Crazy SEO question (maybe I'm missing something?)
-
OK -
so one of our customers just called us and told us an interesting story:
A local SEO company called her yesterday to try to sell their services to her. She's in the process of starting SEO services with us, so she told them she wasn't interested. The sales guy told her that they were better (without even asking who she was currently using) and asked her for a term that she'd like to rank higher for.
She said she'd like to rank higher for "spray in bedliners northern ky" and he said "Gotcha, call you tomorrow"
He called back just now and told her to look at Google. She's now ranking number one for that term. He didn't have access to her site, so he wasn't able to change anything on her site.
He won't tell her what he did, and told her it was legitimate - but it seems to me that with only off-site tactics, it'd be nearly impossible to white-hat her site to number one overnight...
Any ideas what he's doing? First of all, we want to be able to tell her what he's doing, because she's curious. More importantly, we want to be sure he's not doing anything black-hat that's going to hurt our client's site.
Thanks for your help, Mozzers!
-
Because "spray in bedliners northern ky" is a low competition/no competition term, hence why ranking with offsite can easily be done -
They just provide a huge number of automated links over night from websites like:
http://pezis.com/linexofky.com (for example, guessing this is your client's site)
Tell her to say ok we want to rank for "bedliner" when they call back,
Kind Regards,
James Norquay
-
To echo what the others shared, the results work because of two reasons:
1. The term is a long tail and very specific phrase "spray in bedliners northern ky". It is 5 words and no one else on earth is targeting that phrase in that exact manner.
2. Google loves fresh data and links. It is easy to spam social media or various sites with new links which are given weight today but quickly fall to obscurity tomorrow.
Using Google's Keyword tool you can see there is absolutely no traffic at all for the given phrase. If you want to rank #1 for a keyword that no one searches for, the world will let you. It is pointless.
Try again with the phrase "bed liner". That phrase has over 100k searches a month (compared to zero for the other phrase) and it also has competition.
-
The reason he got her to rank for that keyword very quickly is because there is no search traffic behind the term and no competition. You easily spam a couple hundred blogs/forums.directories/other crap link source with the exact match anchor text and rank pretty comfortably.
Get her to pick a keyword that is searched for and tell them to try again.
-
I looked into a bit and think I found the links on Blekko and IceRocket. several anchor text links. Juice fading fast. I think it started out on PR 7 (PA 89) and it looks like a few PR4 (PA 66) sites. Not sure if the links started on the front pages, but they are not on the front pages now. I will send you the links. Didn't take much for such a specific phrase
-
Check the back links. you should see what they pointed to her site. I doubt they did anything that is repeatable for many keywords. They probably made short article and placed it somewhere with a lot of juice. Great for a demonstration, to valuable/expensive a spot to use for a lot of keywords.
-
To work that fast, I am betting that they have a link from a page with enormous power.... PR8?
Of course, "spray in bedliners northern ky" is a wimpy term to rank for... tell her to call him back and ask for a real money term.
-
Maybe Google have started their own SEO business??
That would be a sure way to wipe out the competition and earn some cash!
Seriously though, unless they have access to some amazing link resources then this has to be black hat doesn't it? unconsenting at that! like you say, if it's dodgy then some serious damage could be made here in the long term.
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
-
Pre Launch New Website SEO Best Practices
Hi All, I am currently mid development of a website (no testing page yet) and want to make sure I am doing my due diligence in regards to SEO. Are there best practices to always complete while a website is being built? If so what are they? I've gotten to the stage where I've read every blog on the planet and now maybe too much info. I am also focusing my Keyword Analysis around competitor research to write great copy from, but seem to be falling down a rabbit hole of way too many keywords. Is there agencies/services that would just be hired to do Keyword Research for my needs? Thanks a lot!
