Is it a good idea to publish a list of players in my industry, including competitors?
-
I am working with an e-commerce site that does mostly B2B sales in a very commoditized industrial product segment in which very few manufacturers sell direct. It's all done through distributors and resellers, like our site.
We don't often win on price, but we do win enough SERP battles to get the visitors and provide great customer service, so we have gained a following and we do compete well for some very large orders.
We list several thousand products and in a given month, visitors regularly hit over 1,000 different landing pages. While we make most money from relatively few items, most items are sold only once a year, maybe twice. It's a very longtail business, and therefore tough to do a great job optimizing all pages down the tail.
So, one thing I'm doing is building out a set of resource pages with common questions, terminology and other useful bits so the site gains more traffic and authority, in the hope of boosting product pages. e.g., an in-depth category definition in the glossary could link to all the items in a category.
In addition to adding content that augments product pages, I'd like to create basically a map of the whole industry, including brand name manufacturers, white label manufacturers, distributors, etc.
If it's going to be a truly comprehensive list, it should include my competitors. Given that I have never found such a list, it feels like this could be a good page and earn some links. Since it's unlikely much traffic will even find that page, compared to product pages, are there potential pitfalls I should be aware of?
I get the feeling if I create a page that others bookmark and visit when hunting for products in our market, we win, even if most visitors to that page won't buy from us. I've been in this industry for four years now, and it's amazing how hard it is to find some companies. Only a handful even think about SEO, since they sell through other channels.
Should I link to all my competitors (which is only about a dozen) among hundreds of other industry links?
-
@Kateparish Thank you for you answer, by the way. Helpful clarity.
-
@Mike_Sobol said in Is it a good idea to publish a list of players in my industry, including competitors?:
If the "Big Industry List" I want to build is a useful website section that gets found, even if the traffic is unlikely to be my buyers in that moment, can that improve my SEO?
Yes, potentially. If it does well and users are seeking it out, that sends certain signals to Google. As would brand recognition and external links from said users. But, the page does have to do very well to achieve those things.
@Mike_Sobol said in Is it a good idea to publish a list of players in my industry, including competitors?:
Or do those content pages need external inbound links in order to be valuable for SEO because it would raise our DA?
Not necessarily, although popular resources tend to generate external links organically.
-
It depends on the purpose of publishing the list and the potential consequences of doing so. Here are some points to consider:
Pros:
- Increases visibility: Publishing a list of players in your industry can help raise awareness of your business and its competitors.
- Establishes credibility: If you include well-known or respected players in your industry, it can help establish your business's credibility and expertise.
- Generates interest: If you highlight some unique or innovative players in your industry, it could generate interest and buzz around your list.
Cons:
- Invites comparison: If you include competitors, it invites direct comparison, which could highlight weaknesses or areas where your business is lagging behind.
- Can harm relationships: Publishing a list of players in your industry without their permission could damage your relationships with them, especially if they feel they've been unfairly included or excluded.
- Could attract unwanted attention: If your list includes well-known or controversial players, it could attract unwanted attention or criticism to your business.
-
@Tom-Capper Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
Most customers can't buy direct, so that's not a concern. Manufacturers limit who they sell to and those "master distributors" often only sell to lower level distributors.
So if you're an electrical contractor or an engineer in need of a relatively small purchase of some specialized thing that you need right away, but you can't find locally, it can be super-hard to get, except for through a relatively small batch of websites like ours.
Let me ask the question another way: If the "Big Industry List" I want to build is a useful website section that gets found, even if the traffic is unlikely to be my buyers in that moment, can that improve my SEO?
I'm trying to boost the visibility of thousands of product pages partially by creating helpful content that can't link to all of them. Whenever possible, it links to category pages, but not always.
Can the rising tide of some useful content pages help lift other pages in the same domain, even if the topics aren't specifically about those pages? Or do those content pages need external inbound links in order to be valuable for SEO because it would raise our DA?
-
It sounds like a very unique case so it's hard to give concrete advice.
Perhaps you could use nofollow links if you're worried about SEO benefit, but I'd have thought the greater risk is that many customers might prefer to attempt to buy direct, or through a cheaper distributor. As you say, perhaps few customers will find this page - but if so, is it really adding much value?
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
-
Unsolved How To Check Outbound Links Of wesite?
I have a competitor website name Richmond Locksmith 24/7 How can i check its outbound links on moz??
Link Explorer | | Anjana96380 -
Chat GPT
I want to get your thoughts on Chat GPT for creating articles on my site to drive SEO. Does Google approve of this type of content or not? I seems quite good quality - I suppose a key question also is: is it duplicate content? I have used on Propress website and also on blog sites so need to understand if this will reduce my rankings. Thanks
Content Development | | Katie231
Matthew1 -
Linking to a Resource from a multi-language Page
I have a multi-language page where the content is available in several versions (translated). I want to link to a resource that is only available in one English. Is it a good idea to link to this resource from all language versions or should I better include the link only in the English version of my page? In the first scenario for example a Spanisch and a German language version would link to a page in English. Is this ok or could it be considered spam?
Technical SEO | | ConverterApp0 -
When to re-write and redirect a blog url?
What are best practices for rewriting (and then redirecting) blog URLs? I refresh old blog posts on our blog every month and many of them have URLs that are too long or could be improved. However, many of them also already get decent organic traffic and I don't want to lose traffic due to a URL redirect. Are there any best practices or "rules" I can follow when deciding whether to re-write and redirect blog URLs?
Content Development | | Emily.R.Monrovia
Thanks!0 -
Could decreasing publishing frequency negatively affect our SEO?
Hi Moz Community! I run marketing for a DA 43 website. We've been consistently blogging 4-5 times per week for the past 7 years, and its become ingrained in company culture. Due to limited resources, I want to decrease publishing frequency on the blog and focus on other marketing activities (content promotion, higher value content, link outreach, CRO etc). However, our team is worried that decreasing frequency might negatively affect our SEO (organic search is by far our most important acquisition channel, is the main revenue driver for the whole company). When I look at metrics, a couple of things stand out: 1) a very small % of our blog posts get meaningful organic traffic, 2) the majority of organic traffic that produces customers actually goes through the homepage, not the blog, 3) the vast majority of our blog posts are not earning links as we have not focused much on promotion. Anybody have thoughts on specifically whether decreasing blogging frequency might have an impact? (I know Moz and Hubspot have both done frequency experiments, but those were on high-DA, high-engagement sites where every post had a chance to earn links, etc.) so I'm wanting to isolate the case where publishing frequency is decreased on a site where most posts aren't getting links/much engagement. Thanks!
Content Development | | paulz9990 -
Are Microsites a good idea
I am a plastic surgeon with a website and active blog which has done well over the past 7 years. I use my blog to feature specific procedures such as Breast Augmentation or Tummy Tuck. Should I continue to just use my blog to generate traffic or consider a microsite specific to a procedure? My concern is that google may consider the microsite a black hat technique.
Content Development | | wianno1680 -
Why is redirecting all broken pages to the homepage is a bad idea?
I have a site where all broken pages are redirected to the homepage. I've been told that it's a bad idea in terms of SEO. I just can't figure out why 🙂
Content Development | | VinceWicks0 -
Is modifying already published articles a problem?
Is there any problem updating the date and text of a news article if the URL remains the same? For example, if we published a minor sports story on Monday and on Wednesday there was a small update to the story I would like to take my original article and change the date + first paragraph of the text to make it still relevant for my users to read without having to write an entirely new article since this is not a major story and there is not much new content to add. Any SEO issues with take the original article and changing the first paragraph + title?
Content Development | | theLotter0