Blackhat SEO firm had more success than whitehat me
-
I’ve been link building for a small online store. Before I took over their SEO, they hired a company who got them lots of spammy links over a 12 month contract. The spammy links didn't seem to improve or hurt rankings on their main keywords but general search traffic has almost doubled.
Now I’m doing whitehat SEO for them and getting links through emailing bloggers and giving them reasons to link to us. Over 2 months (amongst over things) I’ve obtained links from around 35 websites, mostly PR 3 – 4 with a few up to PR 7.
On my own website, a couple of links like this would produce a noticeable effect in the rankings, but I can’t seem to budge the ranks for this website.
I’m concerned that they might just want to go back to their old SEO firm for more spam links.
Am I doing the right thing? Am I getting links quick enough and how can I argue the case for whitehat if they’re getting more noticeable results from blackhat?
-
That's a good idea, to remind them that the naughty links could have their value wiped in one go at any time.
-
Thanks. If you want to outsource some work....
In this case I'm defining black hat as placing links on websites, that SEO company presumably own, which are covered by links to unfamiliar online stores using high value keywords.
We're not using Adwords but are using Google Analytics.
-
I've wondered that a lot myself. Is it possible to test it?
-
Very true. I can see that that our search traffic has a close correlation with the number of conversions. The search traffic they are getting is for high value keywords in their niche, but they aren't getting much traffic from search really. So in this case, higher ranks equal more revenue.
-
Always communicate with your client. If they want to go back to the blackhat firm, explain that the effects of blackhat techniques may very well be temporal and after the next Panda, BlackBear, Gorilla or whatever update they can be easily thrown back to the end of search results. And this "update" can happen anytime, maybe tomorrow maybe only in a year. If they're in for the long term, they have to plan for more than a year... Solid results take time, but they also stand the test of time!
-
"Now I’m doing whitehat SEO for them and getting links through emailing bloggers and giving them reasons to link to us. Over 2 months (amongst over things) I’ve obtained links from around 35 websites, mostly PR 3 – 4 with a few up to PR 7."
This is quite an accomplishment...35 organic links. Give it some time. Every SEO has their own opinion on what is black hat and what is white hat. Are you using adwords? are you using google analytics to track traffic and conversion?
-
Hi David,
Taking a shot in the dark here, especially without seeing your backlinks, etc., but is it possible that some of the previor link building tactics have been dragging down the rankings/traffic that you are trying o supplement with by using honest, more effective white-hat tactics?
Best,
W
-
It's a small online store -- how are conversions and sales doing? Traffic and rankings are great, but if I (with an online store that sells items related to RC warships and scale boats) somehow rank for rabbit cages and get a lot of traffic from it, I've got rankings and traffic, but it hasn't done me a bit of good for the bottom line. If you then come along and get me three link related to DKM Bismarck plans that have 1/10 the traffic I got from the rabbit cages traffic, but that traffic converts and gets me sales, I'm going to be happy.
tl;dr Are you and the customer focusing on measuring the right results?
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
-
Do many nofollow links from one website will hurt my website SEO?
Do many nofollow links from one website will hurt my website SEO? Please let me know. I am getting about 20 thousand UGC links from a news website after I posted one comment on an article. Please suggest asap.
Link Building | | mikeeb_50150 -
What are the SEO value of revolving or rotating lists of links?
What are the SEO value of revolving or rotating lists of links? For example the links at the bottom of the homepage of inlandnwopera.com. The links are based in images and I am not really sure Google would pick them up but they do appear on ahrefs.com. Thank you.
Link Building | | RandyHT0 -
Directory listings for a new site and it's implications on SEO
Hi all, In classic newb style I have submitted my new site to several uk directory listings after seeing these listings used by competitors, both local and national. I chose ones with a low-spam score as shown on the Moz site explorer. Now my domain score has jumped up several places over a few days, as has my search position, but will these listings "hurt" in the future? I fully intend on chasing and gaining non-quick'n'easy links in the future for he record. Many thanks!
Link Building | | UkPod0 -
Web Designers and SEOs using backlinks from client sites
What are your thoughts on SEOs and web designers putting their own links in the footers of client sites. For the sake of argument, lets assume that the client is happy for the link to be there. I'm referring to the SEO merits of the link being there from an 'irrelevant' website. My belief is that this goes against what Google is looking for and that these are irrelevant links and likely to be picked up and penalised. That's what I believe! However, I see lots of sites offering SEO services that have dofollow links from their client sites, using exact match anchor text and they are all ranking highly. Is it just a matter of time before Google sniffs them out and penalises them for it? Or should I be going through my client sites and adding myself a dofollow link in the footer? (with their permission of course). The highest ranking sites in any UK city do this. If you search SEO Manchester, SEO Leeds etc and find the top ranking sites and check them out on opensite explorer, they are all using a disproportionate amount of dofollow backlinks form client sites.
Link Building | | littlesthobo0 -
Http://fiverr.com is good for seo to buy services?
fiverr.com is good for seo to buy services? Can you recommend best seller?
Link Building | | surajrathore0 -
Can anyone recommend a great seo company?
We are considering contracting with an SEO company for website analysis, optimization and organic link-building. If you've had any recommendations, please send them our way. Thank you!
Link Building | | balboafinance0 -
Article spinning - is it a spam or legitimate way to build SEO
I am being told by one SEO company that article spinning is the best way to achieve best rank on google. They use software that modifies articles and then submit them into lots of blogs and directories. I am worried that this is not a good long term strategy vs manually writing articles and put them into directiries
Link Building | | bfurman0