Frequently tempted by the dark side - need reassurance!
-
I'm a DIY seo with a video production company - our website has been given some solid foundations by an SEO friend and we are climbing nicely up the rankings..
Everyone and their dog constantly warns of not straying into black hat - and I totally understand and appreciate the reasonings.. my issue is - pretty much ALL of the competitors use what I would perceive to be pretty shady web directories.
These directories seem to account for 80% of each of my competitors inbound links (according to open site explorer)
If all the front page of google for "corporate video" are submitting to all these directories - should I?
Cheers
AC
-
that's a cracking article - many thanks
-
Don't forget: Just because they have a link, it doesn't necessarily follow that it is helping them.
I know a couple of SEOs who use directories mainly to obscure their more valuable links. Questionable tactic, but the same happens naturally: When you look at a competitors backlinks it is human nature to assume they are all working, even when the truth might be quite different.
Assume that the 80% is doing almost nothing and start looking closely at the other 20.
That said, I would call low quality directory submission black hat. It's not great (either in terms of effectiveness or feeling good about your work), but it doesn't harm in the same way as other methods can.
-
Mmm... even though it is totally correct to go for authoritative links, remember that they are not enough in order to obtain the desired rankings... and it is not just me saying this, but people like Wil Reynold, who surely a link building authority.
-
When I read the question I was imagining something like: I am ready to do some well craft cloaking and, why not, injecting links in my competitor sites...
To submit you site to directories, if they are relevant to your industry, doesn't have their PR cut (easily to check if you confront the mozRank with the PR... if the PR is - let's say - 3 and the mozRank says 6.4, then that directory has been penalized by Google), and the page your site will be listed is regularly crawled... then it is licit. Remember, a link profile should look "normal" to Google eyes... and it is normal that as site is listed in directories too.
On the other hand, being yours a video company, I can only imagine the infinite opportunities you could have in order to create a smashing inbound campaign... I suggest you to read this amazing post published just yesterday in the SEOgadget blog:
Why You Should Supercharge Your Video Strategy & How to Do It
which surely may give you great ideas.
-
It is a trade off, you do have to balance the return on investment when it comes to link-building. Try and think about the longer term rather than trying to get quick results.
Don't worry that things have to go viral to deliver any benefits. Don't think in terms of hits, or rankings - think about your conversion rate, how many visitors you need to make a 5k investment seem like a good idea...
-
but i'm nervous about marketing it coz spending 5k and the video only getting 300 hits and not going viral would suck!
You can't hit a homerun if you never step up to the plate.
I think that it would be totally honest to have several videos on your site with only a fraction of them going viral. If you tell everyone that you hit a homerun every time that is not a good way to control client expectations.
-
i totally agree...
and we do a reasonable (not enough) of stuff for our site.. of course need to do more..
it's a bit of trade off - im happy to invest time and money on making cool viral stuff for our site - but i'm nervous about marketing it coz spending 5k and the video only getting 300 hits and not going viral would suck!
-
I don't think I'd bother with the type of directory you've used as an example. You'd be much better off getting the kind of high quality links that your competitors aren't going to be able to get near just by getting directory entries.
If your customers would expect to find you there, it would be a different matter.
See EGOL's response for the kind of things that would really make a difference.
If you're still climbing up the ranks then it's not time to give up and succumb to the dark side!
-
I don't have any problem with a person submitting his website to a few directories... but if I want to beat my competitor, I will not mimic his methods. Instead I will do something clearly superior and kick his butt properly.
If I was the boss at a video production company a good portion of the production staff's time would be spent making videos for our own website.
Video production companies are where webmasters often go when they need some awesome linkbait for their own websites. Not only does it serve as great linkbait but it is also a great way to "strut your stuff" for anyone who visits your website.
Perhaps you don't make that type of video but maybe it would be beneficial to consider. It could open a whole new line of business for you.
-
There is a reason why your climbing the rankings nicely, because the link profile of your competitors by the sounds of it are poor.
Increase your MozTrust by getting links on Auth websites, Increase your MozRank by gaining more links and this should increase your PA - PA I think is more important then DA.
Those competitor DA stats are not that great.
-
What do you mean by "Shady" web directories?
Are these directories relevant to your niche (corporate video) or a broader but relevant market (corporate services?).
I would say that if there is a reasonable expectation for a normal human being, your prospects, to find you listed in the directory, (alongside your competitors) and the directories aren't involved in anything that clashes with Google's guidelines then I don't see that there is a problem.
That said, I would wonder how much the link from the directory is actually work and whether it would be better to spend the time to get better quality links elsewhere that would beat your competitors anyway?
How does your site stack up against the competitors in Open Site Explorer? Is your domain authority way off?
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
-
Need Help Related To Backlinks ?
