Many competitor's backlinks are in content anchor links. Ho do I get these same links?

[sunilmuse]

Hi I managed to open up OSE. I'm finding that much of the competition's backlinks are in content anchor text links. Am I supposed to get backlinks from these same pages using the same anchor text but linking back to my page or is that allowed? If so, how do I get these in content blog post links? Thanks. Sunil.

[eljetfan]

Are the onpage links from their own domain? You need to change it to where you see where they are getting links from other domains.

You can Select All from (drop down) and you use that dropdown there to select. I don't know the word for it because OSE is loading SUPER slow for me.

[Wayne76]

Hi Sunil,

If I understand you correctly, you're asking "how" to get the same backlinks as those of your competitors? If that's the question, then I'm afraid the answer is there is no sure-fire way to ensure you will ever gain the same links. Link attribution is never a guarantee.

My suggestion would be to approach the webmasters where you see your competitors are receiveing backlinks and offer them a "value-add proposal" that is unique form that of your competitor.

You can also always offer a widget, a partnership proposal, etc. The key is to provide value and personal thought to your link request. Just asking for a link because your competitor has one is not going to likely yield positive results.

A word of caution: make sure your competitors backlinks are coming from good neighborhoods. There are many posts on SEOmoz that speak to this. You don't want to waste your time or effort, or jeopardize your sites performance, by acquiring suspect links.

Link building is tough, but a little creativity and human touch can usually open the lines of communication!

Best of luck,

W

[sunilmuse]

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for your insights! As for offering webmasters an incentive for backlinks, what would be a good offer in terms of widgets, partnership proposals or any other types of value added incentives? Do you have an example message that we could send?

Also, how do we make sure that the competitor's backlinks are coming from good "neighborhoods"? What are the indicators of quality within Open Site Explorer?

Thanks again.

Sunil.

[sunilmuse]

I am also noticing that alot of the content that has competitor's backlinks in it, is generally of a very low quality and sometimes reads as nonsense. Yet, it has a high page or domain authority in Open Site Explorer. How is this allowed and still given high authority?

Here's an example of text for the 2nd highest authority backlink in Open Site Explorer for a competitor's URL which appears at no. 1 on google for my keyword phrase

Competitior's URL: http://www.paintzoomexposed.com/

Backlink URL: http://hughesglobal.com/2011/06 (Page authority:40  Domain authority:41)

The anchor text appears in content as a backlink in the following passage:

"In case you have a reliable belly, then you might want to pick a cottage on the back the main dispatch. These areas could cost paint zoom review a tad bit more, however they are in addition a lot more deluxe as opposed to additional log cabin renatls......"

As you can see it has no relevance and is total nonsense.

Does this mean that backlinks from this page are no good despite the high backlink authority it's given in Open Site Explorer? There are also lots of backlInks and achor text on a wide variety of irrelevant subjects from the backlinking URL.

Should I try to get backlinks on this page or avoid it despite the high authority ratings?

[Marcus_Miller]

The thing is, lots of really crappy techniques like links from really awfully spun articles do work and did so even more historically. That said, it is in no way a reason for you to build these kind of links as the engines are focused on getting this garbage out of the index and you will just end up chasing your tail.

There are a couple of ways to get in content links but the big job is creating the opportunity by building a relationship with the owners of the website.

Try identifying some link candidates, emailing the site owners or maybe following them on twitter and try to get into a position where you could offer some guest content (with a link back of course).

Not easy but take solace in the fact that if your competitors links are garbage, they are easier to beat.

Hope it helps
Marcus