Link Building Question

[allyteal]

Hello,

Here is my situation - i'm number 10 for a moderate keyword and i want to rank higher .

Using the Open Site Explorer i studied the links of 12 competitors and noticed the following :

There are only 2 sites that are doing 100% white hat - one of them is on first page only because has a big,big domain autority, the other because is a brand name.

The rest of my competitors are on first page using  directory submissions (i discovered 200+ directories - and not counting those that are not indexed.), buying links (for ex check these 2 :http://www.dentistsburbank.com/links , http://www.dentistinaustin.com/links/ - there are 50+ more sites like this), spam forums and article submissions.

For my site i tried to get only quality links, tried link bait, quality articles - etc(and this for more that 18 months). Unfortunately it seems that my efforts are not enough(seems that links from military.com are not enough to beat 200 low quality directories) and i want to ask the community what should i do.

Shall i invest in directory submissions (it will cost around $1500) ? If not in directories in what shall i invest the money ? Are there any companies able to create successful link baits ?

Shall i report the paid links hoping that Google will take action ?

Any other ideas

[SteveOllington]

Directory submissions are not black hat... and they needn't cost you anywhere near that. There's a bunch of good directories out there, free ones that are fairly decent too. The only ones you should pay for in my opinion are BOTW, Yahoo Dir, and JoeAnt. But I wouldn't even bother with them, I never do... just go for some very relevant free ones that aren't spammy

What did you do for your link bait, and how did you promote it?

[allyteal]

I agree is not spam(Directory submissions)- and the cost is real - i made a list with url and cost per submissions and i'm getting close to 2k so far.

[Dan-Petrovic]

If your competition is getting quantities of links and beating you while your your best content effort cannot level up... that might be what you need to do - get as many new c-block links using all means possible apart from buying links and spam (I cannot recommend those).

Article submission and directories are not my favorite activity and I do not believe in it - however there is ample evidence that sheer quantities can win.

The answer I gave you is simplified as I have not analysed your and your competitor's links in details (anchor text, authority, numbers, velocity...etc).

[SteveOllington]

Yeah I think you might be looking to hard at directories if the cost is that high... I wouldn't spend half that on them myself. You'll probably find that most of those directories aren't worth the dosh.

[EGOL]

The question that I always ask when a local service or retail site is involved is.... have you gotten all of the local and industry links that are available?

These include:

-- chamber of commerce and local service organizations (membership in these can be valuable for business reasons but their website often has a link to their members)

-- local business listings

-- your landlord's website

-- websites of your suppliers and service providers (do a testimonial for them)

-- trade associations for your industry (write an article for them)

-- med schools, law schools etc. often links to websites successful graduates

-- local charities often link to companies who support them (friends of the library, habitat, religious groups, little league boosters)

-- local business initiatives (tourism association, "buy local", downtown merchant association)

-- local online newspaper (advertise, write an article or column)

-- trade association publications (advertise, write an article or column)

-- local and state license boards

Go out searching for local  websites.  Although they might not be "dental" sites they are often very relevant for the name of your community.  You can also draw up a charitable organization budget that will support your business in other ways.

Lots of people are amazed when they learn how many local links are possible.

[Dan-Petrovic]

Good point and absolutely a must, though once you exhaust all that and have already a good content strategy and your competitors are still kicking your butt - what then?

Internally we go technical, big backlink profile analysis, do the maths and go hard and creative on links. It's kind of like brute force in some respect however within 2-3 months you're going up after many months of stagnation.

I see this all the time in highly competitive industries (e.g. insurance, flights...etc).

There have been cases though where we have seen quality beat quantities (in extreme differences)... still a bit of a mystery to me if I am to be completely honest.

[ProdoDigital]

I agree, directory submissions should cost no where near that, and the effort and cost far outway the benifits IMHO. Anyway, just a thought on the paid directories you mention - costs can be cut further if you do go down this route by applying to become an editor of a directoy such as Joeant , if accepeted, you can then get a free listing!

[allyteal]

Yes probably i need to get quantity  and match them on number of c blocks (the only metric i;m behind)

[allyteal]

What about reporting the "black links" - did anyone had success doing that ?