Ecommerce seo - competitors are using spammy links to rank HELP

[GarethEJones]

After setting up SEO Moz and whilst waiting for it to crawl my site i have checked out my competitors who are ranking for the keywords i am going after.

It appears from what i can see in OSE that they are ranking with back links from spammy looking sites and lots of exact match anchor text.

I have tried to match a few links with what they have currently without getting myself into anything too spammy but i really don't want to follow how they have done it exactly.

The niche i am in is pretty boring but the rewards are great but i am finding creating content and distributing it correctly difficult which is why i need some help.

My site is roughly 9 months old and the product descriptions are hand written trying to give as much info as possible with a hint of personality so no cookie cutter back of the box descriptions.

i have matched a few of the links from competitors which weren't too spammy and as relevant as i could get to my niche, i have also created articles for some article directories - all of which isn't really getting me very far and i am running out of ideas on how to create new content & the types of new content to help me get back links naturally.

If any of you friendly guys could offer me some assistance in setting up a basic seo campaign which would help me target my keywords i would be very much in your debt

[Marcus_Miller]

Pleasure, glad I could help!

[GarethEJones]

hi Marcus, more gold! i couldn't ask for more!

you have been an inspiration today and you & people like you, are the reason why seomoz is such a great place.

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Gareth

In an ideal world, you would build great content and the links would come tumbling in but the reality is that you sometimes have to work at this a little.

There are some great guides on here that cover the process in more detail (check out the noobs guide to link building) but in essence, you identify targets and network with those targets to

Ultimately, the trick here is to make your content better, way better than anything else out there and that makes the job a whole lot easier.

Okay, another quick example based around:

History of The Toilet

1. Create your page, add an infographic, research it, make it better than anything else currently out there including the wikipedia page.
2. Then, find all other 'History of the Toilet' pages online.
3. Find out who links to them with OSE etc
4. Find out who has shared that page

This provides your list of prospects to link to your new piece.

You then have to network with these folks and ultimately request a link and this again is very much a case of you will get out what you put in. If you just bang an email over then you will get nowhere. If you follow them socially, get chatting, set the scene, move to email and then introduce the idea you will do a lot better.

You have to tackle this from a 'what is in it for them' perspective. If you can make their article or resources page better via linking to your article then it is a no brainer.

Hope that helps!
Marcus

[GarethEJones]

Hi Marcus,

Thank you for the inspiration there to get the ball rolling, i should probably have mentioned i had a blog (which i do) and have been using this to create some content which isn't being found.

I have covered the history of a toilet (here) but never thought of turning it into an info graphic - i think its time to get the old Photoshop out and give it a whirl although my skills are just as legendary as my SEO skills

the link to point-blank seo is something i have been following and working through along with the twitter profile links he also posts on another part of his website - he has some great stuff and i find myself reading more than doing!

that brings me to another question i would like an answer to, since the majority of the content i am posting is to my blog how do i get those people who do eventually like my content to link to the website or will the links to the blog and then link to ecommerce site from within the post be just as good? - that sounds convoluted but i lack the terminology to make a coherent sentence

anyway

thank you again marcus your help is very much appreciated

[Marcus_Miller]

Ha, well, I can see the content brainstorming for this one would be tricky. This is something the SEO industry seems to forget that lots of industries are just not that interesting. Still, there is always an angle and there is always a way to build links.

Here is a 2 minute brainstorming for content ideas (obviously, with content used to build or inspire links).

• The History of Toilets -
• The History of Public Restrooms
• History of the Word Toilet
• Different Types of Toilets

Sounds boring? Well, take a quick look at the wikipedia entry for Toilets and it actually, like anything when you dig in, has some quite interesting history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet

All of those ideas would lend themselves to a really good quality blog post and an infographic. Think of Toilets through the ages as an infographic, easy to put together and would be quite amusing / interesting.

There are about 30 infographic directories you can get a link from so there is a starter and if you can create really truly

You could also identify link targets, that is, sites or articles that are talking about X to do with toilets and answer questions that they pose and contact the site owners.

Really, there is no shortage of ideas here for a content driven approach, you just may have to create general purpose content for scaling link building and then some more boring but functional long tail content as part of your funnels to drive traffic to your product pages.

You could also take a look at this guide to link building strategies:

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

Spend an hour a day working through those and you will soon start to accumulate some basic links.

In brief, there is always a way to do this without going after the weak, spammy links and you should always aim not to copy your opponents weak and vulnerable link profile else you will be playing catch up for years to come. Instead, try to build something that can't be simply copied by doing some competitor research and is based on some good, creative, hard work.

Hope that helps get your brain turning!

Marcus

[GarethEJones]

hi Marcus,

Thank you for the quick reply hopefully the info here will help

my url

washroomuk.co.uk

competitors (these show up the most)

direct365supplies.co.uk

galleonsupplies.co.uk

Keywords (small selection of main keywords -long tail variations left off)

washroom related product type names i.e hand soap dispensers etc

Industry -

public/office wash rooms products i.e. automatic soap dispensers, hand dryers, toilet paper dispensers etc (anything you find in a restroom)

The competition has been around for a long time compared to my website so i know this is a major factor and something i cannot replicate.

i cannot think of any more information off the top of my head which will be relevant

many thanks

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Gareth

Can you add a few other details to the post?

• URL
• Competitors
• Keywords
• Industry
• etc

There are many ways to drive traffic to your site that will also help your long game SEO as well and it may be that you need to work around the edges depending on how well established the competition is.

One point, if your competitors are doing poor quality or spammy link building, don't see that as an obstacle, try to see it as an opportunity. Google is going to do all it can to devalue those links and the sites will suffer. If you can dig in, get some high quality links, build some best of class content, brutally target the long tail etc then you can start to put a dent in this.

Drop in some more details and I am sure the good folks around here will help out as much as we can.

Marcus