Can someone tell me how in the heck this site is ranking?

[MattieMac]

Just saw a huge update on the Serps for "SEO Company" and  "Seo Firm " and this site has tons of big Google no's no's going to it. www.seospecialists.co it has links coming from Porn and Gambling sites. It is heavily over optimized for both keywords.

I won't cry the sky is falling[SEO is broke] but I am curious to know why Google thinks they are worthy to rank that high.

[toddmumford]

Hi Matt,

1. This website shows a total of 3,413 linking root domains in OSE, a DA (domain authority) of 71/100, and a PA (page authority) of 76/100

2. A considerable number of the links pointed at this website utilize exact match or associated / related long term targeted phrases. Many of the links are from client homepages.

3. They link to their homepage extensively in the footer using keywords.

4. They have a lot of content, although I am not a judge of the quality of content they are publishing.

Those 4 factors are enough to rank well, if not at the top, in many niches.

Hope this helps!

Todd
www.seovisions.com

[MattieMac]

On the surface, yes that is true. What I find really interesting is when I put the site on Ahrefs.com it was showing that almost none of their links are site wide, AND in contrast, may of the pages on those sites are showing up to be in fact site wide.

Something is fishy with them. Definitely something black hat is going on with the site.

[toddmumford]

Hi Matt. Possibly something black hat is going on, but from a  pure metrics standpoint alone its possible for this website to rank well in Google.com with those links and factors, in my opinion.

Plenty of SEO companies utilize client footer links to generate positive rankings and are successful at it.

[SoftzSolutions]

_Just because the website has got bunch of spammy links from porn and gambling sites does not necessarily mean that the website will not rank high. Moreover, I personally do not think the people working there would not be that idiot to get link backs from porn sites. Probably, negative SEO could be in the action; you never know. And as it appears, author rank has a role to play here. _

[MattieMac]

But when the links are in the Footer and it says SEO by them I don't think it was an accidental thing

[toddmumford]

Hi Matt, they are far from accidental, but are certainly helping this website in my professional opinion to rank. Especially since many of them are not sitewide and only on the homepage of client sites.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Todd

[SoftzSolutions]

well in that case .. it does not look like accidental at all .. but i wonder why on earth they are doing this.. don't they know that it will backfire their website sooner or later..