Competitor link profile shocking - yet still out ranking!

[TimHolmes]

Howdy fellow Mozzer's,
I have been doing some background seo checking on a competitor in my small "insurance niche" to try and see why they have recently shot up the listings and are now consistently out ranking us.
We have quality content on our site and have always taken an approach of trying to be whiter than white when it comes to developing out SEO plans.

The site in question has recently moved ahead of us (along with some aggregators e.g. confused.com)  possibly due to shifting patterns from possible algorithm changes favouring brand or could it be a case that Google has dropped a ball when it comes to checking back links as the competitors site is 99% linked to link farms, link submission sites, directories and lots of other spammy/poor quality sites.

We do not feel they are doing anything from a content stand to justify their sudden propulsion up the ranks. I am reluctant to pursue dodgy tactics to help get out site back in position as I feel it could then contribute and hurt us down the line.

Does anyone know how I can combat against their poor QUANTITY over QUALITY banklink profile that is surely helping them at the minute?

At a bit of a loss so any help would be greatly appreciated.

aRTu4cT

[Andy.Drinkwater]

There are 3 industries I wont work in. Insurance, finance and automotive, purely because of the amount of dirty tactics that go on. I have found that a lot will undertake tiered link building, networks and other unsavoury tactics in place of being white hat, because they feel they have no option.

In terms of making sure you have something that people really want to link to, you need to create some link-assets. These can be anything that will make people want to link back and can be a study, white-paper, research, tool, informative post or something heavily news-worthy. You then need to look to doing some outreach and contacting sites, journalists, industry bodies, etc, and informing them of what you have to offer (link assets).

Look to the sites you want links from, and then decide the route that is likely to gain you positive attention and links.

-Andy

[aqueous]

Hi Tim,

If you are certain they have been buying links then try this https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/paidlinks?pli=1

The reporting tool puts them on Google's radar and if they have been doing this then they won't last for long.

Jonathan

[TomRayner]

We have to remember that, for all of Google's progress, it is still an algorithm that relies heavily on links and its internal PageRank.

If your site has links from places with a strong PageRank, that is almost "reason enough" for the algorithm to rank your site (in the very most basic terms).

Of course, the greatest advancement Google has made in recent times is teaching its algorithms (and manual quality assessors) to detect manipulative link building.  They're getting faster and better at detecting them.  Rest assured, that site will inevitably be penalised.

In terms of what you can do, look at it objectively: Would you want to beat them at their own game and do this, but have no guarantee that it would work for you and an almost iron guarantee that it will inevitably penalise you? It doesn't make sense to me - so I would keep doing what you're doing and look to earn more links in the way that you have.  You might improve things now, but down the line your site is going to be in altogether much better place.

Keep at it mate - it's frustrating I know, but it'll turn around.

[TimHolmes]

Cheers Andy and Jonathan,
I didn't check to see if they are paid links as yet - but will go have another look for sure.

Andy, I totally agree, despite being as clean as we can be, we do know that many of our competitors can be a little shady when it comes to SEO and we also understand that we cannot really challenge the super huge aggregators for authority, however consider ourselves to one of the best of the rest.

We do try and create great linkable assets, but mainly for peripheral elements associated with us e.g. charity news, product reviews etc I am trying to get more genuine insurance articles on our blog etc - infographics, case studies etc... but finding people that think our content is valuable to both them and their readers is the hardest bit. I think people have certainly become a little numb to direct contact and so the content really has to shine and stand out from the crowd.
Cheers for your help so far.

[TimHolmes]

Cheers Tom,

Have to agree, I want to keep it on the straight and narrow, helping to maintain a site that should be seen as white to the core.

I do hope that the algorithm will be further cleaned up and that we will soon see our site moving back ahead of those employing dodgy tactics for short term gain.
Thanks Tim

[TomRayner]

If it's any consolation, given that you're in the insurance niche, it is one that Google wants to keep a close eye on and keep clean - so chances are action would be quicker than if you were in the dog accessories industry, let's say!

[AlanMosley]

Many times when people say , my competitor has a spammy link profile, it turns out that among all the worthless links are a few really good ones.

If you see they are doing anything wrong report them to google, https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35265?hl=en

[David-Kley]

I have seen similar tactics in the local SEO industry lately, so I share your confusion.

Looking at MOZ's tools, we see that our main competitor has a huge amount of spammy links pointing back to their site. Our backlink profile has been very stringent, only submitting to or accepting higher quality sources. They still out rank us, even tho their content quality score is much lower. I am looking into this now, and will provide an answer or opinion soon.

[MarieHaynes]

I'll add a few of my thoughts as well.  I've seen sites that soar ahead on the power of unnatural links and then when Penguin hits they die out and just start fresh again with a new spammy site.  Google has gotten better at just not counting many types of unnatural links but there are several types that will still work...for now.

Also, you don't know which of their links they have disavowed.  Perhaps they have links from thousands of domains that are really spammy but they've disavowed them and in the midst of those spammy links could be some really good ones.

[TimHolmes]

Very true, I had not considered they may have started to disavow some of the really poor links allowing the quality links to once again shine through...

Edit* : If it is not a case of utilising the Disavow tool, I do hope that any impending Google Algorithm update (which may have been in testing of late) comes along and bite them in the proverbial bottom.

Cheers Marie.

[TimHolmes]

There has been a sudden leap from a couple of sites employing the same tactic. In fact one site I checked also had a very similar backlink profile (possible a sister brand to the one I mentioned in my first post above) and they too have climbed in recent weeks. I will look forward to any further insight you can provide on the matter

Good luck.