How to deal with spam heavy industries that haven't gotten the hammer from Google?

[kpaulin]

One of our clients works in the video game category - specifically, helping people rank higher in games like League of Legends.

In spite of our trying to do things the right way with white hat link building, we've suffered when trying to compete with others who are using comment and forum spam, private blog networks, and other black hat tactics. Our question is - what is the right approach here from a link building perspective? Is it an "if you can't beat them, join them" or do we wait it out and hope Google notices and punishes those who don't play nice?

Some test terms to see what we're up against: "elo boost" and "lol coach."

Would love to hear thoughts from anyone who's dealt with a similar situation.

[Mobilio]

Yeah - this IS problem.

I have friend of mine who runs webhosting for "free hosting". And he told me that no way to get to 1st page with anything lower than 10k root domains is mission impossible. Also in terms of backlinks their scale is in millions. Only getting there is more and more links from anywhere in the world, any site from any niche. And i saw statistics... he is right.

The problem that if you're in some similar industry then maybe patience is over. And maybe next Penguin will fix this, but we already heard this many times. So you can play few games:

• you can keep building links as before. Only pure white hat from various sources. Can be game magazine, game shows, local meetups, etc.
• you can use some gray hat techniques. Forum links, blog comments, etc.
• you can purchase some expired domains on game niche. Using tools as http://tool.domains/ for finding and evaluating them.
• this is blackhat and i won't recommend it but when all options are on the table - using PBN network or PDF linking. And this is "white side of blackhat". There is dark side of blackhat using software vulnerability like in 3P industry (Pharma, Poker and Porn). As i said before it's better to stay away from that, computer hacking can be also federal crime. Even don't think to use this for real client. Bad guys used them for "churn and burn" method where domain is used for few days, then blacklisted; but guys get new domain and used it for few days; next domain...
• sponsoring some good players - like Fatal1ty
• sponsoring some good video game streamers - you can look for them in Twitch or YouTube. One of closest example is mine friend called Gothika47 (i can connect you if you wish). He run video channel in YT https://www.youtube.com/user/VoodooHeadsTV and Twitch http://www.twitch.tv/gothika_47 (he was moved from Hitbox before month ago). So that streamers can bring you HUGE audience if you're used them proper. I was watch streams with over 1k viewers online and this is WOW because streamer listen watchers and can do their requests.
• creating infographic with LOL skills or even build calculator for LOL or item calculator; you can also make "for dummies" walktrough for novices; also strategy guides, clan guides, etc. You also can make a videos about that - only for novices.
• something other... just think about giving "value" to users

As you can see this list isn't full and can be extended with many more ways. But always think "how we should add value to community?" Because this is important to them and this will drive sales.

PS: Dificult situation - LOL is trade mark owned from Riot Games. And should think about possible legal issues from using their TM too.

[DmitriiK]

Oooooh man, oh man. Hi there

The same question I ask myself everyday - Should I join the guild of spammers?

Well, during such moments, my brain, thankfully, still works in a "reasonable", not "do-whatever-you-want" mode

To your question - don't do it. I know it's tempting, but it's not a long term solution, it might be the short-term, but what's the point if you aren't planning to stay in business for a while? Just keep doing good quality white hat, maybe invest more into offsite SEO and branding and results will come. As an example - it took us year of constant work to rank in top 5 for "seo houston" and "web design houston" from nothing. But we are on first page now, who knows where we'd be if we were doing black hat - there were so many major hits by Google in 2015.

So, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, my friend.