Why is a website with no backlinks beating me?
-
In Sydney we have an import car dealership and even though it does not show any backlinks to it:
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.edwardlees.com.au%2F
(make sure to search on Google.com.au for any relevant keywords I mention)
However this website is ranking at the top for many competitive keywords, for example:
'japanese imports'
It is dominating. Our website has many backlinks:
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.sportsautogroup.com.au
But no keyword rankings. I understand we need to fix up our on Page SEO, but how does our EdwardLee's rank top with no backlinks?? Or is the tool just missing data?
-
Hi Kosta,
Sadly the only way I know is to contact each website that looks spammy and ask for them to remove the link. Sometimes getting removal isn't possible.
If it's a blog network, find out who owns the blog network and ask them to remove all the links. It looks like they have used an SEO firm to get these back links? Often blackhat SEO firms have their own blog networks, so you could get them to remove all of them, if your lucky.
The other option is to just start building quality links, and just wait out the penalty. If you get enough quality links Google will see the website is trust worthy and ignore the spam.
The hard part is getting quality links. Start with high quality directories, and then looks at the business supplier to see if you can get quality links from suppliers in exchange for a testimonies.
Then I would move on to guessed blogging on relevant topics. Cars should be an easy topic to find plenty of quality blogs. Contact them with a great article or idea, in exchange for a link.
-
Hi FreshFireOne,
The reason I think he has a point is because if I search for the brand name on Google it doesn't even come up with their site, but instead with some random site that doesn't even have any info on it.
Regards
-
Out of interest how did you find out a Google Penalty or is this just a guess best on the poor quality links?
-
Right sorted....
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.japaneseautocentre.com.au
They have a 301 redirect from www.japaneseautocentre.com.au TO www.edwardless.com.au
Hope this helps!
Also go and read my thoughts on Link Building Strategies on this other question...
-
Hi charles1,
How can I remove spammy blog links. Once they're created it must be a headache to remove, not to mention there could be mroe than one person building backlinks to this site (at the moment they don't have a fully clear SEO strategy).
Regards
-
Hi FreshFireOne,
I checked your link, however I don't see where I have to go to find backlinks? the link just says the website name.
-
Open Site explorer only get's updated every month or so, although it doesn't crawl the entire internet so it could take up to 1-3 months for you to see what your competitors backlinks are. They do have backlinks.
In terms of your website, it looks like you have received a Google Penalty, as I've searched your actual name: "sportsautogroup" and you don't even show up.
You need to remove the spammy blog links and other fake links. Such as this one... this clearly a spammy blog network link - http://www.christmastreemountain.com/
Then submit for reconsideration - I could contact an SEO professional before doing this. There is plenty of great people on SEOmoz forum that can help.
-
Unfortunately Open Site Explorer is not perfect!!! The internet is big and it cannot index EVER site.
Have you tried using other backchecker tools? (sorry I can't think of any at the moment I will edit later)
They do have backlinks going to them:- i.e. A quick search and I found:-
-
Try viewing both sites in a search engine spider simulator. I like the Foxy SEO spider simulator for FireFox.
When you use a spider emulator:
Their site actually says something about Japanese Imports a few times in the text, and then lists several (mostly Japanese) cars for sale. And their menu lists other Japanese models.
Your site looks like a bunch of links with hardly any text, and many of the links are for non-Japanese cars.
Edit:
Plus, (don't take this harshly, I only looked at a few), but your backlinks are spammy. They appear to be from very spammy sites. Would you believe anyone would go read one of those sites and find value from your links? My guess is that they these links are at best providing zero value to you, and possibly hurting you.
Good Luck!
