LINK STEALING: A Seldom Mentioned Backlink Building Tip.

[orvn]

I always here everyone talking about forum posts, article writing/spinning, blog commentary, etc.
but no one ever advocates link theft.

Sure it may be a little grey hat, but every successful white hat is likely to pick up a stain here and there.

It's easy to steal links from your competitors, best of all, it can save you the trouble of having to search for places to build your links. Best of all, the links are almost always RELEVANT.

(1) Write a list. At the top of the list, include your keywords, then write some keywords that are more powerful than yours. Those with a lot of competition that still relate closely to your niche.

(2) Google each item on your list and note the top three-five pages for each one. You now have a list of competitors.
If you wish, you can rearrange them by those that you think are more relevant. Sometimes the same site will appear multiple times. This is when you know you're facing a tricky competitor.

(3) Check the backlinks (I generally use backlinkwatch) for all the sites. Or maybe just for a few of them to get you started.

(4) Now you have a massive pile of resources from which you can gather backlinks from. You're likely to find some high PR stuff. In my experience, you can just email a lot of these places and they will include your link.
You'll probably also find a whole bunch of relevant blogs, directories and forums that were not known to you.

Steal them.
You now have a MONSTROUSLY LARGE LIST OF LINK BUILDING RESOURCES.
I my experience, this works.

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by orvn

I always here everyone talking about forum posts, article writing/spinning, blog commentary, etc.
but no one ever advocates link theft.

Sure it may be a little grey hat, but every successful white hat is likely to pick up a stain here and there.

It's easy to steal links from your competitors, best of all, it can save you the trouble of having to search for places to build your links. Best of all, the links are almost always RELEVANT.

(1) Write a list. At the top of the list, include your keywords, then write some keywords that are more powerful than yours. Those with a lot of competition that still relate closely to your niche.

(2) Google each item on your list and note the top three-five pages for each one. You now have a list of competitors.
If you wish, you can rearrange them by those that you think are more relevant. Sometimes the same site will appear multiple times. This is when you know you're facing a tricky competitor.

(3) Check the backlinks (I generally use backlinkwatch) for all the sites. Or maybe just for a few of them to get you started.

(4) Now you have a massive pile of resources from which you can gather backlinks from. You're likely to find some high PR stuff. In my experience, you can just email a lot of these places and they will include your link.
You'll probably also find a whole bunch of relevant blogs, directories and forums that were not known to you.

Steal them.
You now have a MONSTROUSLY LARGE LIST OF LINK BUILDING RESOURCES.
I my experience, this works.

Not really stealing. More like just competition analysis. But yes, this is a very good way to find some powerful backlinks.

However, most times, your competitions most powerful backlinks will be of an editorial nature and unattainable.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

Not really stealing. More like just competition analysis. But yes, this is a very good way to find some powerful backlinks.

However, most times, your competitions most powerful backlinks will be of an editorial nature and unattainable.

Yeah I have come across a few of those, but I've also gained a lot of valuable sources that are really very powerful, which I wouldn't have otherwise found.

Yes, competition analysis sounds less criminal!
I really shouldn't make up terminology.

[Rough Outline]

I've never really tried out this technique of reverse engineering competitor's backlinks to use as my own but I'll give it a quick go now.

Especially like the tip to go for sites ranking for highly competitive keywords, such simple advice that had never crossed my mind before.

[yukon]

I always find a never ending supply of high PR backlink sources from searching Google for EMD sites.

Example Google search: "keyword1" "keyword2" site:net

Then check all the backlinks in Yahoo Explorer, download the CSV file & sort by highest PR first, delete all the crappy low PR backlink sources.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by yukon

I always find a never ending supply of high PR backlink sources from searching Google for EMD sites.

Example Google search: "keyword1" "keyword2" site:net

Then check all the backlinks in Yahoo Explorer, download the CSV file & sort by highest PR first, delete all the crappy low PR backlink sources.

Oh right!

[va_mom]

[QUOTE=yukon;2997235]I always find a never ending supply of high PR backlink sources from searching Google for EMD sites.

Example Google search: "keyword1" "keyword2" site:net


I will definitely try this. I would love a 'bottomless' supply of backlinks..

thanks!

[gtk29]

This trick is very good Thanks

[Crew Chief]

Originally Posted by orvn

I always here everyone talking about forum posts, article writing/spinning, blog commentary, etc.
but no one ever advocates link theft...Steal them.

Actually the term is "Reverse Engineering" and there are a number of tools you can utilize to accomplish this in a more automated fashion; the best of which is SEO Spy Glass, IMHO.

Others include: Market Samurai, ScrapeBox, SEO Quake, UBot, Traffic Traffic and SEO Elite. So actually, yes, people have been talking about it, where have you been.

Oh, and the whole idea of calling this a theft is a misnomer. A phrase better suited to describe what is happening would be, "Link duplication."

Giles, the Crew Chief

[orvn]

Yeah, I guess I wasn't paying attention in class again!