Struggling with the principle of backlinks, all i can see for the competition is directories?
-
Hey everyone,
I have been using the open site explorer to check the linking domains/inbound links of competition for window suppliers. I've read that directories generate pretty much no link juice, yet all i can find for pretty much all of the well ranking competition (other than few very major companies) is directory listings. This leaves me wondering whether just submiitting to 5-10 good relevant directories would help tip me above some of the competition...
I've read quite a lot about generating quality backlinks but i still haven't got my head around how to actually do anything myself that would be potentially useful. All i've done so far is post to relevant high authority directories and a couple relevant forums.
I have pretty much £0 budget but a decent amount of time and strong graphic design and animation skills so feel like i can put that to use but again would have no idea what to do even if i created something share worthy. I can't imagine succesfully contacting anyone and getting them to link back to me or share my content..
Thanks for any advice...
-
Katarina shared some good advice.
Remember that the Open Site Explorer, good as it is, can't crawl the entire web, so might not discover every single link for a competitor.
And to displace an established competitor with consistent rankings doesn't mean matching their inbound links - it means exceeding them, as they'll also have the benefit of the domain history, existing traffic etc.
I've done some outreach in the past for a major window supplier in the UK, and if you use your graphics and animation skills in the right way, you should definitely be able to improve your situation. It's just about finding the right angle for the right audiences....
-
Hi there,
First of all, if your competitors have only links from directories, that's perfect for you! You can see they have no proper backlink strategy in place and your options are really open.
When it comes to directories, you are right, they are mostly ignored. I would still recommend you submit your business there as you might be found through their searches. So don't hesitate and list yourself everywhere relevant and make sure you use your details exactly as on your website and there is no discrepancy.
I don't know enough about your business and website, however I would recommend you make sure you have content. Since it's all that counts - amazing content and backlinks. If you neglect one, you might struggle. Keep adding relevant content, maybe blog articles such as case studies, industry facts etc. and share. Infographics can be a very interesting way of how to earn backlinks - you just need to select some interesting data and share - via your own social or getting in touch with third parties. I would prefer publishing infographics on your website and have a code to share. I always prefer activities that give me a bit of PR - so if your content (whether infographics or a guest post) can receive backlinks, get shared and bring relevant traffic, you won!
I don't like backlinks for the sake of having them as many as possible. Make sure you focus on relevancy. I would recommend to create a spreadsheet and search where your relevant traffic might be. Maybe you can team up with an online magazine and offer a competition (details on your site), maybe your customers/suppliers/institutions you are a member of are happy to give you a backlink. Very often they will want something in return, so it's up to you how creative you can be.
Have a look at Google mentions and find out where your business is mentioned. Just get in touch and ask if they could give you a backlink. Can you provide a placement for students, sponsor an event or provide an interesting article to benefit .edu organisations? .edu links are very powerful. Also, don't forget review sites - submit your company for your customers to review to receive a backlink and traffic.
If I were you, I would start here - with a brand new spreadsheet and I would just start generating ideas within your niche. If you get stuck at any point, just let me know! Also, any more questions, I'm happy to answer.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Katarina
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
-
Syntax for canonical tag for a default page in a sub directory (not subdomain) of a web site?
I'm getting two "no canonical tag" errors for the default page of a sub-directory default page (www and root) - again NOT a subdomain. Since the page is not the root of its own site, I tagged it as -- I have tried without the default.asp, but the error remains. Been doing this for 24 years and don't remember running across this before.
Moz Pro | | dcmike0 -
I see some links on Youtube.com that look like they are "Do-follow" links am I wrong?
Hi, I have some videos on YouTube.com and I notice many of the links show as "Do-Follow" per the Moz Bar. I have a feeling they are not actually "Dofollow" links because they never show up in Moz Pro, SemRush or any of my other tools. Can some of you people with greater knowledge of YouTube please clarify why the links look like "Do Follow". I am specifically thinking of my own backlinks on the videos and also the links in the "Comments". Best Regards, Bill Dalessi
Moz Pro | | Dalessi0 -
Need advise/strategy for cleaning up backlinks to my site
I recently redesigned my website (studio35design.com), and with that, I'm finally paying attention to SEO. I used a few different tools to find the amount of backlinking domains I've built up through the 7 or so years. The numbers are the following: 52 Total Backlinking Domains (800+ links):
Moz Pro | | rubennunez
• 17 of those are from blog commenting - they are pretty much all NF
• 20 of those are from sitewide footer credits on websites I've built. They are all old, as I stopped adding sitewide links to my client sites over a year ago.
• 7 of those are from spam. My site was hacked last year which contributed to alot of it. I've since then completely scrapped my old site and built this one on webflow (Not self-hosted like my old WP site).
• The other 10 or so are from forums, and the odd photo credit. As you can tell, almost none of these backlinks links are really any good. I'm surprised that my DA is 27 really. So moving forward, I need to know the best strategy dealing with these "bad" links. For the spam, I'm going to disavow in google webmasters. As for the rest, here are my questions... QUESTION 1:
As for the sitewide links, would the best thing be to remove the link altogether from the footer of each one of those sites? Some I can't because they are really old, and I don't have access to them (I'll probably disavow), but the rest I can still go in and update. QUESTION 2:
Will removing a ton of links at once hurt my DA and my google ranking? I can probably eliminate 500-600 links within a few days just by removing the sitewide links. How quickly can I expect those links to drop off? A few months? QUESTIONS 3:
Should I disavow blog commenting links even though they are NF? Does it matter at all? QUESTION 4:
I noticed 5 or so of the domains I have links one aren't working domains anymore. How quickly can I expect those links to drop off? Thanks in advance for your help.0 -
Do we get "Removal of "nofollow" from first custom URL on profile" when we cross 200 Moz Points? I have not received it yet, anything I can do?
Though I have only recently subscribed to Moz Pro, I have been using Moz Blog for quite some time. I recently crossed 200 Moz Points. As per Moz Points, it says "Removal of "nofollow" from first custom URL on profile" for crossing 200 points. I still dont see any links from Moz when I am using OSE. Can anyone suggest what i need to do?
Moz Pro | | vinodh-spintadigital2 -
How can I download all of my backlinks?
In Opensiteexplorer it shows 16700 backlinks, but as I tryied various ways including advance report, with no filter I am getting only 1000+ links. How can I download all of my 16700 backlinks?
Moz Pro | | KalpeshBPatel750 -
The keyword ranking report takes into account all my website urls? Can I specify the URLs where I want to track the keywords?
I don't know if my weekly reports are reporting the ranking of my keywords correctly. I have added some new keywords, since that all my reports are in red numbers. I don't know if this is happening because I did something wrong, or if is because my rankings are really falling down.
Moz Pro | | hockerty0 -
How to track sub-directories as separate sites
I am tracking a blog for a client thats hosted on a subdomain, we decided to give it it's own SEOMoz campaign. My issue is that when entering competitors, if the competing blog is using a sub-directory, SEO Moz won't let me enter it, only the domain. I would assume that there has to be a way to do this, but I don't see it. I need to be able to track the competing blogs as separate from their root domain. mysite: blog.mysite.com their site: theirsite.com/blog (very different from just theirsite.com) Hopefully someone can tell me what to do here because the metrics are basically useless if I am forced to use only the domain. Thanks so much!
Moz Pro | | Ascedia0 -
Is the Competitive Link Finder having issues?
Hi there, Been trying to use the Competitive Link Finder off-and-on for about an hour now. It keeps telling me it's busy. Is there something known going on right now? And if so, do we know when it comes back? Best Regards, Daniel @ Path Marketing.
Moz Pro | | PathMarketing0