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
-
Wrong page ranking and rank drop, help!
Dear Moz community I would like to hear your advice about our current SEO problems. Our website is www.poolsonline.nl. This is a website where people can learn the Polish language on our website. This website has been online since 2007. The website got really outdated, so we built and launched a new version on March 1st (one month ago). We have created a salespage that we would like to rank for the keywords 'cursus Pools' (Polish course) first of all and 'pools leren' (learn Polish) secondly. The page is https://www.poolsonline.nl/cursus-pools-leren-spreken/ The old website was on rank 4-5 (roughly) for 'cursus Pools' and 'pools leren'. When we launched the new website we were on the top 5 with two of our pages. We were even on rank 1 and our salespage was also showing on the first page and often also in the top 5 (below the 'wrong' page of ours). We got quite a lot of trafic and new clients. However the problem was that the wrong page was ranking higher. We wanted our salespage to rank and not our home page (https://www.poolsonline.nl/) and not our free lesson (https://www.poolsonline.nl/lessen/groeten-en-gesprek-voeren-in-het-pools-les-1/). So what we did: Read/watched recourses about this problem: https://moz.com/blog/wrong-page-ranks-for-keywords-whiteboard-friday and https://moz.com/blog/wrong-page-ranking-in-the-results-6-common-causes-5-solutions and others. Removed the keywords (cursus pools en Pools leren) from the wrong pages (home and free lesson pages). Optimized the Salespage for these keywords Improved internal linking with these key words to our salespage Worked on link building for our salepage. We got about 5-10 links to our salespage in the first week of March (5 seems to be significant for this competition and we are working on more). These links are not yet in Moz OSE, but Google has indexed these pages and links. For reference, here are some of these links (not all): http://www.iculture.nl/apps/ik-spreek-pools-taalcursus-pools-op-iphone/ http://linktopoland.com/nl/cursus-pools-leren-spreken/ http://naukaholenderskiego.pl/artykuly/aplikacje/rozmawiamy-po-niderlandzku-aplikacja-na-iphone-i-ipad/ http://pnkv.nl/nieuwsbericht.php?bericht=rozmowy-po-polsku-juz-po-6-miesiacach http://poolsewoorden.nl/pools-leren/aanmelden/ http://poniderlandzku.nl/ Shared and promoted our salespage on social media What we expected: Our salespage to show up on top for these keywords Our ranking to improve What happened: Our salespage disappeared all together from the search results for these search terms (it does show up for more specific search queries, for example 'cursus pools leren spreken') Our site seems to keep dropping lower and lower. We are now on the bottom of page 1 or on page 2 for 'cursus Pools' and 'Pools leren' and not with the desired page Questions we have for you to help us: Why do you think our salespage is not showing up anymore for these keywords ('cursus pools' and 'pools leren')? Do you think we got a penalty for over optimization or bad links? What can we more to get our salespage to rank for these keywords? (we are working on building/earning more links) What can we do to restore our rankings and not drop lower anymore? Do we need to give our efforts more time? How long? Any other adivce? Thanks so much in advance!
Link Building | | rdudkiewicz0 -
Site used to rank first for main keyword - now dropped drastically
The home page for this site (http://bit.ly/4m1eXy) was ranking between #1 and #3 for the term "Minneapolis criminal defense" as of a few months ago. Now the home page has dropped to #23 for this keyword, and the only changes we've made should be enhancing its ability to rank - through on-page optimization, cleaning up site errors, and ensuring good, quality content. The thing is, the sites who rank ahead of our site have lower domain authority and page authority, and their content, quite frankly, just isn't that great. Some of them are definitely doing SEO but they aren't necessarily targeting "Minneapolis criminal defense" like we are for the search term. Before our company started doing SEO for this website, they hired a company that generated a large number of backlinks that Google would probably now see as spammy. The previous company also used to direct traffic towards the home page for the keyword "Minneapolis DWI laywer" too - and we have since stopped doing that. So I'm wondering with all of Google's algorithmic updates if this is the reason we're seeing a drop for this term, and if Google's confused. We're pretty confused, too, though, since the sites ranking ahead of us don't seem to be doing squeaky clean SEO by any means. Advice for us? We're stumped. Would anyone consider Google's disavow tool for the bad links?
