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
-
Competitors' paid search analysis tool
Hi, What tool will do the following: will tell me paid keywords our competitors are using. Ideally, I could narrow down by country. Thanks. Katarina
Competitive Research | | Katarina-Borovska0 -
How to understand a site's current ranking
I know this is basic stuff, so sorry for the beginners post... I offer primarily web design services, and I need to know when taking on a new client, how can I assess the current 'lay of the land' for their site in terms of their SEO? I have had some issues in the past where launching a new design negatively affected their performance for their keywords, and obviously I would like to avoid this in future without having to go to 3rd parties. In particular I have an issue where the client themselves are very bad at giving information about what keywords they currently rank for, and what SEO activities they may have done in the past. How can I make these assessments myself? thanks for any help p
Competitive Research | | panamandm0 -
What's the value of Exact Match Keyword Domains vs. Company Name Domains?
Hey Mozers, I was in a discussion this morning about the value of Exact Match Keyword domains vs. a company name domain and wanted to get a little more clarification. Let's say we are doing a site for a company called Favored Dental, and they have had the domain favoredental.com for quite a while and have their authority built up in it. Is it better to have favored-dental.com or favoreddental.co or keep its current form? The reasoning behind the alternate domains would be they have the exact match keyterm, in this case lets say "Favored Dental" is the keyterm we were going after. To my knowledge EMDs aren't as relevant as they'd use to be as Google would rather branding of companies instead of keyterm domains? Is this correct, or do EMDs of keywords you're going after hold higher authority? Thanks for the clarification!
Competitive Research | | MonsterWeb280 -
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 -
SEO Keyword Research
Hi, We are SEO beginners so please bear with us! We are trying to promote "Web based Invoicing Software". The SEO company we have signed with offer us 5 keywords for the package we are on with them. They have suggested\offered us: 1. Invoicing Software - Fine
Competitive Research | | Studio33
2. Online Invoicing - Fine
3. Online Invoicing Software - Covered by 1 and 2
4. Small Business Invoicing Software - Covered by 1
5. Invoice Template - Fine. Will Invoice templateS be covered on this one too? My question is does number 3 cover number 1,2 & 4 anyway? If so I am thinking to not go for 1,2, & 4 just keep 3 and choose three other new keywords. Would this be a better strategy and "more for our money?" Or, keep 1 and 2 and lose 3 and 4, would that be a good option. So, in summary options are (all assuming keeping number 5) 1. Keep all
2. Keep 1 & 2 - Lose 3 & 4
3. Keep 3 - Lose 1,2 & 4 4. Any other combo you can suggest? Any advice welcomed Thanks nutnut0 -
Competitor's Ranking's Reports are Showing Blank Values for Rankings
When selecting competitors to see how they rank for specific terms in the ranking's report page here, it loads the page normally, but without any actual rankings. Where values should be, it lists all values as our competition not ranking whatsoever (for all competitors). I'm not sure if there is something we're doing wrong, or perhaps we just need to wait for a refresh, but if anybody could help out, that would be wonderful!
Competitive Research | | ACLens0 -
RankTracker , Seo Spyglass?
just want to check is anyone using these other products? and if so do they work? RankTracker Seo Spyglass Website Auditor LinkAssistant? Thank you!
Competitive Research | | mikedw0