How Can I Outlink Web Designer Link Building from Their Clients' Footer
-
_I used open site explorer to view the backlinks for a competitor of an agency I work with. They have ten times as many links, if not more, than we do, and I noticed there were only a few more domains linking back to them. As I dug deeper I noticed these links were coming from the footer tag they put on their clients' sites like "Site Designed by __." If a site had 20 pages, they had 20 links back...weird and annoying that it counts.
They have more clients for web design than we do, so their bulk linking could continue to outrank us. Any suggestions on how we can outrank them locally? We are in the midst of redesigning our entire site to build out more pages and have much better internal linking.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks everyone!
-
Nofollow links still pass some authority, but no where near an in body link. I commented on blogs like Website Magazine, and a few other real high authority blogs. I just used my actual name, and didn't try optimize the link.
Ranking for web design is definitely a little different because of inflated numbers. You should also keep in my that link analysis tools, like Moz and Majestic, don't find every link on the internet, and can take a while to discover some links. Always take these stats with a grain of salt, and focus on getting quality links.
If you are working local you can always try identify links pages in your area. I was able to get one from a couple historical societies and a mall just by asking for it. You can also have a link in your signature on forums, but try to limit these since too many would look spammy.
-
It is very frustrating when you see something like that - things you know are "wrong" but a competitor gets away with it.
I am going to skip the whole preaching about "don't worry too much about competitors or what they do" thing, and point out that if you are going to count/compare links, it is best to look at number of linking domains rather than total links.
100 sitewide footer credit links from one site is not really the same as 100 links from 100 different sites.
-
Thanks for the quick reply Who Wudda Thunk. You said you used just a handful of nofollow links, which sounds contradictory to me. Were these links in comment sections of high profile sites, forums, or simply in-body links from high ranking blogs/news sites?
Sorry I sound oblivious, but this is the first time I ran into an issue with the footer links. I usually go against other local small businesses that I can outrank.
-
Matt Cutts has talked about the diminishing returns of multiple links from a single domain. His video says that anything after 2 gets to be pretty minimal.
The other thing you need to consider is that site wide footer links aren't as strong as an in body link. If you are doing your part to get legitimate in body links, through interviews or contributing to a blog in some way, then you are going to get farther than these site wides.
I ran into a similar problem with one of my sites. I was up against a dozen web designers who have built hundreds of websites, but I was able to outrank them with just a handful of nofollow links. They weren't great at on site SEO, which helped, but I knew that a lot of these links weren't worth much.
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
-
Miriam's 7 Local SEO Predictions for 2019
Greetings to our great Moz Community! It's been a fascinating year in Local Search, and I thought it would be good to jot down a few of my personal predictions for the year ahead. I'd love you to add yours, as well, so that we can all think together about the local businesses we'll be marketing in the new year. Here we go: 1) Major player weaknesses could lead to a changing of the local guard Whether it's Facebook's ethics scandals or Yelp's downward stock trends, loss of public confidence could mean a shift in a local search platform hierarchy that's been pretty well established for some years. These brands' ongoing challenges could spell out opportunity for newcomer brands, or could simply drive more people to Google. Google has had its own problems this year, but nevertheless... 2) Google will continue to dominate and monetize local search For so many users, Google IS the Internet, and that's an advantage no competitor has been able to overcome. In 2019, I expect to see further monetization of local SERPs, including LSA, in-pack local ads, booking buttons, and other forms of lead gen. Local search marketing will become more spendy. For more on creating strategy in this environment, read: Why Local Businesses will Need Websites More Than Ever in 2019. And, for retailers... 3) Real-time Online Local Inventory will become a real "thing" I'll have an article coming out on this in early 2019 on the Moz blog (Update: Now Published: https://moz.com/blog/taking-local-inventory-online), but in a nutshell, we're on course to cross a new threshold in search. You'll finally be able to search for local inventory and get accurate information about who near you stocks what in their stores. Google's See What's In Store feature will be part of this, but so will emerging third party technology. User behavior will change as a result of this, and just like we've all integrated online mapping/local search into our daily lives, we'll soon be familiar with using search to find local inventory. This is really great news for retailers of all sizes! Meanwhile... 4) The line between brands and people will blur further 2018 has been a fascinating study in what appears to be a rising consumer expectation that brands align with customers at a philosophical level. We saw Nike's stock go to a record high due to their deft read of the nation and company alignment with Colin Kaepernick, while other retailers lost millions over culturally-insensitive content. Big rewards and boycotts represent the two extreme ends of this spectrum in which your CEO isn't really a private person anymore, but rather, a member of the larger society with a voice that will be assessed for its empathy to causes, groups and events. This puts brand employees in unfamiliar territory, having some of their fate rise or fall based on the public stances of company leadership, and it puts a new premium on skillful awareness of societal trends. Because of this... 5) Smart local brands will speed up focus on sustainability Political pundits are predicting that the 2020 US election may be referendum on Climate Change. This means that US customers will be inundated with messaging and news surrounding this over the next two years. We're already seeing big brands like Patagonia respond by saying that they're "in the business of saving the planet" and Salesforce co-CEO billionaire Mark Benioff promising that his company will be running on 100% renewable energy by 2022. I predict that a growing body of consumers will increasingly expect and reward sustainable brand practices. 