Competitor link profile shocking - yet still out ranking!
-
Howdy fellow Mozzer's,
I have been doing some background seo checking on a competitor in my small "insurance niche" to try and see why they have recently shot up the listings and are now consistently out ranking us.
We have quality content on our site and have always taken an approach of trying to be whiter than white when it comes to developing out SEO plans.The site in question has recently moved ahead of us (along with some aggregators e.g. confused.com) possibly due to shifting patterns from possible algorithm changes favouring brand or could it be a case that Google has dropped a ball when it comes to checking back links as the competitors site is 99% linked to link farms, link submission sites, directories and lots of other spammy/poor quality sites.
We do not feel they are doing anything from a content stand to justify their sudden propulsion up the ranks. I am reluctant to pursue dodgy tactics to help get out site back in position as I feel it could then contribute and hurt us down the line.
Does anyone know how I can combat against their poor QUANTITY over QUALITY banklink profile that is surely helping them at the minute?
At a bit of a loss so any help would be greatly appreciated.
-
There has been a sudden leap from a couple of sites employing the same tactic. In fact one site I checked also had a very similar backlink profile (possible a sister brand to the one I mentioned in my first post above) and they too have climbed in recent weeks. I will look forward to any further insight you can provide on the matter
Good luck.
-
Very true, I had not considered they may have started to disavow some of the really poor links allowing the quality links to once again shine through...
Edit* : If it is not a case of utilising the Disavow tool, I do hope that any impending Google Algorithm update (which may have been in testing of late) comes along and bite them in the proverbial bottom.
Cheers Marie.
-
I'll add a few of my thoughts as well. I've seen sites that soar ahead on the power of unnatural links and then when Penguin hits they die out and just start fresh again with a new spammy site. Google has gotten better at just not counting many types of unnatural links but there are several types that will still work...for now.
Also, you don't know which of their links they have disavowed. Perhaps they have links from thousands of domains that are really spammy but they've disavowed them and in the midst of those spammy links could be some really good ones.
-
I have seen similar tactics in the local SEO industry lately, so I share your confusion.
Looking at MOZ's tools, we see that our main competitor has a huge amount of spammy links pointing back to their site. Our backlink profile has been very stringent, only submitting to or accepting higher quality sources. They still out rank us, even tho their content quality score is much lower. I am looking into this now, and will provide an answer or opinion soon.
-
Many times when people say , my competitor has a spammy link profile, it turns out that among all the worthless links are a few really good ones.
If you see they are doing anything wrong report them to google, https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35265?hl=en
-
If it's any consolation, given that you're in the insurance niche, it is one that Google wants to keep a close eye on and keep clean - so chances are action would be quicker than if you were in the dog accessories industry, let's say!
-
Cheers Tom,
Have to agree, I want to keep it on the straight and narrow, helping to maintain a site that should be seen as white to the core.
I do hope that the algorithm will be further cleaned up and that we will soon see our site moving back ahead of those employing dodgy tactics for short term gain.
Thanks Tim -
Cheers Andy and Jonathan,
I didn't check to see if they are paid links as yet - but will go have another look for sure.Andy, I totally agree, despite being as clean as we can be, we do know that many of our competitors can be a little shady when it comes to SEO and we also understand that we cannot really challenge the super huge aggregators for authority, however consider ourselves to one of the best of the rest.
We do try and create great linkable assets, but mainly for peripheral elements associated with us e.g. charity news, product reviews etc I am trying to get more genuine insurance articles on our blog etc - infographics, case studies etc... but finding people that think our content is valuable to both them and their readers is the hardest bit. I think people have certainly become a little numb to direct contact and so the content really has to shine and stand out from the crowd.
Cheers for your help so far. -
We have to remember that, for all of Google's progress, it is still an algorithm that relies heavily on links and its internal PageRank.
If your site has links from places with a strong PageRank, that is almost "reason enough" for the algorithm to rank your site (in the very most basic terms).
Of course, the greatest advancement Google has made in recent times is teaching its algorithms (and manual quality assessors) to detect manipulative link building. They're getting faster and better at detecting them. Rest assured, that site will inevitably be penalised.
In terms of what you can do, look at it objectively: Would you want to beat them at their own game and do this, but have no guarantee that it would work for you and an almost iron guarantee that it will inevitably penalise you? It doesn't make sense to me - so I would keep doing what you're doing and look to earn more links in the way that you have. You might improve things now, but down the line your site is going to be in altogether much better place.
Keep at it mate - it's frustrating I know, but it'll turn around.
-
Hi Tim,
If you are certain they have been buying links then try this https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/paidlinks?pli=1
The reporting tool puts them on Google's radar and if they have been doing this then they won't last for long.
Jonathan
-
There are 3 industries I wont work in. Insurance, finance and automotive, purely because of the amount of dirty tactics that go on. I have found that a lot will undertake tiered link building, networks and other unsavoury tactics in place of being white hat, because they feel they have no option.
