Crazy SEO question (maybe I'm missing something?)
-
OK -
so one of our customers just called us and told us an interesting story:
A local SEO company called her yesterday to try to sell their services to her. She's in the process of starting SEO services with us, so she told them she wasn't interested. The sales guy told her that they were better (without even asking who she was currently using) and asked her for a term that she'd like to rank higher for.
She said she'd like to rank higher for "spray in bedliners northern ky" and he said "Gotcha, call you tomorrow"
He called back just now and told her to look at Google. She's now ranking number one for that term. He didn't have access to her site, so he wasn't able to change anything on her site.
He won't tell her what he did, and told her it was legitimate - but it seems to me that with only off-site tactics, it'd be nearly impossible to white-hat her site to number one overnight...
Any ideas what he's doing? First of all, we want to be able to tell her what he's doing, because she's curious. More importantly, we want to be sure he's not doing anything black-hat that's going to hurt our client's site.
Thanks for your help, Mozzers!
-
Because "spray in bedliners northern ky" is a low competition/no competition term, hence why ranking with offsite can easily be done -
They just provide a huge number of automated links over night from websites like:
http://pezis.com/linexofky.com (for example, guessing this is your client's site)
Tell her to say ok we want to rank for "bedliner" when they call back,
Kind Regards,
James Norquay
-
To echo what the others shared, the results work because of two reasons:
1. The term is a long tail and very specific phrase "spray in bedliners northern ky". It is 5 words and no one else on earth is targeting that phrase in that exact manner.
2. Google loves fresh data and links. It is easy to spam social media or various sites with new links which are given weight today but quickly fall to obscurity tomorrow.
Using Google's Keyword tool you can see there is absolutely no traffic at all for the given phrase. If you want to rank #1 for a keyword that no one searches for, the world will let you. It is pointless.
Try again with the phrase "bed liner". That phrase has over 100k searches a month (compared to zero for the other phrase) and it also has competition.
-
The reason he got her to rank for that keyword very quickly is because there is no search traffic behind the term and no competition. You easily spam a couple hundred blogs/forums.directories/other crap link source with the exact match anchor text and rank pretty comfortably.
Get her to pick a keyword that is searched for and tell them to try again.
-
I looked into a bit and think I found the links on Blekko and IceRocket. several anchor text links. Juice fading fast. I think it started out on PR 7 (PA 89) and it looks like a few PR4 (PA 66) sites. Not sure if the links started on the front pages, but they are not on the front pages now. I will send you the links. Didn't take much for such a specific phrase
-
Check the back links. you should see what they pointed to her site. I doubt they did anything that is repeatable for many keywords. They probably made short article and placed it somewhere with a lot of juice. Great for a demonstration, to valuable/expensive a spot to use for a lot of keywords.
-
To work that fast, I am betting that they have a link from a page with enormous power.... PR8?
Of course, "spray in bedliners northern ky" is a wimpy term to rank for... tell her to call him back and ask for a real money term.
-
Maybe Google have started their own SEO business??
That would be a sure way to wipe out the competition and earn some cash!
Seriously though, unless they have access to some amazing link resources then this has to be black hat doesn't it? unconsenting at that! like you say, if it's dodgy then some serious damage could be made here in the long term.
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's a good way to get started with competitive research?
Hi all, SEO noob here. I'm doing an audit for a firm that makes specialized accounting software. It's a relatively new firm, with a barebones website. My client has identified three direct business competitors. In addition, I see indirect competitors (such as product reviews) on the SERP for a relevant keyword phrase. I want to provide actionable advice for my client. What information should I present? I'd like to help my client understand: Why my client's competitors are outperforming them on the SERPs What my client needs to do to overtake their competitors What information should I present to my client? Thanks, all.
Competitive Research | | AndyKubrin0 -
How to understand if a certain company doing SEO or not?
Hi guys, I am wondering how we can tell that the certain company doing SEO or not?
Competitive Research | | ahmetkul0 -
What is your review of Pushfire (aka Sugarrae's firm)?
Hi guys, I told my extended network that we're hiring an SEO firm to do some white hat SEO auditing, link building, and ongoing seo consultation. Rae Hoffman's firm Pushfire came highly recommended via several sources. They seem to have a good blend of high profile (they speak at all sorts of conferences and write at various prestigious publications) and reasonable pricing. I was wondering what fellow moz members think about this firm. Any reviews or thoughts are welcome!
Competitive Research | | Brand_Psychic0 -
Competitors SERP's
One of our competitors is routinely achieving excellent SERP for brand related keywords within only a couple of months of adding the respective brand to their website. Full details are explained in the attached image to avoid the competitor being notified of this post via Google Alerts. Can anyone identify how they are achieving this and point me in the right direction? The other thing is that I was also achieving good SERPs for these and other brand related keywords but I seem to have dropped off the face of google for them, where my competitor has not and who continues to achieve the seemingly impossible. Thanks TOfVHD8
Competitive Research | | UnderMe0 -
How to top competitor's article
Hello, For bobweikel.com I'm going to work on getting some natural backlinks by making a better article than http://www.medicinenet.com/weight_loss/article.htm even though they're 30 times more of an authority than me. If you think this is a good idea, how do you recommend I top this thing? I'm just brainstorming
Competitive Research | | BobGW0 -
Cognitive seo
What is your experience with congnitiveseo software? thanks
Competitive Research | | maestrosonrisas0 -
Why my site doesn't come on top even though search terms are very similar or exact?
For example, when I search in google for "Kookaburra Pro 600 wheelie kit bag", my site comes 9th on 1st page but 3rd link doesn't even match the exact key word rather it has few of the words. Can one of you expert please explain how it works? Thanks, CricMax
Competitive Research | | cricmax0 -
Sometime I just don't get Google rankings
We currently rate #10 on google.com.au on Modern Cloth Nappies and the #4 site is a dead link to a page http://www.modernclothnappies.org/ who's total content is: Index of / <address>Apache Server at www.modernclothnappies.org Port 80</address> <address></address> <address>They have been at that rank for a quiet a while and even the cached version is full of broken links.</address> <address></address> <address>It seems Google is quick to jump on low value sites or ones with duplicate content, but what about stale links and sites? Has anyone else had similar experiences of being out ranked by domant or dead sites?</address>
Competitive Research | | oznappies0