Should I Just Copy A Competitor's Backlinks?

[brianmcc]

Forgive the newbie question, but now that I have found SeoMoz and OpenSiteExplorer, should I just piggy back on my competitors backlinks? What would be the downside?

By way of explanation, I've never had the need to explore SEO before. Our site, Widgets.com has always ranked highly for all Widgets keywords because we have the keyword in our domain and our site has been around since 1998.

But out of the blue this summer, a site, let's call them WidgetsCircus.com suddenly began outranking us on widgets keywords, and pretty much every keyword we can imagine in our little widget universe.

Now that I have run OpenSiteExplorer, I can see how they've done it. They've pretty much spent the last year commenting on blog posts all over the place, editing wiki pages, etc., and built thousands of links for all these widget keywords.

So, I'm wondering: why shouldn't I just go down the list of links and do exactly what they've done? Where they commented on a blog, why don't I just comment right along side them. Obviously, this has worked for them! Wouldn't it work for us too?

Or is that too simple?

[SimonCullum]

Hi Brian

This is an easy question to answer; "absolutely not". Please don't copy them, you'll end up regretting it.

How you've described your competitors' links makes them fall into the 'worthless spam' category; their efforts would have been for little gain, especially any long term gain, plus they've risked getting penalised for link spamming.

Links from blog posts are usually nofollow so will hold zero SEO value, there is only a small percentage of decent blogs out there.

To acquire some links that will actually be of benefit to your website, create some unique relevant interesting valuable Content for your visitors and Distribute this well. In turn, you'll likely be rewarded with some great natural links. Infographics with a text link built in can really help.

I hope this has been of some help to you.

Regards

Simon

[nvs.nim]

When I visit widgets.com the only thing I saw were advertisements... so I thought Content would be your main issue because with only a domain name you're not going to make it to the top of Google search results.

Then I went to your competitors website, but that just gave me an error page... maybe they block European traffic, but I doubt that..

Being a copycat can get you some results... maybe... but commenting on blog posts to get backlinks isn't the best technique to really get quality. If you use open site explorer, try to understand the metrics of a good backlink and only go after those. That's what I recommend, and then go on to build quality links yourselve, and not only on places where your competition is...

[brianmcc]

Widgets.com was a generic example of our site. I didn't mean our site is literally Widgets.com. It was an analogy.

[brianmcc]

I know the usuals about creating valuable content. We've done that. That's how we've gotten where we are.

And actually, I can see in open site explorer which of the links are follow vs. nofollow. That's what I'm saying... they're very, very good at this. They've built literally hundreds of back links on random blogs with open commenting and follow links.

This is exactly the question I'm asking: I KNOW this is spammy link building, but I'm in the position of asking, since I can't beat them, why not join them?

[RyanKent]

The best practice would be to be aware of your competitor's links and look for opportunities. Look for high quality pages where the competitor earned links.

Most blog commenting is very low value from a SEO perspective. If you are an authoritative member of the community which offers the blog, you are one of the first commenters and you share a quality reply with a link then it can have value IF the link is followed and the page is not stuffed with 100 other links. Most blogs which don't nofollow their links have almost no value as they are filled with spam and links.

You are presuming the site's links are the reason why they are outranking you and it is entirely possible the links are not the reason at all. If you would like more detailed feedback please share your site URL, your competitor's URL and a couple sample keywords where you are being outranked.

[brianmcc]

Thanks for the advice. I do have to say, all the spammy blog comment links are surrounded by like 200 others spammy links to other sites. Very rarely are they there all by themselves, except for when they've joined a forum to put a link in their profile page.

You willing to DM? Unsure if I want to publicly share URLs.

[CalgaryRealtor39]

Do you do any guest blogging to obtain links, I have found this to be effective for link building and it has increased my search engine results.

[RyanKent]

I am unsure what DM is, but based on the context I am guessing Private Message? If so you are welcome to do such.

[brianmcc]

Yep. Direct message. I'll send you one now.

[EGOL]

Should I Just Copy A Competitor's Backlinks?

With most competitors this is not possible because:  1) they control the sources of those links, or, 2) those links were awarded on the basis of merit and you probably don't merit.

You rarely win by mimicking a competitor.  You win by doing something superior.

[brianmcc]

Actually, they're pretty easy to copy. Just a bunch of open blog posts and forum profile spam.