competitor with lots of unusual links

culvers · 10-12-2009, 09:53 AM

I have just been looking at a potential rivals site, its very poor quality and im convinced i can do better than it content wise. Its coming in as result number 2 on google, i did a quick search with the site in google, and found 192,000 links to this site from other sites. I looked at a wide sample of them, and found that 99.99% of them were those crappy parked domain advert pages, displaying links to this page and many others in similar niches.

What exactly has my potential competitor done to achieve this, is it sustainable and helping his google rankings, and would good application of seo principles and good content be enough to oust him from the number 2 spot? (number 1 spot is a different story)

It seems to me that he has gained a large advantage from doing this and i cant see what else can be keeping him at the number 2 spot (he did have some forum posts, blog comments, articles etc with his link in them, but not that many)

Can you enlighten me as to the details as to what exactly is going on here?

Cheers

turbohips · 10-12-2009, 10:41 AM

This proves my point I was making in other posts. Crap links still works. I also have a competitor who has 40k crap links with maybe 100 high PR links. He still is ranking higher than me even though I have many all high PR links. They most likely out sourced an India based link farm company to get those links.

culvers · 10-12-2009, 10:46 AM

Thanks for the reply - the guy is based in thailand. Only about 150 of the links are from other 'real' websites, the rest are just on domain names with ad pages and nothing else.

So are these links allowed by google? Why hasnt he been removed from the search listings for employing these tactics? It really sucks, since his website is really poor, but he is obviously getting a lot of traffic from his tactics...

Joeuspe · 11-26-2009, 02:57 PM

My guess is that your competitor is doing article marketing and the crappy parked pages are using his articles. This happened to me unwillingly. I just found a whole bunch of links to my site from those crappy parked pages that are using my article from Ezine... I don't think it helped though, because my rankings dropped just after I discovered this...

InternetMarketingIQ · 11-26-2009, 03:13 PM

Apparently they know something you don't. It's not about what you think... it's about what you can do. And obviously they are doing it.

I think Walmart sells a lot of crap and I hate their stores... but they are making billions. So if you base your marketing on what you want, you lose. It's always about the customer.

cagliostro · 11-26-2009, 03:31 PM

All i can say is that the #3 in my niche is such a crap website. Nothing but crap links. Still is it number 3 in google searches and i just don't understand how this can be.

Apparently it can. And it is still there after 4 years.

Davioli · 11-28-2009, 05:44 AM

Sooner or later your competitor will either get sandboxed or deindexed totally. I saw this happen to a website which employed this in March and eventually got deindexed in October. Google sometimes takes time to figure it out ..but when it does..you're gone!

bmoney76 · 11-28-2009, 09:37 AM

You have to remember that what you think is a crap site isn't necessarily what others think. If the site is giving visitors what they are looking for then they will likely keep their rankings. The search engines are getting smarter in determining how users interact with a site.

10-12-2009, 09:53 AM	#1
culvers Active Warrior Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 89 Thanks: 10 Thanked 23 Times in 9 Posts	competitor with lots of unusual links - what have they done? I have just been looking at a potential rivals site, its very poor quality and im convinced i can do better than it content wise. Its coming in as result number 2 on google, i did a quick search with the site in google, and found 192,000 links to this site from other sites. I looked at a wide sample of them, and found that 99.99% of them were those crappy parked domain advert pages, displaying links to this page and many others in similar niches. What exactly has my potential competitor done to achieve this, is it sustainable and helping his google rankings, and would good application of seo principles and good content be enough to oust him from the number 2 spot? (number 1 spot is a different story) It seems to me that he has gained a large advantage from doing this and i cant see what else can be keeping him at the number 2 spot (he did have some forum posts, blog comments, articles etc with his link in them, but not that many) Can you enlighten me as to the details as to what exactly is going on here? Cheers

10-12-2009, 10:41 AM	#2
turbohips HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 358 Thanks: 1 Thanked 34 Times in 22 Posts	Re: competitor with lots of unusual links - what have they done? This proves my point I was making in other posts. Crap links still works. I also have a competitor who has 40k crap links with maybe 100 high PR links. He still is ranking higher than me even though I have many all high PR links. They most likely out sourced an India based link farm company to get those links.
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11-26-2009, 02:57 PM	#4
Joeuspe Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Florida, USA Posts: 20 Thanks: 2 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: competitor with lots of unusual links - what have they done? My guess is that your competitor is doing article marketing and the crappy parked pages are using his articles. This happened to me unwillingly. I just found a whole bunch of links to my site from those crappy parked pages that are using my article from Ezine... I don't think it helped though, because my rankings dropped just after I discovered this...

11-26-2009, 03:13 PM	#5
InternetMarketingIQ Senior Warrior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: US of A Posts: 2,190 Thanks: 47 Thanked 257 Times in 211 Posts	Re: competitor with lots of unusual links - what have they done? Apparently they know something you don't. It's not about what you think... it's about what you can do. And obviously they are doing it. I think Walmart sells a lot of crap and I hate their stores... but they are making billions. So if you base your marketing on what you want, you lose. It's always about the customer.
	Internet Marketing IQ™

11-26-2009, 03:31 PM	#6
cagliostro HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 382 Thanks: 19 Thanked 6 Times in 6 Posts	Re: competitor with lots of unusual links - what have they done? All i can say is that the #3 in my niche is such a crap website. Nothing but crap links. Still is it number 3 in google searches and i just don't understand how this can be. Apparently it can. And it is still there after 4 years.

10-12-2009, 10:46 AM	#3
culvers Active Warrior Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 89 Thanks: 10 Thanked 23 Times in 9 Posts	Re: competitor with lots of unusual links - what have they done? Thanks for the reply - the guy is based in thailand. Only about 150 of the links are from other 'real' websites, the rest are just on domain names with ad pages and nothing else. So are these links allowed by google? Why hasnt he been removed from the search listings for employing these tactics? It really sucks, since his website is really poor, but he is obviously getting a lot of traffic from his tactics...

11-28-2009, 05:44 AM	#7
Davioli HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 402 Thanks: 157 Thanked 47 Times in 36 Posts	Re: competitor with lots of unusual links - what have they done? Sooner or later your competitor will either get sandboxed or deindexed totally. I saw this happen to a website which employed this in March and eventually got deindexed in October. Google sometimes takes time to figure it out ..but when it does..you're gone!

11-28-2009, 09:37 AM	#8
bmoney76 Active Warrior Join Date: May 2007 Location: , , USA. Posts: 59 Thanks: 4 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Re: competitor with lots of unusual links - what have they done? You have to remember that what you think is a crap site isn't necessarily what others think. If the site is giving visitors what they are looking for then they will likely keep their rankings. The search engines are getting smarter in determining how users interact with a site.