How to combat competitor buying who is buying links and winning.
-
I have a competitor who is buying links in the Featured Advertiser Links section of Washington Post online.
His backlink profile is a very low # of referring domains. (38ish) with a good bit being repeats of Wahington Post.
My question, is their strategy within Google guidelines, and what can I do to combat it?
Thanks.
-
Thank you for helping me find them.
<a <span="" class="webkit-html-tag">target</a><a <span="" class="webkit-html-tag">='_blank' href="http://www.weitzlux.com/mesothelioma_438.html" rel="nofollow">Mesothelioma</a>, <a <span="" class="webkit-html-tag">target</a><a <span="" class="webkit-html-tag">='_blank' href="http://www.weitzlux.com/asbestos/attorney_433.html" rel="nofollow">Asbestos Attorney</a>, <a <span="" class="webkit-html-tag">target</a><a <span="" class="webkit-html-tag">='_blank' href="http://www.weitzlux.com/orthoevra/patch_7852.html" rel="nofollow">Ortho Evra</a>
When I view the source they have "nofollow", which should remove their value for ranking a website and make these links OK with Google.
Would not bother me if my competitors were doing this. In fact, it would reveal to me that they think they are makin' munny.
-
Craig, thanks. Not really a fan of reporting either, just a little frustrated.
Egol, yes the links are in source code.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/postpoliticstv.html
-
When I go to the WP and find a page with a box of links labeled "Featured Advertiser Links" and I then view the source code of the page I do not see those links in the code.
Is that what you see when you do this?
-
Well many newspaper and magazines online have to sell advertising to make money because a lot of them hold a fair bit of power it is a link that could be worthwhile.
Personally if i was you id worry less about what links others are getting, and concentrate more on getting your own links, and if they are up to any unethical link building then it will only be a matter of time before that catches up on them.
I know its frustrating when someone is buying their way above you in the rankings, but that's life and in most niches people will do what it takes to get there.
There are various techniques which can be called link building, i would say the one you are suggesting falls into the " grey area " where it is considered to be bad practise however works a treat.
I wouldnt consider the washington post to be a link farm, not for now anyhow. And i know locally online newspapers in my area who offer articles on their websites for a fee/donation or whatever you want to call it.
Im not a fan of reporting things like that, whats for them wont go past them.
-
Thanks for response Craig, It is just links under the category Featured Advertiser Links. So it is a bit different than a traditional advertisement with a link. There are a number of links to different pages/products on their website.
Could/should they be reported?
-
Buying links is not something that you should do, however if he paid for an advert in the Washington Post to advertise his business, which so happens to also link to his website then so be it.
Buying links on link farms and similar sites will eventually harm a website. Ive saw this done and can work for a while, however i dont use this approach and would advise against it.
To combat it, you make sure you keep putting good content on your website, and work even harder at getting good quality relevant links to this content in order to rank well.
Quality over quantity always wins.
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
-
How do we find keyword opportunities - but not just against 3 competitors...
Hello everyone! How can I find out what might be a keyword opportunity against a competitor but make sure it's still a realistic opportunity in SERPS generally?* After all, we are not just competing with 2 or 3 competitors. We are competing against everyone! Perhaps there is a part of the keyword research process that helps? I can't help but think there's a wasted effort to just beat a couple of competitors unless you can rank well generally - especially if it's a competitive sector. (*I'm not in the position of making lots of pages as part of a long-tail keyword/ content strategy so I need to focus on just a few and make them count) Thanks in advance. Mp
Competitive Research | | mark_seomoz10 -
Why are my paid vendors not showing on our links?
We pay a hefty amount to site that claim to bring in leads. ie... Cars.com, Edmunds.com, Cargurus, and I also have my dCard (digital business cards) with links to our URL. Why aren't they showing on our PA or DA? Could it be our web host? We have on;y 2 options for web hosts per Acura (a compliance thing) Please help with any thoughts or answers to this. I see many other dealers with strong links who use the same companies. Our site is http://findlayacura.com and thank you for any help. We appreciate it greatly.
Competitive Research | | ModernPallets0 -
Finding competitors best keywords?
How do I learn my competitor's best keywords? I realize I can add more keywords to my campaign but the problem is - I am not sure I am thinking of the right keywords. I don't want to compare with the keywords I am targeting - I want to know what THEY are targeting.
Competitive Research | | dealblogger1 -
What is your best technique of getting .Gov and .Edu links?
I'm looking for some great techniques to get .Gov and .Edu links. Please do not comment "Great content" because I know that. I'm looking for something beyond creating great linkworthy content.
Competitive Research | | TylerReardon0 -
What's the difference between 'external links' and 'linking domains to this domain' in my report?
I'm looking at a competitor analysis report. The number provided for 'external links' is 150. The number for 'external links to this domain' is 4860 and 'linking domains to this domain' is 232. What are the differences between these numbers?
Competitive Research | | lthompsonon0 -
Internal linking structure
Hello, Is there a way to see the most anchor text of a sites internal linking structure, that is not mine. For example how many times a competitor used the anchor text "door" on their site. Not external links though, just the internal ones. Thank you, Ada
Competitive Research | | digitalops0 -
Our site being outranked by competitors with lower "moz" scores - due to on-page SEO?
Howdy, Our SEO efforts are doing well, but for a few keywords it seems we cannot budge one of the competitors sitting in spot #1. Through some competitive analysis I've noticed that our website has a much higher mozRank with regards to both page and domain compared to the current #1 spot. My question is what kind of factors could be the issue as to why we are still being outranked. Is it simply a case of poor on-page SEO at this point or should I be taking the mozRanks with a grain of salt.
Competitive Research | | marketingdepartment.ch0 -
Inbound links
Is the any report that will show the reciprocal vs one-way inbound links?
Competitive Research | | FastCashOnlineInc0