Poor Link Profiles Out Ranking Whitehat

[Jon_bangonline]

Hi guys / girls,

We have a few clients in some very competitive areas that are struggling to gain the top spots. We have been building some good quality links, relevant directories, quality citations, guest posting from good quality websites, broad anchor texts profiles, really strong social signals, competitor back links lookup etc.

The issue is that nearly all the websites that are out ranking us have really bad links profiles, lots of spammy links, abusing anchor texts etc

So what can you do in this situation. The obvious path is to think, right well lets match them for cr*p links and get some results. However I am more than aware that Googles Algorithm eventually will pick up on this... well at least you hope so.

Its just very frustrating when you're getting your ass kicked by poor link building techniques and you're doing good work.

I am sure other people have come across this, and I was just wondering if there are any bits of advice of how to move past this? Or is it simply a case of keep doing good work and eventually we will get rewarded?

Thanks!

[ZakD]

This post is deleted!

[kellymandingo]

Agree with Zakaria, hang in there, My niche was exactly the same, i tried to compete doing as the bad guys were and got penalised. thankfully im back on track, not where i was but traffic is steady.

If its any consolation I see the the spammy sites come and go, however the white hat sites are still there or about's .

Keep things real and don't cut corners you will get your rewards.

One thing i have noticed as that some sites can get away with a mixed bag of links, but my advice is don't gamble, do it right and reap the rewards

Good Luck

[danatanseo]

I a agree with Zakaria and George. I too am struggling with the same issue. I even private messaged SEOMoz to get their take on my specific situation. Their answer agreed with Zakaria. But believe me, I understand how hard it is to go to a CEO who sees his competitors outrank his site and convince him that you just need to keep exactly what you are doing. I think you are definitely on the right track by going after your Toyota niche. Sometimes the problem when trying to explain to a CEO or Marketing Director that you are doing the right thing is because they are hung up on "vanity" keywords. What I mean by that is keywords that they want to rank for but probably the site really shouldn't rank highly for based on content and competition. As you mentioned, your competitor's site has a broader scope, meaning they will have a better chance at ranking for broader, and perhaps more competitive keywords. However, by going after "Toyota" you probably have a better shot at actually increasing revenue than you would if you spent a lot of time, money and energy chasing those harder keywords.

Good luck Jon. I feel your pain!

Dana