2019 will be a very good year for the local businesses you market to do a green audit of their business model, implement change and then promote their Climate-friendly practices. Think big on this, because... 6) Reputation will be key Everything a local business can do to please and retain customers should sit at the core of the business model. Whatever it is that gets your customers to leave positive reviews, return for repeat business, recommend you via WOM to their friends and family, and view you as a vital component of local commerce will have a serious impact on your reputation, rankings and revenue. Google recently stated that 27% of local searches have an intent of reading reviews about a specific business and our recent State of Local Industry Report here at Moz found that 91% of respondents agree that reviews impact rankings. Reputation, and the awareness of its role, will be very big in 2019. 7) Link building will become more deeply integrated into Local SEO Local Search Ranking Factors 2018 cited links as the 6th most influential local pack factor. This means that smart local SEOs will double down on their organic skills and start pursuing relevant links for their clients with professional, organized strategies and good tools. Any Local SEM package that leaves out link building will be incomplete. All in all, I predict we're in for an exciting, challenging year in which clear vision and a dedication to service will be the keys to local business success. **Now it's your turn! Where do you see us going in 2019 in the local search industry? Please, share your own predictions! **
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis8 -
Find high DA link opportunities in your local area
Hi, part of my link building strategy is ideally going to be from outreach to local businesses. I run a local service business operating in multiple locations (with no physical base). I have created local landing pages on which I'm showcasing local businesses and photographers (relevant not in terms of industry but location). Its my intention to show off their business as best I can, then get in touch to say "hey, we love what you're doing with X product/service, check out our site here [link]. We'd love it if you could link to us etc etc". Assuming that this is a valid strategy, what is the best way to find locally relevant sites with the highest domain authority?
Local SEO | | Cleanily0 -
Feedback to what to offer to my clients on my SEO website - local to Boise ID
Hi, I'm targeting Boise, Idaho and building an SEO consulting website. Right now I only offer 3 things because that's what I have experience in: 1. On-site SEO 2. Content Audit 3. Start a company from scratch. Ecommerce, Service, or Informational I know #3 involves all SEO, so it will be challenging, but 1-3 is what I've been doing for 10 years. What feedback do you have as far as 1-3 being my 3 offers, and is $200/hour fair? I work off quotes by estimating my time at $200/hour. Thanks.
Local SEO | | BobGW1 -
Does anyone have stats or know where I can find stats on searchers who use geolocated queries versus geomodified?
My client is a franchise business and they want their location landing pages to rank for every one of their 60 plus locations nationwide. They are performing extremely well for geomodified terms. The argument is that people rarely ever search using the city name. Are there stats to back up whether this claim is true, and if so, do you know where I can get a hold of such data (outside of searching in Keyword Planner... unless that's the answer!)
Local SEO | | Treefrog_SEO0 -
Amount of Internal Links?
Does anyone know how much internal linking is helpful in ranking? And, what is the recommended amount of internal links in a page of the website? I have seen some websites adding so much internal links ranking good but not sure about the recommended amount.
Local SEO | | BrianBotts.0 -
All of our clients are showing an increase in traffic from Brazil?
Hello, I am concerned as all 30 of our clients show traffic coming from Brazil-and they are all locally-serving businesses. What's more, the visitors from Brazil is increasing in GA. It's looking more and more like our competitor is trying to thwart our good rankings by using some overseas IPs to mess with traffic. Is there anything I can do? There is no reason why any of our clients would be relevant to Brazil, as they serve only local clients. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
Local SEO | | lfrazer0 -
Google's rel=publisher tag question
Hi, i have a question about the use of rel=publisher tag on a large retail website with multiple local stores. There is 1 e-commerce website where i want to put the rel publisher tag from the main Google + businesspage. There are also 60 local google+businesspages, And on the main website every store has his own store-page. Is it good to put on all the 60 storepages their own rel=publishertag connected with the localbusinesspages on google? Or should i Stick at the main rel=publisher tag connected with the main google+page? Thanx, Leonie
Local SEO | | Leonie-Kramer0 -
Any Notable Change in Google's Location Based Results?
I've noticed with many of our clients that when searching for general terms, with obvious local intent, that Google assumes you are in the nearest metro area rather than the specific locality. Anyone else noticed this? Example: I have an HVAC client who has ranked a solid #1 for "HVAC Repairs" since January - if the user was in the small town we were targeting (Wake Forest) since January. However, now Google assumes users in this town are in the nearby metro area (Raleigh), and displays local and organic results for Raleigh instead of Wake Forest. I first noticed this change in mid-May. From what I've read about the Nov Hummingbird update, I don't see that playing a direct role. Any insight?
Local SEO | | Rusty_Shackleford0