Link Building | | Boogily0 -
Is my SEO Strategy is good to rank ?
I just planned my SEO Strategy for low competition keywords 1. Submit articles to top 30+ web 2.0 sites 2. Submit bookmark to top 50 sites 3. Submit Article directories to top 10 sites 4. Link them all with Wiki and blog comments Kindly let me know your suggestions
Link Building | | chandubaba0 -
Multiple Links from High Ranking Site Vs. Links from Multiple Domains - What's More Important?
I understand it is important to get links from many quality domains. Currently, I do have links from top domains (PR, Trust) and it I can get more from (high rank) pages on these same domains. Would it be better to focus on expanding my reach (find additional domains to link from) or to continue to build links from the current domains I have a connection with? What is weighted more? I realize doing both is important, but trying to figure out how to best use my time. Thanks! David
Link Building | | DWill0 -
How many good links does it take to improve the rank
Just wondering how many good links (PR 3-5) it generally takes to improve the site in a competitive space. That is assuming the links will be procured (earned) from the sites in the same domain.
Link Building | | EricMoore0 -
Looking for Feedback on Rankings Dropping
Hi, I am looking for some guidance on figuring out a problem I am having with one of my clients. Their site is http://www.macton.com. They have seen a pretty significant drop in rankings for "hoist systems" "industrial turntables" and "railroad equipment." Below is my analysis and thoughts. Please let me know if you have any input you can provide me with. Hoist Systems Rankings started dropping significantly July 2nd. Their average position was around the 2nd - 3rd page. They're now in position 100. Some things I noticed is that Google is now ranking the page /freight_rail/portable-car-hoist-freight for this term, whereas a few months ago it was ranking /rail_equipment/car-hoist. I'm not sure why Google has started to rank this new page for this term when there is no reference to that keyword in the page and the other one is better suited. Industrial Turntables Rankings started dropping off in January and they have been up and down and even fell off for a bit in March. They took a deep dive May 28 - Jun 11 and are slowly picking up. I noticed that Google is also changing which page it is choosing to rank for this term. Currently it is ranking /rail_equipment/locomotive-turntables, previously it was ranking the homepage around May 28th, and before that it was /equipment/industrial-testing. Some things we thought would help this was to create a whole new page just on industrial turntables in order to rank better for this term. Another thing that I think would be highly beneficial is to do some more aggressive link building. Their top anchor text is all brand related, and very few include their target keywords.To my knowledge, I don't think they have a penguin issue, although I could be mistaken. Can anyone provide input and/or guidance on my analysis? Any suggestions?
Link Building | | TopFloor0 -
Do you believe TLD distribution effects rankings in Google?
I have noticed that when looking at TLD distribution of backlinks for many websites that have grown organically, the TLD distribution is somewhat consistent depending on the style of website (I am using MajesticSEO to find this distribution data). Do you feel deviating from this TLD distribution depending on the style of website you have would cause negative effects with Google? Has there been any testing of this that you know of that you can point me to (ex: building all backlinks from .info TLDs and seeing if you rank well for given keywords)? I ask because my companies website has seen some big deviations from this and although I don't see any negative effects currently I want to make sure we create a site that stays consistent with what Google is looking for. For example, if I look at news sites such as New York Times and Los Angeles Times, I see TLD distributions as such: nytimes.com
Link Building | | alohav
.com = 59%
.gov = 14%
.org = 12%
.uk = 2%
.edu = 2% latimes.com
.com = 59%
.org = 13%
.gov = 11%
.edu = 4%
.net = 2%
.uk = 2% From that, if you are a news site, my assumption would be to try to stay consistent with around 55-65% of your links coming from .com domains, around 9-15% from .org, etc etc . Now, looking at large blog styles sites I see this distribution: naturalnews.com
.com = 70%
.org = 11%
.edu = 3%
.net = 2%
.gov = 1% techcrunch.com
.com = 71%
.org = 10%
.edu = 4%
.net = 3%
.gov = 1% Any input or links to tests of this would be much appreciated.0 -
Keyword Ranking
Let say I'm a company that sold used tires and I'm ranking for Used Tires Supply Used Tires Distributor Used Tire Company Would it be beneficial for the serps to focus your link building campaign for just "used tires"
Link Building | | marig0