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
-
Backlinking Strategy
I am particularly new to the field of SEO and Backlinking and I have recently started my own blog feel free to have a look (https://thehorseradar.com/). What I wanted to find out is how can I achieve a DA of at least 30. What should be my link-building strategy? & what steps should I take first? With an abundance of overwhelming info available online I have gotten really confused about what would work and what would not. If someone would lay out the steps needed to be taken, I would be extremely grateful! Thank You
Link Building | | haris3131 -
Payday loan backlinks
Dear Friends, I just checked my backlinks in Ahrefs because my traffic has been dropping since the last 4 weeks. I have 2 questions is google penguin a part of Google core algorithm yet like Google panda is? I have backlinks of Payday loans which many webmasters claimed were the problem. The anchor text was payday loans. The sites hardly have any pagerank or anything. What is the way forward for me? So i contact the webmasters, and they dont reply then disavow the links or disavow them directly knowing that google hates pay day loans backlinks
Link Building | | marketing910 -
SEO companies, Backlinks and Trade Secrets
I have spent so much time investigating what it takes to move my domain up the ladder. I have so far determined good quality optimized website and I am almost done with that. MOZ Rules! If I look at Open Site Explorer at my competitors it gives me some of their backlinks... Some people say backlinks are not as important anymore. But If I am in a Vacation Rental business and I can get other websites/blogs with high PA to post some good content that I write to link back to my website this should raise my SEO? Correct. I am fortunate that online media assets always seem to have articles such as "The best destinations this Fall", "Getting away for a long weekend", etc...... In the past I have been contacted by writers/bloggers that wanted to trade free stays at my homes for an article.... back then I had no idea what a PA was, but now I can at least point MOZ at their website to see if it is worth it. I was also thinking about hiring somebody to do this.....My question is two part... Am I on the right track about building good quality backlinks from high PA with truly good content. I have been writing articles now for 30 days along with this other stuff and have probably 10 unique pieces plus another 20 in our recent blog... When SEO companies call me weekly they all say "we can get you to the top 3 placements in 60 days or other say 3 to 5 months or others say 6 to 7 months." Being a business person I ask, "How do you do it? and what tools do you use?" I never get a straight answer, because they say it is trade secrets..... or they say they use internal tools.... This kills me! I do not want to do this myself, be an SEO company I just want to know the process a vendor will use to raise my SEO. If they were to say I have contacts at these 5 major websites and I am going to get your content listed on these websites... I would say great. 4 years ago I paid a company monthly for a year who moved my domain name from 70 to 35 but that happened in the first 3 months and then nothing. And he would never tell me what they were doing... plus now I realize my site optimization was crap. Out of 10 keyword phrases, the highest I got right now is 32 and a new guy on the block is less than 10 and has less content and backlinks... I wonder once my site optimization is done will that really really help me. Is it too much for a SEO to tell me specifics! I have purchased MOZ, Authority Labs, Buzz Stream, SEO tracker, I am committed to this... I have 15,000 facebook page likes and 80 you tube videos, pinterest and twitter too... M
Link Building | | nickcargill0 -
When do backlinks start helping?
I have been working hard at getting quality backlinks but I had a lot of keywords slip in rankings this week. This may because I have been extremely busy for a week and haven't added a lot of content to my site. But I thought the backlinks would be helping. How long does it take backlinks to start boosting your site and what results should I see? I am focusing on getting backlinks from a site with a PR of 7. The others have a PR of 4-5. They are the BEST sites in my niche.
Link Building | | dealblogger0 -
How do I find what backlinks have disappeared?
I have seen a decrease in backlinks, how do I figure out which ones are no longer there?
Link Building | | EcommerceSite0 -
The Race for Backlinks
I see that this question hasn't been addressed in 2013 and while reviewing my SEOMoz stats, my competition continues to beat me up in the backlink department. I'm wondering if anyone has advice as to how to build those backlinks without Penguin penalty. I want to do it right and I think that's why I can't win this race against my competitors who I see have backlinks on all sorts of sites that are not related to our business. Thanks in advance for the advice!
Link Building | | Debe0 -
Can bad links be removed from a website
An SEO company we contracted with linked us up with many poor quality sites - some in foreign countries and now our site has hundreds and thousands of poor quality links to inappropriate sites.. Is there any way to un-link from these? Thank you!
Link Building | | Barb1230 -
Widgets Designed for Getting Backlink
Where can we find widget samples that are designed for widgetbait and getting backlinks?
Link Building | | merkal20051