SEOmoz's ranking of links on competitor question..

[Boodreaux]

I am Perplexed about SEOmoz crawl for new links on a competitors website.

When I looked at a company who received very high ranks for the links...on SEOMoz...such as. 95, 96, 97 etc.....  I couldn't figure out how they ranked so high.  One company bought 20 links for a couple hundred dollars and all of them were ranked very high on SEOmoz but when I used the page rank tool on them individually they were either "0" or "1" and none were over a 2. I was debating submitting for those since I am just starting out and wanted to get our name listed in the internet world.  Are the high rankings by SEOmoz related to something else?

Would I be better off buying a listing in some of the premium directories instead. Like Yahoo or BBB or Manta.

( After I get my site optimized first)

Thank you,

Greg

[Keszi]

Hi Greg,

My advice would be the following: take 30 minutes brake and watch the following two videos:

1. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/which-link-metrics-should-i-use-part-1-of-2-whiteboard-friday
2. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/which-link-metrics-should-i-use-part-2-of-2-whiteboard-friday

After you are done watching the two WBFs by Rand, you will understand what can cause a big difference between SEOmoz's mR and Google's PR.

I know that the first impression is that this kind of sounds out of topic, but believe me it will help you a lot. (It did help me understand several things).

Good luck!

Istvan

[RobertFisher]

Greg,

So you are looking at competitive sites with links from sites with DA of 95+. Now you are saying one of these competitors bought some links for a couple of hundred dollars and all were highly ranked on moz. (I am assuming you mean DA or PA is that correct?). Now when you went to rank tracker they came out as a one or a two? 
If this is correct, you may be mixing up your software here. Rank tracker showing a one or two, would mean they were ranked on a given keyword term as the first or second page in the SERPs. That would mean what you saw around the PA/DA was correct.

Now, as to directories, I would suggest Yahoo, BBB, Manta, yes. Also, go look at the recommended directories here on moz: http://www.seomoz.org/directories

This list also allows for ratings which I think is indispensable for someone in your situation. Look to see how mozzers have rated the sites/directories.

Excellent on optimizing site first. Now you are going in the correct order.

Hope this helps you out.

[Boodreaux]

Robert,

Not even sure where I saw the 95,96 and 96 rankings on SEOmoz but the list said all the hundreds of links were made in the last day ( I think this was an error) I don't believe it was PA or DA I think it was some other metric but I can't find the page.  Basically I just searched the links on a competitor.  Anyway the PR or Google Page Rank tool I used had the sites on a scale of 1-10 and all 20 sites the competitor bought were ranked 0-1 with only one ranked a 2.  When I saw the 95,96 etc rank by SEOmoz I wanted to purchase the links right away since my competitor did but I thought I would ask questions first on here.

Thanks for your feedback.

Istvan,

I will check out the links....thank you.