Backlinks In Blogs

[TP_Marketing]

Hello!

A direct competitor of my has a ton of backlinks exact anchor text on their inner pages coming from blogger blogs. How can they get away with this? Are they using different C blocks? Or are they paying for these links? The anchor text is Not anywhere in any of the blogs but it the side/bar colomn which follow through the entire site,  so when I analyze the link anchor text OSE show ups several different pages from the same blog.

Any help would be Greatly Appreciated!!!!!

Thanks

[AAttias]

More than likely they're using an SEO company to build links fast. It's common practice among SEO companies to build loads of extra websites to backlink to their clients websites. My company has used an SEO company who operated like this and got us loads of low quality links fast. For example, they set up a blog about book reviews and anchor texted one of our keywords in a review - where it wasn't even relevant, This is the kind of activity the new Google Penguin update is trying to penalise. Don't be surprised if your competitor suddenly drops down the rankings within the coming weeks/months. Focus on getting high quality links, even if it takes longer, it will be worth it in the long run.

[TP_Marketing]

When you are building your links, what and how to you look for them, just using OSE? & try to balance them all?

TY!!

[AAttias]

Well the thing I look for first the PR (page rank). If the site has a PR of less than 3 it is not worth getting a link from - Google can penalise you for having low quality links. However, the most important thing is relevance. Have a look for blogs, news stories and directories where it would be relevant for you to leave a link. You need to think like a reader, and your link has to be of value to the reader. Ask yourself would the reader really get more information on the topic if they clicked on your link.

When I start with a new site I begin by submitting it to directories, SEOmoz have a list of web directories with high PR. Some of them you have to pay for but they are useful. For example, you need to pay for inclusion for Yahoo Directory but it has a PR of 7 so the quality of that link should have a good effect on you. My rankings in Yahoo shot up when I listed in Yahoo Directory.

It is also useful to build social media page with a link to your website as these sites have high PR already.

Other advice would be to set-up Google Alerts for your target keywords and see what news stories are coming in and if you can add a reply. Try and anchor text where possible.

OSE is good for checking your competitors links. However, it will show all their links - good and bad! So you need to be careful not to link on a site that is of low quality. If a competitor that 1000s of backlinks and a low PR, then that says something about the quality of their links.

It also important to note that you shouldn't rush backlinking. If Google sees a rapid increase in your backlinks they could penalise you for spam. As a rule of thumb create a new backlink per unique visitor to your site per month. For example, if your site gets on average 30 unique visitors per month, then create 1 backlink per day.

So basically look at what's being said about your industry online, see if you can add relevant content. Check for the PR, if it's above 3 then ok, below stay away. Add your site to directories. Create social media pages.

[TP_Marketing]

I've added my link to BOTW and Yahoo a few weeks ago, should I continue to add to free directories? If I understand link builiding correctly I have to have a good mix of everything, Currently I do PR's weekly with broad/phrase anchor text also.  If I start submitting my site to directories, would that hurt anything? If google starts to see ALL directory links, should I spread everything evenly?

Thanks so much!!

[AAttias]

By all means keep adding to free directories - the more quality backlinks you can get the better. Plus Google can't really argue with the relevance of a directory backlink because they're relevant to every industry. But as I mentioned before don't add your site to too many directories at once, as Google could see it as spam. My advice would be to create a list of directoties you would like to submit to and make a plan as when you are going to add them. However, it should also be noted that some directories take days, even weeks to process a directory submission. So if you submit a link to a directory today, it might not appear until October.

When you say PR's do you mean press releases? I think you should only write press releases when you actually have some news to get out there. Apparently Google likes press releases for that fact and they have the chance to be linked to many times. So only write them when necessary, otherwise it could look spammy.

[TP_Marketing]

I do them often as news in my industry is announced almost daily. I hope that doesnt cause any issues, so far organic traffic has been really good.

Thank You!!

[AAttias]

If the traffic has been good - then keep doing what you're doing. The only thing here is to be cautious not to link to the same URL over and over - Google will pick up on it sooner or later and may penalise you for it. Try and add a variety of links when you can - easier said than done I know because you don't know what's going to be in the news tomorrow.

[Llanero]

I just came across this and I wanted to let say it is a great answer and thank you