Link Building Question
-
Hello,
Here is my situation - i'm number 10 for a moderate keyword and i want to rank higher .
Using the Open Site Explorer i studied the links of 12 competitors and noticed the following :
There are only 2 sites that are doing 100% white hat - one of them is on first page only because has a big,big domain autority, the other because is a brand name.
The rest of my competitors are on first page using directory submissions (i discovered 200+ directories - and not counting those that are not indexed.), buying links (for ex check these 2 :http://www.dentistsburbank.com/links , http://www.dentistinaustin.com/links/ - there are 50+ more sites like this), spam forums and article submissions.
For my site i tried to get only quality links, tried link bait, quality articles - etc(and this for more that 18 months). Unfortunately it seems that my efforts are not enough(seems that links from military.com are not enough to beat 200 low quality directories) and i want to ask the community what should i do.
Shall i invest in directory submissions (it will cost around $1500) ? If not in directories in what shall i invest the money ? Are there any companies able to create successful link baits ?
Shall i report the paid links hoping that Google will take action ?
Any other ideas
-
What about reporting the "black links" - did anyone had success doing that ?
-
Yes probably i need to get quantity and match them on number of c blocks (the only metric i;m behind)
-
I agree, directory submissions should cost no where near that, and the effort and cost far outway the benifits IMHO. Anyway, just a thought on the paid directories you mention - costs can be cut further if you do go down this route by applying to become an editor of a directoy such as Joeant , if accepeted, you can then get a free listing!
-
Good point and absolutely a must, though once you exhaust all that and have already a good content strategy and your competitors are still kicking your butt - what then?
Internally we go technical, big backlink profile analysis, do the maths and go hard and creative on links. It's kind of like brute force in some respect however within 2-3 months you're going up after many months of stagnation.
I see this all the time in highly competitive industries (e.g. insurance, flights...etc).
There have been cases though where we have seen quality beat quantities (in extreme differences)... still a bit of a mystery to me if I am to be completely honest.
-
The question that I always ask when a local service or retail site is involved is.... have you gotten all of the local and industry links that are available?
These include:
-- chamber of commerce and local service organizations (membership in these can be valuable for business reasons but their website often has a link to their members)
-- local business listings
-- your landlord's website
-- websites of your suppliers and service providers (do a testimonial for them)
-- trade associations for your industry (write an article for them)
-- med schools, law schools etc. often links to websites successful graduates
-- local charities often link to companies who support them (friends of the library, habitat, religious groups, little league boosters)
-- local business initiatives (tourism association, "buy local", downtown merchant association)
-- local online newspaper (advertise, write an article or column)
-- trade association publications (advertise, write an article or column)
-- local and state license boards
Go out searching for local websites. Although they might not be "dental" sites they are often very relevant for the name of your community. You can also draw up a charitable organization budget that will support your business in other ways.
Lots of people are amazed when they learn how many local links are possible.
-
Yeah I think you might be looking to hard at directories if the cost is that high... I wouldn't spend half that on them myself. You'll probably find that most of those directories aren't worth the dosh.
-
If your competition is getting quantities of links and beating you while your your best content effort cannot level up... that might be what you need to do - get as many new c-block links using all means possible apart from buying links and spam (I cannot recommend those).
Article submission and directories are not my favorite activity and I do not believe in it - however there is ample evidence that sheer quantities can win.
The answer I gave you is simplified as I have not analysed your and your competitor's links in details (anchor text, authority, numbers, velocity...etc).
-
I agree is not spam(Directory submissions)- and the cost is real - i made a list with url and cost per submissions and i'm getting close to 2k so far.
-
Directory submissions are not black hat... and they needn't cost you anywhere near that. There's a bunch of good directories out there, free ones that are fairly decent too. The only ones you should pay for in my opinion are BOTW, Yahoo Dir, and JoeAnt. But I wouldn't even bother with them, I never do... just go for some very relevant free ones that aren't spammy
What did you do for your link bait, and how did you promote it?
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
-
Any white label link building providers like Audience Bloom?
Have used the services of Audience Bloom and do think they are great in being able to provide white label link building services: http://www.audiencebloom.com/services/link-building/white-label-link-building-services-for-agencies/ They are quite expensive though and so we are wondering if any one can help to provide other similar and credible companies like them that offer white label link building but at a lower cost. We would appreciate the advice here of anyone that is unbiased and unaffiliated in providing an credible recommendations. Thanks so much!
Link Building | | Gavo0 -
Have any suggestions for next steps in link building campaign?
We are conducting SEO and white-hat link building campaign for a client that is in the national (US) fertility/infertility niche. So far we've done outreach to potential websites that we found to be a good fit for the campaign, although the conversion rate for getting Guest Posts, even Sponsored Posts is quite low. Furthermore, the number of these potential websites is close to running out and it's getting harder to find other websites with relevant metrics that are outreach-worthy. Besides Guest Post/Sponsored Post outreach, we've done Link Reclamation, Resource Links and Broken Link Building. Also, we tried expanding the list of keywords to try and come up with some new leads (in sub-niches) but haven't had much success. One peculiar thing that is happening when we do start a communication with the blog/website owners is that they get interested in the topic at first, up to the point of asking us to send them a Guest Post article and then.. silence, no response from them. We do a couple of follow-ups, but in most cases we don't hear back from them. We realize that there could be some editorial changes that they might want to be done, which we would be willing to do, but they just simply do not respond at all. When talking to other people in the SEO business we get different opinions on how to proceed, ranging from creation of web 2.0 properties and linking them up with video content and the client website, to even creating SEO link wheels. We are quite committed to our client and would love to get their site ranking, but we're reluctant to use tactics that might yield only short term results and might end up hurting the rankings on the long run. Other part of our strategy is creating quality content on our client's blog (within their website) and doing outreach to bloggers to get them interested in the topics that we are covering. So far these efforts have also not been very successful. Basically, my question is when you are doing a link building campaign for a client, what is your next strategy when the link opportunities run out?
Link Building | | Ullamalm0 -
Building Links for an E-Waste Recycling Business
Hi everyone. I was wondering how I could build a solid link profile for an e-waste recycling business. Should I try to get links from local government bodies, the better business bureau, and the chamber of commerce? How have people done this before? I must also note that my business doesn't have a physical location per se in every city, but will travel to a client instead. Thanks!
Link Building | | Charles_Murdock0 -
When pitching a whitepaper as Push Content for Link Building, is it ok to give the person I'm pitching a link to a landing page with a form on it?
When pitching a whitepaper as Push Content for Link Building (i.e. pushing out content that my client has created), is it ok to give the person I'm pitching a link to a landing page with a form on it? Or should I create a landing page with the whitepaper included on it? I’m not sure if the client will be ok with this b/c I know they use the whitepaper for sales purposes to gain leads. For example, my pitch email would include a line such as this, "the whitepaper can be found at LINK and I'd love if you could share it with your readers." I think it may be weird/a little wrong to ask a webmaster to include a link on his site to a landing page with a form to get the whitepaper. Does this make sense? What have others done with whitepapers as Push Content for link building?
Link Building | | ArketiGroup1 -
How does social bookmarking help in link building?
How can I use social link building to my advantage, and how long does the link exist?
Link Building | | pulseseo0 -
Link building plan
If you have only one SEO guy doing link building for you, 6-8 hours a day,with a budget of $1000 -$2000 what would be the best 5 things to concentrate on?
Link Building | | echo1
Based on personal experience, could anybody suggest a daily/weekly plan?0