Link building strategy - black hat or white hat?
-
I have a competitor who always ranks very on alot keywords relevant to our business and using Open Site Explorer I note they have a tremendous amount of links. I also noticed that it appears their web company has gone out and set up numerous websites with relevant content, and then have linked back to the competitors main site. Is this kosher? I ask because before I settled on my current domain name, I purchased several keyword rich domain names; should I be thinking of setting up websites with relevant (and original) content and link back to my main site?
-
We've seen a great potential here with some of our projects' competitors and are also thinking that there's a point to go for this strategy ... as long as you're not promoting one site that then links to your main site, but use your satellite sites to promote the main site, I believe there's a good potential.
-
I would agree but I'd add a limit to how many satellite sites you create. Google is a registrar and they could possibly find out about these sites. So don't use this as your main link strategy by any means. We usually create 4-5 satellite sites (wordpress blogs) and do what the above poster suggested.
-
That depends on your time and resources to build and market them - better to go with a solid single one then 10 weak ones.
Best scenario is 10+ solid ones
-
great advice, how many satellite sites would you recommend?
10 or so?
-
Thanks everyone for the answers; they were all extremely helpful.
-
Its all natural to me, I think that a white hat, gray hat or black hat depends on the intention of the webmaster. If those micro sites don't encroach on any google guidelines then it is okay. ^_^
-
Not black hat, but on the other hand, perhaps not worth it - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-the-microsite-mistake
But if you go for it, then eyepaq has a lot of good advice.
-
I am doing the same thing for several projects. If done with extra care there is nothing wrong with it.
There is no black and white hat seo - there are no clear rules - we're all cowboys.
There is nothing white with anything we do - [natural links] is ... white - and that is not sustained by anyone - it's just natural - it happens. If you have the best site ever you don't need SEO to improve the traffic and make it look natural as you force it
If you have good domains you can build quality content sites and use a solid and not aggressive link building techniques to your main site. You must however host those satellite domains on different hosting accounts (different IPs).
In my opinion this strategy works and works great. It will give you more options in the Search results, options that you can control and it will rise your main domain because of the links that will point to this domain.
However is time consuming as you need to do SEO sessions for each satellite but is worth it, especially if you have great domain names for those satellites websites.
There are a few things you should consider (again, this is just a suggestion):
1. Don't host the satellites on the same IP class.
2. Don't use one page / Landing page and link to your main domain.
3. Treat them as independent projects with separate accounts on Social networks, blogs, submit articles to digg or whatever in each site name.
4. Build links to those satellites - you can risk some shady techniques as the risk is not as high as with the main brand.
5. Don't place junk or duplicate content but if you do make sure it's from your competitor as maybe you will outrank them in the future - just kidding on the last part... or not ?
I don't think this technique can be called spam if you do build good content sites on those satellites and use the juice to boost your main brand.
-
I would certainly rate this strategy as grey if not black and avoid it. This is one of the area in search marketing where lot of sites tend to get away with but may soon face consequences. SEO / Link building companies mainly located overseas rely on this technique heavily.
It is definitely painful and unfair when a competitor with spam links ranks well for highly competitive keywords set while a professional SEO spends months working hard playing the clean game. However, the reward from white hat is unmatched.
One last thing that I would like to point out is links from website hosted on the same IP blocks are less valuable links from different IP blocks. This is same as the domain diversity concept.
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
-
Anchor text and internal link building very fast
Hey guys, I just posted an article about "Customer Success". After that, I searched in my blog all the articles that contains that keyword and then linked to this new article I want to rank. Is this a bad thing to do, linking all these articles (12) in a row? Also, is it a bad thing to use "Customer Success" as the anchor text for all the articles linking to this new article? I looked for this topic but couldn´t find any. Thanks
Link Building | | amirfariabr0 -
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 -
Links Building from contractors on eLance.com
Hi, I never hire somebody to create link building to point to our sites. On eLance.com you can hire a SEO contractor to build link our your domaine. New to SEO, is worth it to do so? Is there things I should should be careful about? Things I need to clarify before hiring somebody? Things I need to confirm or ask before hiring such contractors? Most of those ''SEO Expert'' are from India and some have perfect ratings on this site. I have 2 eCommerce sites and we only have a average of 3 sales a day. I can't afford price companies are asking in North America. For a lot less, eLance maybe the solution for our home base business. What is your advice on this? Thank you BigBlaze
Link Building | | BigBlaze2051 -
Think I'm ready to do some link building. Couple questions.
Getting ready to do some link building. I've got several lists of competitors' links, including a bunch of sites with broken links that would be a great fit to link to us. I've got a capable VA to get started work on reaching out to people. Just curious if this is the right game plan, seems a little simple: For this round of link building I'm thinking all the links would point to my root domain. -Find quality sites/links to go after -Find an email to the owner/webmaster -Have the VA send them a value proposition email(i.e. why it's good fit for all)...or tell them about broken links etc. -Follow up myself when a response is generated. -Hope/verify they link to us. Thanks for the help with the newbie questions.
Link Building | | astahl110 -
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 -
Can someone recommend a proven link building company?
Hi there. Can someone please recommend a link building company? Can somebody recommend a tried and trusted linking building company that they have used and have really good results from? There are so many link builidng companies out there all promising they can deliver X,Y AND Z! Please help if anyone can recommend a company has am going roun in cricles! Thanks guys Gareth
Link Building | | GAZ090 -
Link Building - Goals and Expectations
I'm trying to set concrete goals around link building and I'm wondering if anyone has any insight on what is reasonable to expect. If we are reaching out to 10 sites a day in a non-spammy, relevant way, is it reasonable to think that we'll get 5 links back, 2 links? I just don't know. Tips and tricks are welcome too!!
Link Building | | ehorndahl0 -
To hire a link building company.... or not?
I am doing a lot of the niche partnership link building but I am looking for a company to compliment some of my work in other related areas. Need some advice from the group. A couple of questions: 1. I'm looking for a company to acquire around 20-30 links per month. Not talking about easy directories or social links, but good (PR 3+) sites that are somewhat related to my business. Is that a reasonable request? 2. What should I expect to pay for this each month? 3. Any good suggestions on companies in the US. I am a small startup with a fairly limited budget, at least for now? Thanks everyone!
Link Building | | paddlej0