhats.   I am going to dig into your link profile and if I see scraper links I am going to rat you out to MC.  lol

[EGOL]

What can I do to compete with this junk?

You will compete best if you pay no attention to it.

You will not beat them by duplicating their methods.

So draw up your SEO plan to kick their butts and every other butt in your SERPs with quality work and get busy on it.

The effort that beats your real competitors will also beat these people.

Honestly.... if these guys are beating you with trash then they should not be that hard to beat.  My bet is that there is some gold in their methods that give them their current rankings.  It is common practice to hide your gold in crap so people can't find it and will stop looking as soon as they get a little on their shoes.

Good luck.

[heatherrobinson]

Welcome to the world of SEO!

I deal with this kind of thing on a daily basis. It's frustrating to say the least.

I think the most important thing for you to do, is stay white hat and don't be tempted to play them at their own game.

Go for quality every time. It may take longer, but that usually means you'll maintain your positions longer than the the sites using the short-term SPAM tactics.

Good Luck!

[AlanMosley]

I remeber Matt Cutts saying that Articles posting , comment spamming are worthless, but relevant or local directories when mixed with a few quality links still hold value

[watkinsheating]

Awesome white board friday about this.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/im-being-outranked-by-a-spammer-whiteboard-friday

My key takeaway was that those 1000s of spam links may not be what google is using to rank them. They may have a handfull of high-quality links that are better than yours and are providing 98% of their rank. That is what you should focus on, not the 1000s of spammy links.

Also, I think that a few low quality links (directories, recips, etc.) are helpful. I'm sure I'll catch flak from the purists on here, but, IMO, google is looking for diversity. I think they expect to see a few spammy links on any well established site. On the other hand, spam is certainly not as helpful as a few high quality links. I think pure white hatters exagerate the dangers of black hat. Spam doesn't hurt or we could use it to sabotage our competitors. While it's benefits may be temporary given future algo changes, I believe a small amount of tasteful spam (relevent articles, niches directories, recip from similar companies) is the only short term way to compete. All the while you should still be busting it on the high-quality stuff hoping for the day that google finally figures out what spam tastes like.

Good luck. We all fight this same battle.

[AlanMosley]

Report the spam, chances are that eventualy the links with get discounted, but we must do our part and reoprt the spam.

[zeepartner]

I feel your pain as well... There's nothing more frustrating than finding competitors with such obvious spammy tactics, wondering how Google could not recognize it and penalize the living hell out of these sites...

However, I can offer no advice but the obvious: build better links and create helpful content. I know, that's even more frustrating if you don't see any effects but in the long run it's the only choice. Sometimes I had to wait up to one year (!) until sites with obviously bought Russian footer links finally disappeared from top SERPs, so patience seems the only way to go.

At least you don't have to be the only frustrated SEO here and your example made my day. I hope when I grow old and sick, my children will also advice me to buy a car and eat pork. Must be some medicine...

Oh, and I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest here, but there's always Google's Spam Report for those competitors who overdo it... (though some SEOs find this unethical to do)

[Jinx14678]

LOL probably the same firm (if you can call them that) I am competing with for exact same link building tactic.

But mine was something like...

Refinancing corporate credit cards? When you refinance with LINK (KEYWORD) LINK blah blah blah.... Irrelevant content blah blah blah...

and they HAD THOUSANDS!!! And were obviously fooling the algorithm cause they bumped me to #2

I just combated it with High Quality relevant content both on site and guest blogging and Real relevant Social Signals within 5 days.... I had retaken it and seems to be holding, (but they are still #2)

High Quality beats quantity any day with this type of thing as the links fall off quickly cause mostly these are content farms that post many blogs per day. Also it is a hodgepodge of content so there are no relevancy signals.

Just focus on a high quality campaign that gets good relevant info out about your niche and supplement that by integrating social brand building.

Shane