5 Million Links?
-
Hi all,
I've been hired as the chief marketer at a (very) high traffic web company. Ironically, I don't have much SEO experience but I have been able to figure out PPC, on-page SEO and SEO content generation pretty well over the last few months.
What I don't get is link building. My question is this; we're trying to move from the 3-4 SERP slot to the 1-2 SERP slot for a short list of keywords. My boss asked me to get busy with link building. Our competitor has over 2 million external links and we have roughly 60 thousand. What do I do? How do I start? Is there a legit, white hat way to get this job moving?
Any insights would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
-
-
Hi again Lary
May I ask for the domain of your competitor?
Fredrik
-
Fredrik,
Thanks for the awesome response, very helpful. I have another concern that I'm not sure how to approach; my competitor literally has over 2 million external links and we only have 60,000. How do I compete? How do i catch up? Did he do it legally? The panda/penguin updates don't seem to have affected him at all.
Thanks again!
Lary
-
Hi
Your boss is right, building links is a very important task. But, as you hint at yourself, its all about doing it the correct way. So asking the community before getting started was a smart move.
I have had many clients that could not resist the temptation of buying low quality links. A few months later they are all paying the price of this by being penalised by Google. So before we get started, stay clear of buying low quality or any links for that matter.
My first move is always to identify a few competitors and see what kind of links they are getting. Chances are that if they can get links this way so can you. For this http://www.opensiteexplorer.org is a great tool. To get an instant overview what links your competitors have use these settings:
Show: followed and 301s
Links from: only external
To: pages on this root domainThis would now give you a good list of links to your competitor. Sort the list by page authority and start investigating their most valuable links.
Further ideas to how to get links could be:
- Write for other blogs, and become a regular contributor
- Create stunning content that people want to link to
- Interview someone influential
For more useful information on to proceed with links please see these resources:
http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/eight-link-building-tips-whiteboard-friday
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-noob-guide-to-link-building
Hope this is enough to get started.
Good luck and may the linkbuilding force be with you
Fredrik
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
-
Inbound link is follow link but we put no follow link back - is it beneficial for rankings?
Dear Moz Community, We are operating in a niche market, where there are not so many content marketing options. What we are left with are link exchanging with relevant sites that are on the same topic but to not directly compete with us. Now we know that if we link back to site A and site a links back to us - for google this is not a very good link. But, some of the sites we are exchanging links with, do not know the term follow vs no follow links. My question - if your link is to site A is a no follow link but they give us a follow link - does it mean thats a better option than a follow vs follow. Thanks for help!
Link Building | | advertisingcloud0 -
Page links, header links, footer links
HI I have been hearing about links, you should keep to 100 Just look at this url http://www.powerwale.com/store/acdelco-sealed-vrla-iacdv5l--b-5ah-bike-battery/77031 and go for Recommend section, where you same product applies to different vehicles 1. im confused, should keep it or not?
Link Building | | Rahim119
2. Header links are less, Footer links are less, and in the future, we are planning to add more, will this affect SEO more than 100
i see many ecommerce sites, has menu showing many categories, more 100 categories links
3. Wht about link equity? If I have more links in header and footer page(all this will follow in the rest of pages).
4. More links in the header and footer shows that you are big ecommerce site.. Pls suggest, which is right way and go gain SEO value1 -
Link removel
When removing links should I be worried about bad links from websites that have already been deindexd from Google or should I think that since it is not in these index any more it cant do harm?
Link Building | | Joseph-Green-SEO0 -
There is a New link to my Site but I can see it on link report ?why ?
Hi I found out using link campaign and Open site explorer that my competitors where getting links from this page http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/activities/land_sports/golf So I conatc the admins and added our golf courses too Is the dunes and the bay course in the middle of the page But this happened 3 weeks ago and still this linking domain is not appaering in my campaign why is that any ideas ? does it take so much time to appera to SEOmoz ? Or the problem is because they are linking 2 diffrent sites ? my site is www.costanavarinogolf.com Thanks a lot in advance for your help
Link Building | | grzontan0 -
Link building
What is the difference between External Followed Links and Total External Links, why are the numbers different? Should the numbers not be the same? I have a difference of 24 links can anyone explain why?
Link Building | | vendorshop0 -
No more Juicy Link Finder!
hi all, I really loved using the juicy link finder for my link building activity, but I've just noticed it is now no longet available redirecting me to the tools page when clicking on: www.seomoz.org/link-finder Can anyone recommend a tool i can use that offers exactly the same information or alternative tools out there? Essentially I just need to understand what/which websites to target based on entering a keyword Thanks! Simon
Link Building | | simonsw0 -
Where do you buy your links from
OK which brokers / sites do you use to buy your links or gain links from and why.
Link Building | | therealmarkhall0 -
SEOs and web developers frequently leave links to their site in the footer of their clients' sites. Does this negatively impact the site with the links?
Does this provide any SEO value to the receiving site? Has anyone experienced problems doing this?
Link Building | | KatMouse2