My Competition is in Tears: forum/blog links simply don't compete.

[orvn]

I feel pretty good about myself this week.

One of my SEO clients (an online retail vendor) got a phone call (not even an email, a phone call) from his competition's marketing crew saying that "his black hat marketing strategy has been reported to Google" and that what he's doing is unethical..

Naturally he gave me a call, in a frantic panic that something terrible was going to happen. I calmly explained that I've used clean strategy to rank him, and they're just upset because they can't seem to figure out how I do it.

He provided me with the caller ID and- thanks to a Google search with operators- I found the marketing company and the website in question.

They've built tens-of-thousands of those typical profile and blog links and I'm out-ranking them with less than 50 quality links.

Every now and again I outsource a few spam links myself (for many reasons, one of which is making my strategies less discoverable), but you've got to understand that these forum/blog/profile links you guys are building just aren't that powerful.

Sure, they'll help your rank.

But if this is your strategy you better be sure you're targeting long-tails with low competition.

This thread is just a reminder: take the time to find quality links or get a spanking in your ranking.

[Rough Outline]

Great post. Where do you find your quality links?

[paulgl]

I've been preaching that here for years.

Get a handful of high PR, authoritative links.

I detest the ridiculous posts who give a brazilian blogs or forums to
spam, er...join. Complete waste of time.

Don't get me wrong. I use forums and comment on blogs. But I do
so on ones I'm active on. I could count them on two hands.

Just peruse this forum. "Here's my list of 10,000 DOFOLLOW forums
to get a profile on..."

Complete nonsense. But then you look at the the people thanking them...

Then look at who comes here and talks about penalty, sandbox, or some
other such BS...the same friggin' people.

It's just a cycle. The masses come in, waste time, complain, depart, and
make room for the next pack.

You'll probably get some saying how stupid you are and you just don't
know anything.

Well, stupid is as stupid does.

"Gee... I have a zillion links and #1 only has 20. boo-hoo! How is this possible??"

Idiotic threads...

Now I don't necessarily agree you get some penalty for doing such links. They
are just very, very low-life links. Not helping is not the same as hurting.

Paul

[nicktyler]

So they were claimimg that because you were outranking them with fewer links that you must be using some dodgey black hat witchcraft???

The fact that they rang up and moaned about it to your client speaks volumes about them. Reminds me of the old playground saying "if you dont share i'm telling teacher on you!!"

[AnniePot]

I am EXTREMELY impatient when it comes to backlinking. I have to concentrate on a few top quality backlinks that will produce great 'bang for the buck' or I have a tendency to move on to something else. Quality over quantity any time.

[Taruru]

great post this one... think i may have been getting it wrong.

[Rollmodl]

Quality over quantity .

[orvn]

Originally Posted by Rough Outline

Great post. Where do you find your quality links?

Well, I have a number of decent strategies I use today, but probably the real turn around for me was about 6 months ago, when I began properly analyzing my competition.

Study your competition. And not just for your keyword, look at more competitive keywords. If you're trying to rank for "post recession debt consolidation tips", look at the keyword "debt consolidation". Examine who's ranking. Can you use any of the same links as them? I'll bet you can.

Originally Posted by paulgl

I've been preaching that here for years.
...
It's just a cycle. The masses come in, waste time, complain, depart, and
make room for the next pack.
...
"Gee... I have a zillion links and #1 only has 20. boo-hoo! How is this possible??"
Paul

Hey Paul, thanks for your help and tips this past year.

You, Yukon, Dburk and a few others were instrumental in guiding my increasing comprehension of all things search.

It took a little while before I figured out who to listen to in the cluttered mass of ambiguous and downright incorrect threads in this subforum, but I've been achieving quite a bit of success this last little while.

I'm glad I picked WF as my learning ground and stuck to it.

Originally Posted by nicktyler

So they were claimimg that because you were outranking them with fewer links that you must be using some dodgey black hat witchcraft???

The fact that they rang up and moaned about it to your client speaks volumes about them. Reminds me of the old playground saying "if you dont share i'm telling teacher on you!!"

I know, right! Based on what my client described, the guy sounded like he was just having a rough day and seemed easily agitated and hostile.

I sent them an email with a link to this thread (call me cocky for sharing strategy with the competition, but I'm sure that they still won't outrank me).

[dburk]

Hi Orun,

Congrats on your success!

It's always nice to hear that someone actually took advice and benefited.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by orvn

I sent them an email with a link to this thread (call me cocky for sharing strategy with the competition, but I'm sure that they still won't outrank me).

Lol

Good job sticking to the authority links. I learned my lesson a while back, the profiles won't hurt, it just takes a lot more to equal a single authority link.

I was going to suggest you leave a comment in your source code for your competition, lmao! I've done that before just to get the competition all riled up.

<!-- www . competition-domain . com eat my dust 8P -->

[Rough Outline]

Originally Posted by orvn

Well, I have a number of decent strategies I use today, but probably the real turn around for me was about 6 months ago, when I began properly analyzing my competition.

Study your competition. And not just for your keyword, look at more competitive keywords. If you're trying to rank for "post recession debt consolidation tips", look at the keyword "debt consolidation". Examine who's ranking. Can you use any of the same links as them? I'll bet you can.

