Analyzing cometitiors back links
-
Hello, I have been working on getting links to my site www.healthyjava.com by offering bloggers free products to hand out in drawings and contest. We have had some small success with that but when I was analyzing one of my competitors I found that there strongest link is www.promotemydomain.com. It looks like some sort of free link index, and has NOTHING to do with our relevant product. Yet he out ranks me by a LOT.
What gives here? I was under the impression that google does not value free link indexes much.
Should I pursue getting in that index too? Or will he someday get penalized by being in there?
On the flip side, what if a competitor places MY link in there.. Could I get penalized even though I didn't do it?
Thank you,
Jacob Bushnell
-
Thanks for that advice!
Jacob
-
Jacob,
This is a question any of us ask from time to time. Unfortunately, and I think Google says it too, they are not at a place where everything is "caught" even with all the changes in the algorithm in the last year or two. So,when looking at a competitor, it is easy to get caught up in the, "They have these bogus links and are outranking me." game.
I would suggest you not get caught up in that worry as you will be focusing on the wrong thing. I don't think if you want to go get that link, given you are not in the most competitive space on the web and assuming your site/pages are not repositories of Chinese Gambling Ginseng Sexual Enhancement links by the gross, you should be fine. I doubt that it will change anything drastically though for the positive.I would focus on the other aspects of SEO and on continuing to build your links to your sites. This will pay off much better. By focusing on quality on page SEO and really focusing on it you beat out 90% of your competitors. By focusing as much as possible in local where you can, you beat out at least 75% of your competitors. By having ripping good meta descriptions that make people want to visit you get more conversions. If you consider that links are 20% of SEO +/- then there is roughly 80% left. By focusing on the 20 you are ceding too much ground to the guy who takes the easy way out. If you want to bust his chops, get the rest of it so tight he cries and continue to build quality back links; in a few months see who wins.
Best
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
-
When conducting a link building strategy does it matter the country the link is from?
We are a UK business and if we have links mostly from US based blogs and websites does this penalise us. The links are from relevant websites and topics. Should we be focusing on .co.uk sites
Link Building | | Caffeine_Marketing1 -
Refferal links
I have a site where I can pick up where my hits came from. So if somebody clicks from another website link to visit my website, I will then pick up from which website they came from and also which page they landed on. Will google penalize me for this and see this as paid advertising?
Link Building | | Heinwest0 -
Ecomerce: Would 4 link sections leak too much link juice?
Hello, In my content management for our ecomerce site, I've found that there are sometimes links to sites in our industry that have "helpful links" sections. Several strong sites link directly to these resource sections. There are 4 different topics that fit this trend in our industry. Would it leak too much link juice to make 4 comprehensive link sections and place a link to them on our "Useful Articles" page? Or should I stick to one comprehensive link section? Or perhaps a small link section? Or none at all? Thanks.
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
I want to design SEO link building strategy for my website? Is wordpress.com, squidoo, tumblr, blogger, typepad - Good option for link building?
I am currently concentrating on 8 keywords, for e.g (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H). I will be writing blogs with 2 of any related keywords present in it. I am thinking to post 5 blogs on 5 different platforms as (wordpress.com, Squidoo, Typepad, Tumblr, blogger) respectively. I am thinking a strategy as: Monday: Keyword A,B on Wordpress/ C,D on Squidoo/E,F on Typepad/G,H on Blogger/ A,C on Tumblr. Tuesday:C,D on Wordpress/E,F on Squidoo/ etc.... and will rotate these keywords through out the week and the cycle restarts on Monday. The URL for every keyword will be different and relevant to that keyword. I need quick suggestion on this topic..Please..
Link Building | | Christain0 -
Link Analysis shows no external sites linking to me?
Hi All, I hope you can help. Link Analysis shows no external sites linking to me? but I know for a fact there are. Why is this? I have submitted my site to a few local directories and can see my site is on their site but when I run a Link Analysis it shows that I have no links. Does anyone know why this is? Many thanks, Aidan My site is http://www.theethicalsilkco.com/
Link Building | | aidanlawlor0 -
Forum links
If you are building links in forums how can you decide which forums to post to? Of course you can have a look at averall traffic in Alexa or mozrank but is there anything else you can look at?
Link Building | | sesertin0 -
A good link builder / link building agency for Spanish content
Hi, I am looking for a good link building agency or freelance to execute a link building strategy for the next months. The content is in Spanish. Could anyone recommend me a good agency or a good link builder for Spanish content? Thank you very much! Jorge
Link Building | | jorgediaz0