In terms of making sure you have something that people really want to link to, you need to create some link-assets. These can be anything that will make people want to link back and can be a study, white-paper, research, tool, informative post or something heavily news-worthy. You then need to look to doing some outreach and contacting sites, journalists, industry bodies, etc, and informing them of what you have to offer (link assets).
Look to the sites you want links from, and then decide the route that is likely to gain you positive attention and links.
-Andy
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
-
My Top Keywords Ranking Going Down (continuously)
hi,
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | seotoolshero06
I have an affiliate website where most of my articles are about product Reviews. And it was all going good before 15 february. After that Most of my keywords that were in top 3 places in SERP loses their position.
One of the keyword that was hurted badly after is "best coffee beans".
I have checked the search console and their is no warning issues or something suspicious. I have improved the onpage again, fixing every issue i got from audit tools, from speed to optimize images, titles to alt text, in short everything i could or that can be improved. But still coffee beans keyword is going down every passing day.
I am so worried and want you guys to please help me regarding this. Thanks2 -
Do I lose link juice if I have a https site and someone links to me using http instead?
We have recently launched a https site which is getting some organic links some of which are using https and some are using http. Am I losing link juice on the ones linked using http even though I am redirecting or does Google view them the same way? As most people still use http naturally will it look strange to google if I contact anyone who has given us a link and ask them to change to https?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Lisa-Devins0 -
How does Google determine if a link is paid or not?
We are currently doing some outreach to bloggers to review our products and provide us with backlinks (preferably followed). The bloggers get to keep the products (usually about $30 worth). According to Google's link schemes, this is a no-no. But my question is, how would Google ever know if the blogger was paid or given freebies for their content? This is the "best" article I could find related to the subject: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2332787/Matt-Cutts-Shares-4-Ways-Google-Evaluates-Paid-Links The article tells us what qualifies as a paid link, but it doesn't tell us how Google identifies if links were paid or not. It also says that "loans" or okay, but "gifts" are not. How would Google know the difference? For all Google knows (maybe everything?), the blogger returned the products to us after reviewing them. Does anyone have any ideas on this? Maybe Google watches over terms like, "this is a sponsored post" or "materials provided by 'x'". Even so, I hope that wouldn't be enough to warrant a penalty.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | jampaper0 -
Suspicious external links to site have 302 redirects
Hi, I have been asked to look at a site where I suspect some questionable SEO work, particularly link building. The site does seem to be performing very poorly in Google since January 2014, although there are no messages in WMT. Using WMT, OPenSiteExplorer, Majestic & NetPeak, I have analysed inbound links and found a group of links which although are listed in WMT, etc appear to 302 redirect to a directory in China (therefore the actual linking domain is not visible). It looks like a crude type of link farm, but I cant understand why they would use 302s not 301s. The domains are not visible due to redirects. Should I request a disavow or ignore? The linking domains are listed below: http://www.basalts.cn/
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | crescentdigital
http://www.chinamarbles.com.cn/
http://www.china-slate.com.cn/
http://www.granitecountertop.com.cn/
http://www.granite-exporter.com/
http://www.sandstones.biz/
http://www.stone-2.com/
http://www.stonebuild.cn/
http://www.stonecompany.com.cn/
http://www.stonecontact.cn/
http://www.stonecrate.com/
http://www.stonedesk.com/
http://www.stonedvd.com/
http://www.stonepark.cn/
http://www.stonetool.com.cn/
http://www.stonewebsite.com/ Thanks Steve0 -
Do sitewide links from other sites hurt SEO?
A friend of mine has a pagerank 3 website that links to all my pages on my site on every page of his site. The anchor text of all these links are the title of each page that it links to. Does this hurt SEO? I can have him change to the links to whatever i want, so if it does hurt, what should i change the anchor text to if needed? Thanks mozzers! Ron
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Ron100 -
Article pages not ranking as well as they should
Hello, Our articles here are not ranking as strongly as they should. Could you take a look and tell me why? When I search for the exact article title we do not come up. We used to. Note our sitewide footer links to some articles in case that's the problem, but even articles not in the footer links aren't performing.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobGW0 -
Would you get link from this blog?
I have an opportunity to place a guest blog on a site. The site has the following metrics: DA/PA: 24/36 Inbound links: 3K+ from 16 root domains Here is what makes me uneasy: The number of links from the same domain, suggesting sitewide or footer links When I look at the backlinks, there are links from sites like http://best-american-law-firms.info/, or http://www.luvbuds.info/. They sare blogroll links that are likely paid for. Would you get a link from this blog?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | inhouseseo0 -
Too many links with the same Anchor-text?
My first question at SeoMoz: Recently my gambling site has been experimenting a subtle yo-yo effect for our most sought-after keyword. A month ago we legitimately added a PR-6 inbound link with that keyword (tragamonedas) from an institutional site of our own development. We are worried that google might have regarded that move as an illegitimate link acquisition, since those apparent troubles with our keyword appear to have started right after that link was processed. Is it too late to change the anchor text, in case that action might deliver positive results? Also, we might have focused too much on the very same keyword in our link building campaign. Can a constant repetition of the same anchor harm our indexing reputation? Thank you in advance and good SEO luck, Andi.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | castano0