Competitor ranking through SPAM
-
We have a competitor called SwitchWise who has done a whole heap of social bookmarking and article marketing, using a deceptive link with anchor text reading "i select electricity" which has got them ranking #2 in Australia for the term iselect (a big comparison company here in Aus).
The articles are low value, the link is deceptive and it is generally bad for the consumer. I could copy their tactics for my client, but I'm concerned about the links eventually being devalued and the company placed in the sin bin.
What is the best course of action as I really don't want to let them get away with this, either we need to be up there, or alternative we need to dislodge them.
p.s I know this is not a great keyword, but it's more about stakeholder management in terms of what my client sees and how they interpret what we are doing relative to their competitors.
-
Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.
-
Hi Joshua,
Overall the competition doesn't look terribly high for that keyword. I always opt to keep it clean insofar as inbound link quality. There is very little reason you couldn't move SelectWise out of position two for this keyword.
Try the comparison product approach in inbound links. It helps the links look more editorial as opposed to trying to rank a competitor / alternate website for a potential brand or trademarked term company.
-
Check to see if they are buying links 1st. If they are, then you may be able to report them though Google Webmasters and they an get hammered. I did this for one of my shady competitors and they got wacked in the SERPS by Google. f they are article spinning, then I don't think you can really do anything about it. Anybody can article spin.
-
My client is not iselect, they are a direct competitor to switchwise.
It is more a question of risk and reward v danger. I don't really want to copy their SPAMMY tactics for the risk of having our site penalized, but it is hurting my relationship with my client for every day they stay there.
-
If your client is iSelect? It is down to them to them to do brand reputation management on the term, using their own properties "brand owned" to out rank the specific Switch Wise domain.
Really it raised an argument: is Switch Wise an affiliate of iSelect? Should they be targeting the brand terms via the organic space, it is easy to switch the off button on paid but with organic you really need to do your own reputation management.
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
-
How will it affect my site SEO, if I get backlink from a hign spam score percentage site like 70 % .
**Above how much percentage of spam score should I avoid getting backlinks. **
Link Building | | ShashankDubey10 -
What happened to my ranking
Hi trying to rank for "liverpool wedding photographer" as my main keyword. my profile is mainly wedding blogs and photography blog comments, a few "featured weddings" from wedding blogs , directory links and I have also a few guest post blogs. Goy myself all excited in December by getting to 4th position and then followed that up by around 35 links in one week. So expecting my ranking to stabilise or even go up I watched my site slowly sink to a current position of 7th, over January, even as the new links kicked in. a weird thing happened in this period as the following sites where I had left one comment on a blog post ended up giving me links from nearly all the other posts they had written: http://www.richardbernabe.com/blog/2012/12/04/iceland-bound-again/ http://blog.leica-camera.com/2014/12/03/andrew-kaufman-documenting-the-disappearing-street-art-of-wynwood/ http://jnack.com/blog/2015/01/04/when-will-wearable-cameras-be-a-thing/ webmaster tools is indicating I have 374 links from the leica site, 174 links from the richardbernabe site and 77 from the njack one. They are all different blog posts! I have disavowed all three domains. Can anyone explain what has caused this multiplication of links from these particular sites? Also could my link spree have caused a penalty? Best wishes. David. http://jnack.com/blog/2015/01/04/when-will-wearable-cameras-be-a-thing/
Link Building | | WallerD0 -
Website Ranking well in Mobile but not in Desktop
Hello guys, Recently we are experiencing good rankings for our targeted keywords in mobile but in desktop the rankings are not progressing. For example, in Mobile, our main targetted keyword ranks in 7th position but in Desktop we are stuck in 11th position. In desktop the website have been stuck in 11th position for quite some time now, any suggestion will help.
Link Building | | NkZagreus0 -
What can I do to improve my site's local search ranking?
I've read a lot about the "Magic 7" ranking factors for local search, and I feel like in a lot of ways, my site (www.imageworkscreative.com) is doing all the right things and still not having terrific results. The only thing I can think of to really improve upon is how often our local keywords are mentioned on our pages - maybe setting up a local blog or something similar would be helpful? Adding footers that include the names of local cities? Does anyone have any pointers for me? We would really like to rank for things like dc web design, web design va, etc. - and fast. We have (recent) links from two local Chambers of Commerce and we're working on getting accredited by the BBB. I feel like those listings will help us, but there has to be more we can do.
Link Building | | ScottImageWorks0 -
Frustrated with spammy backlinks from competitors
I've only been doing SEO for my company for the last month and I've made some headway but what is really frustrating me right now is a couple of competitors that have OBVIOUS spammy links ranking in the number 1,2,3 stops all over the board for the keywords i'm going for. One competitor in particular has anchor text links EVERYWHERE that make absolutely no sense...junk like... "I have never been more saddened by anything in my life than when my grandfather got cancer. I told my uncle he needed to buy some auto insurance. I really like pork." I mean, these links are the pages with the most page authority and page rank out of all of the ones they have...and I'd venture to say that almost all of their backlinks are like this...well, half of them are just random links with good anchor text on the sidebar of a bazillion spam websites (diapers, toys, fake blogs, etc.)...while i have about 3k links and most of my top competitors have about 5k links...these guys have over 33k. Worse yet, when I look at something like Alexa rank, they have pretty high overall traffic rank but it shows traffic rank in MX (mexico) instead of the US...these guys only sell in the US! I mean, they're black hat if I've ever seen such a thing and they rank superbly on all keywords. What can I do to compete with this junk?
Link Building | | jgower0 -
List of High Ranking Directories
Hi, Does anyone have a list of high ranking free or almost free directories that have high search engine rankings and have an opportunity for a link or links for a personal development site in the USA? The directories should have the following qualities: Old Site Age A lot of unique content (or as much as a directory can have) A clean site Plenty of Backlinks going to it Facebook followers (if possible, though this might be stretching it) high search engine rankings I think you get the general idea. I'm looking for directories that are high ranking and in for the long haul. They don't have to be free, but it's best if it's inexpensive. Thanks!
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Will building up the page rank of a page you have a inbound link bring any benefit?
Right then here we go You have a link in an article on a well known national newspaper site that points at your website. Is there any benefit of linking to the newspaper article in order to build up the PR of the article page and therefore passing over some link "juice"? Sub questions 1. Would it be more beneficial simply to gain links to your main website? 2. What are the chances of the article going into the archives and then at some stage being deleted? 3. If the article link points to a domain, which then forwards to a another domain will this pass on any "juice"? 4. If the article points to a domain that then 301's to another domain will this pass on any "juice"? 5. Does Google simply register the link and "juice" on the first pass or will it revisit and upgrade the "juice"? 6. What are the negatives? 7. What are the positives?
Link Building | | therealmarkhall0 -
Natural Link Profile - Ranking Signal?
Hi, Is a natural link profile a ranking signal? What is the value in a natural link profile? What is a (natural?) link graph? Is Majestic SEO the only company capable of visualizing a link graph? (I know the answers to these questions but I want to hear what SEOMoz has to say in the quasi-official standards of SEOMoz Q/A) Regards,
Link Building | | qlkasdjfw0