I have a question from SEO expert that I have shared a Sheet name ( Backlinks Sheet below ) in which there are some types of links. I have to ask that these links are Okay to use? and if they are well to use then how I can use them. If they are not fine to use then what are the disadvantages of using them. Kindly explain it to me, Thanks. edit
Link Building | | leonardlyman0 -
Need clarification on Linking strategy and whether I am doing more harm than good?
I wanted to get an opinion of whether a new strategy is wise or profoundly idiotic. Here is the scenario. We have a branded site that offers villa rentals around the world but we also have separately branded geo specific websites that focus on villas rentals at a specific destination meaning the villas are mutually inclusive on the sites but we try to differentiate them with different descriptions and markups. This is what we did. We have a magazine associated with the global company that posts articles 1 to 2 times a day and it is set up as a subfolder on the global website. The articles have revelant links to the global company landing pages as well as relevant villa pages. Additionally, we embed links to the geospecific websites as well if an article features a destination, topic or villa that is relevant to both the geospecific and global website. Moreover, In we have aggressively cross linked relevant keywords from specific villa pages (ie villa xyz on Barbados) to the magazine as well as to the root domain of the global website and other relevant pages. But we do not link the geospecific site back to the magazine or global site. Since we implemented this strategy, the rankings on our global site have dropped and the specific villa page on the global site (villa xyz on Barbados) has dropped precipitously for that villa xyz keyword. The complicating feature in all of this is that we have been launching new sites and fixes in the past month so I am not exactly sure what is the cause of the drop but I have a suspicion that the aformentioned issue may be a contributing factor. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Link Building | | Isle_Blue1 -
Back links do I need my keyword in them to rank? If so creative way to accomplish this?
The first question is pretty self explanatory. If I do need my keyword I'm trying to rank for in my link example: Looking for a cool skateboard (cool skateboard) is my keyword. Can anyone on here help me come up with some creative ways for me to get folks to post backlinks to my site with that key word in it? Unfortunately my sites url does not have the keyword in my domain.
Link Building | | mr_w0 -
Does PR Content need to be unique?
Hi, I've noticed that some our competitors are publishing unique content for each PR websites. Is that how it should be? Thanks
Link Building | | Rubix0 -
Why do we need proxy to so Backlinks?
Does Google knows the IP addresses that the backlinks are created from? if i create 200 backlinks for my site without proxies will google ban my site because it will look like i a the one who create all the backlinks? May i ask how many proxies do you guys need to create around 200 backlinks per day? If i already use the proxies today Can i use the same set of proxies to create backlinks tomorrow? THanks
Link Building | | locoto00071 -
Ideas needed for onsite SEO
Hi, What sort of activity 'onsite' should I be doing to increase SEO? I was thinking of a FAQ's section with 1 anchor text link in the body of the answer going back to my target page. Will the increase in content along with the anchor text inside of it help increase SERP's? I was also thinking maybe use the keyword tool to find search queries which revolve around questions with high search so for example 'How to change a tyre' answering this question in my FAQ's section and running PPC to it, then wrapping lots of sharing tools around it in the hope it generates some social signals. Anyone got any hidden onsite gems they think might help? Cheers
Link Building | | activitysuper0 -
Where I need to jump? Web OR Social OR Local Directories
I am working on patio umbrellas keyword to achieve top 3 ranking in Google. I have achieved top 30 ranking with help of on page optimization and want to achieve top 3 ranking with help of link building. Today, I was checking SEO web directories on SEOmoz. Now, I can't make any changes on live website exclude content. So, I have only one option to deal with link building. There are 3 sections over there including Web Directories, Social Directories & Local Directories. So, which is best one to improve my ranking on Google? If anyone have additional inputs for link building so eager to know that. I want to achieve top 3 ranking with my keyword by next 2 months.
Link Building | | CommercePundit0 -
Trying to avoid splitting Search Engine juice, need advice
We currently have a political issue with one microsite we're trying to promote. The group that created the website, created it without the consent of the rest of the company and now, although it's allowed to live, we've been given a few restrictions. They main restriction is that when the microsite is linked from the main corporate website it needs to be referenced as a subdomain so http://microsite.company.com. We've been promoting the site as http://www.microsite.com (I'd include the actual websites but don't want to air their dirty laundry). The problem is that a lot of the listings in google are starting to show up using the http://microsite.company.com url instead of the actual url we're about to start promoting and I'm sure that's going to split rankings. Is there a way to appease both sides here. Keep the subdomain from the main site but transfer the juice from that main link to the microsite url? To be clear, I can't just use a 301 redirect because that will change the url from the subdomain to the microsite url (unless i'm wrong) and corporate doesn't want that. Does any of this make sense? Any help would be greatly appreciated
Link Building | | CubicleFugitive0