Competitor analysis and broken links
-
I have just been looking at a competitors links and have discovered some of the links they have obtained dont actually exist when clicking through to the directory or blog in question, although still appear in opensiteexplorer.
Is this common? and is it just a sign of bad link building practices?
-
Well open site explorer is your friend! The best way to get a feel for evaluating link profiles is just to dive in and look at the link profiles of lots of sites - sites that rank, sites that don't and sites that should! Remember to take a good look at the sites themselves to get a feel for their layout, relevance and and high level feel for their authority. (humans are pretty good at evaluating this!)
There are tools out there that will help you profile backlinks (such as Link Detective (http://www.linkdetective.com/) (which seems to be down at the moment)
Here's an articles from the SEOmoz blog to get you started::
How to Check Which Links Can Harm Your Site's Rankings
I don't know if you've got the SEO Toolbar installed (http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar), it's a great way to keep an eye on sites as you surt and an easy way to jump into digging into a sites ranking factors.
More than anything else, I would say that the most important thing is to develop an inquisitive nature!
Good luck!
<object id="plugin0" style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" width="0" height="0" type="application/x-dgnria"><param name="tabId" value="ff-tab-21"> <param name="counter" value="369"></object>
-
Thanks Doug
I guess I need to do some more homework on evaluating links. Whats the best way of going about this?
-
Open site explorer is a snapshot of the web as seen at a particular moment in time.
You can't count on any links being permanent. The URL of the linking page can change over time (especially true where you have paginated comments and your/your competitors comments drift down over time.)
I don't think you can automatically assume that disappearing links are a sign of bad link building practices, but I suspect it's a reasonable warning sign to dig a little deeper.
If these links are all blogs / directory links then I'd say that can be a good indicator of low value/risky link building.
You need to look at the nature of the links, their authority and value. Do they exist solely to provide a link or is there another reason. Is the site on which the link existed related to the target site and is it reasonable to believe that a link would belong there. Is there a reason why you'd want to remove them if they were your links.
Especially when you've got a competitive niche, it makes sense to keep an eye on your competitors ranking and then look at reasons behind any changes. I've heard of anecdotal stories of site moving from page 2 to the top of page 1 just by tidying up their link profiles.
<object id="plugin0" style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" width="0" height="0" type="application/x-dgnria"><param name="tabId" value="ff-tab-1"> <param name="counter" value="16"></object>
-
That particular competitor might have made the link a while back before the recent Google updates and after the update they might have implemented link removal campaigns removing the links that might harm the site's ranking. OS explorer's data is refreshed once a month, and in some cases more than that. So If you click on those link, they might have been removed already by your competitor.
Hope that helps !
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
-
What is the number of links do you require your link builder to attain each week or month? What is a reasonable goal?
Hello Mozzers... I would like to get a survey or feedback from other Mozzers who owns an SEO company or manages / hire link builders. **What is the average number of links does your link builder need to attain per week or month? what is their goal? ** I understand quality over quantity but I want to make sure there is a reasonable average to provide them goals and something to achieve on. Of course reward them more if they exceed or get .edu links. What do you institute? What do you think is fair and achievable per website? PS. There is no right or wrong answers here. I am looking for a measurable answer not subjectable. Again just gathering MEASURABLE GOALS.
Link Building | | ChatterBuzzMedia0 -
Paid Directory Links
To my surprise, I couldn't find a clear answer to the questions "Do paid directory links violate Google guidelines?" I know Matt Cutt's recently had a video on paid links, but it didn't really cover paid directory links. Are well-curated directory sites that charge for inclusion violate Google's guidelines? A good example would be the business.com directory.
Link Building | | RickyShockley0 -
Ecomerce: Would 4 link sections leak too much link juice?
Hello, In my content management for our ecomerce site, I've found that there are sometimes links to sites in our industry that have "helpful links" sections. Several strong sites link directly to these resource sections. There are 4 different topics that fit this trend in our industry. Would it leak too much link juice to make 4 comprehensive link sections and place a link to them on our "Useful Articles" page? Or should I stick to one comprehensive link section? Or perhaps a small link section? Or none at all? Thanks.
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Link Building - Affiliate Link Programs
I'm getting some conflicting information when researching this... I want to create the most organic link building strategy that not only gets high authority sites linking to a website, but relevant websites. I'm creating an affiliate link program where I link to partner and affiliate companies, who in turn link back to me. The question is where to put these links. I was initially thinking of putting them in the footer so they add credibility to every page, and in turn ask my affiliates to do the same thing. However; some sources say that Google no longer looks at links in the footer section. Is it true that Google doesn't count links in footer sections? And do you have any tips on creating this Affiliate Link Program?
Link Building | | reidsteven750 -
Why are my inbound links not showing up?
According to Webmaster tools, I have about 150 linking to my web site. In the Open Site Explorer, none of them show up. Sorry, I am a newbie with SEOMoz. I sure appreciate someone helping me answer this question. Thank you. http://tampapaintingservices.com
Link Building | | combesinc0 -
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 -
Building Links
Hi everyone, I am new to SEO and in the process of building links the clean way. Any suggestions on how exactly I can find websites that are linking out to quality websites already? I went thru most of my competitors link building strategy - and 90% of their links are done either thru link exchange or paid links. So looking at my competitors strategy does not really help. So I need to find websites/blogs/forums that are ready to link to me if I can show them some useful content. How do I find these websites first? Please help! Cheers! Arjun
Link Building | | ArjunRajkumar0 -
Our competitor, Gaiam.com is able to get links back from Youtube. How are they doing this?
When I use Open Site Explorer to look at our competitor's link profile, I notice that Gaiam.com is getting lots of valuable links from their videos on Youtube. We have a lot of videos on Youtube as well and are not receiving links back. What is the secret? Our website address is fully shown in the profile and we seem to match them - what are we missing? Thanks
Link Building | | dahnyogaworks0