Competitive Research | | Krackle0 -
Absolute vs Relative URL Interlinking Observation & Question
So I've read a few articles about this here on SEOMOZ and other sites. I understand the benefit of relative url linking from a developer's point view. I've also read that using either internal linking methods doesn't really have any real SEO benefits or cons that would impact your rankings greatly. (Except with the slight chance of getting traffic and backlinks from a scraper site.) But I'm seeing examples where this may not be true. I did a search for 5 star hotels in Vegas in google. Some of the top results were Hotels.com and Expedia.com Priceline.com was on the second page. I used the search operator link: to Hotels.com, Expedia.com and Priceline.com vegas hotel pages respectively: Hotels.com: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=d&site=webhp&q=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotels.com%2Fde1504033-st5%2Ffive-star-hotels-las-vegas-nevada%2F&oq=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotels.com%2Fde1504033-st5%2Ffive-star-hotels-las-vegas-nevada%2F&gs_l=serp.3...3650.7043.0.7972.8.7.1.0.0.0.90.363.7.7.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1j2.4kALxt0jpxI Expedia.com: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=d&site=webhp&q=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.expedia.com%2F5Star-Las-Vegas-Hotels.s50-0-d178276.Travel-Guide-Filter-Hotels&oq=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.expedia.com%2F5Star-Las-Vegas-Hotels.s50-0-d178276.Travel-Guide-Filter-Hotels&gs_l=serp.3...1681.3746.0.4076.6.6.0.0.0.0.100.348.5j1.6.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1j2.KxqwbH-YFV0 Priceline: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=d&site=webhp&q=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.priceline.com%2F5-star-hotels-las-vegas-nevada-NV-filter-tk-s5-c291680-hl.hotel-reviews-hotel-guides&oq=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.priceline.com%2F5-star-hotels-las-vegas-nevada-NV-filter-tk-s5-c291680-hl.hotel-reviews-hotel-guides&gs_l=serp.3...11265.12321.0.12767.5.5.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.HYtfct4MS7M The results were that priceline had no backlinks internally or externally to their vegas page. Whereas their competitors did, most of which were from their own internal pages. Looking at priceline's linking structure and architecture, they use a relative url structure and sessions ids to link to various pages. Their competitors don't. Wouldn't you argue that this may be adversely affecting their rankings. I know other things are to be factored in if you dig deeper. But that seems to be a major difference. It just seems that their content management system or how their site is coded isn't really passing link juice.
Competitive Research | | workathomecareers0 -
Training Recommendation for In House SEO
Hi, I'm a business owner who has been dabbling in SEO for years. I have a bright, capable employee with a development/coding background and I would like her to start doing full time SEO for me. (competitive analysis, link building and content marketing specifically - I like the strategy laid out here and would like her to implement it for me) What do you think is the best training resource for her to develop an in-depth understanding of SEO for my business? Any recommendations for specific courses she can take? Thanks.
Competitive Research | | plrkieran0 -
Can I write guest blogs on competitor's blogs?
I have been doing some guest blogging and its hard to find guest blogs opportunities. I have found some but they are direct competitors. Is it safe to write guest post? by the way the are not local competitors. Any suggestion please. thanks
Competitive Research | | conversiontactics0 -
What is the best tool to monitor your competitor's backlinks?
I am looking for a tool that not only accurately tells me how many links are being built by a competitor, I want to know the specific URLs for specific periods. If I can filter/search by time periods, i.e which links were added for the month of August, 2012, that would be great. Thanks for the help.
Competitive Research | | inhouseseo0 -
Can i see the keywords my competitors are optimizing seo for?
Ideally, I would get a list of the keywords my competitors are targeting.
Competitive Research | | sajalsahay0 -
Excel workbook for SEO?
A while back someone on here posted a really good workbook for analyzing ranking factors for competitors. Unfortunately I lost it, and I am hoping someone might know what i'm talking about and hit me up with a link to it, or perhaps your favourite seo workbook for excel? Thanks!
Competitive Research | | adriandg0 -
What's the best SEO practice to get conversion rate up?
If you want to get conversion rate up what is the best method to do so?
Competitive Research | | blackrino0