I have been trying to reverse engineer competitors but most of their high PR backlinks are from pretty much unattainable sources. They also leave blog comments, with most of those blog comments being no-follow.

It's really tricky to find links they use that I can put my link in as well.

[GeorgR.]

You KNOW you made it in SEO if the competition calls you and cries.... lol that made me laugh

[drvosjeca]

Originally Posted by paulgl

I've been preaching that here for years.

Get a handful of high PR, authoritative links.

I detest the ridiculous posts who give a brazilian blogs or forums to
spam, er...join. Complete waste of time.

Don't get me wrong. I use forums and comment on blogs. But I do
so on ones I'm active on. I could count them on two hands.

Just peruse this forum. "Here's my list of 10,000 DOFOLLOW forums
to get a profile on..."

Complete nonsense. But then you look at the the people thanking them...

Then look at who comes here and talks about penalty, sandbox, or some
other such BS...the same friggin' people.

It's just a cycle. The masses come in, waste time, complain, depart, and
make room for the next pack.

You'll probably get some saying how stupid you are and you just don't
know anything.

Well, stupid is as stupid does.

"Gee... I have a zillion links and #1 only has 20. boo-hoo! How is this possible??"

Idiotic threads...

Now I don't necessarily agree you get some penalty for doing such links. They
are just very, very low-life links. Not helping is not the same as hurting.

Paul

BRAVO MAESTRO...
I dont know why all i see here on forum is some XXXK numbers. Why would i bother to to so much when it can be done with less?

My backlinking method is next:

1. Get some high PR backlinks
2. Article submission to 3 directories (ezine, goArticles, articlebase)
3. Posting on HubPages and Squidoo
4. Bookmarking
5. Here and there few comments, to make it more mixed up (i choose blogs which are not overspamed)

That is all i do and get great results. It is true that it takes little bit longer to rank high, but it is lasting longer.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by Rough Outline

I have been trying to reverse engineer competitors but most of their high PR backlinks are from pretty much unattainable sources. They also leave blog comments, with most of those blog comments being no-follow.

It's really tricky to find links they use that I can put my link in as well.

I do know what you mean. I have to ask though, do you find yourself emailing webmasters a lot? That's what gets me the most results. Usually ends in a guest-blog sort of thing.

Lately, I've adopted a slightly different strategy for hard-to-get links that I REALLY REALLY want. It's a more personable approach that I read on SEOmoz. More effort required though, so make sure the link is worth it!
Head Smacking Tip #20: Don't Ask Sites for Links. Find People and Connect. | SEOmoz

Originally Posted by drvosjeca

BRAVO MAESTRO...
I dont know why all i see here on forum is some XXXK numbers. Why would i bother to to so much when it can be done with less?

My backlinking method is next:

1. Get some high PR backlinks
2. Article submission to 3 directories (ezine, goArticles, articlebase)
3. Posting on HubPages and Squidoo
4. Bookmarking
5. Here and there few comments, to make it more mixed up (i choose blogs which are not overspamed)

That is all i do and get great results. It is true that it takes little bit longer to rank high, but it is lasting longer.

Have you heard of Google's Knol?
I've gotten some very pretty links from there (but you have to write quality stuff).

Knol - a unit of knowledge: share what you know, publish your expertise.

[App Developers]

Wow! that is GREAT NEWS! Thanks for sharing your success but also your tips!!
Yukon what a freaking GREAT idea about the source code!!! I love the way you think.
Congrats and keep on ranking! Hope to hear more from you with more great tips and your rise to the top over and over again!

[drvosjeca]

Originally Posted by orvn

Have you heard of Google's Knol?
I've gotten some very pretty links from there (but you have to write quality stuff).

Knol - a unit of knowledge: share what you know, publish your expertise.

Thanks for this one man, i totaly forgot about it...
It is great place for exposure

[dirtyhair]

i 100% agree, i have bought a profile "pyramid" just once and laughed and how crap those links are

[Rank Higher Make Money]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

You KNOW you made it in SEO if the competition calls you and cries

Haha - Amen!

[jameskahon]

It looks like that's a very competitive niche you succeed on. Right now, my strategies are all from forums/blogs and profile links and I thank that I don't get into trouble yet I'm still ranking high for my keywords.

Thanks for the advice though. I'll consider this.

[milton11011]

good work man. im trying to find some more quality links, but its tough.

[Derek S]

Atta boy! When you start taking rankings away from websites in extremely competitive niches you can start expecting DEATH THREATS! No joke, I have heard this commonly happens.

Yeah I found dummy linking is key to keeping your rankings. My competitors spend MONTHS going out and trying to get my high rankings sites links from sites I used JUST to toss them off my trail haha!

You focus only on clients? I find it is much more lucrative to place my attention on ranking my own niche sites. I work with maybe 3 SEO clients a year and if they don't pay me some serious cheddar I wont even consider working them them.

[Karen Barr]

Originally Posted by drvosjeca

My backlinking method is next:

1. Get some high PR backlinks
2. Article submission to 3 directories (ezine, goArticles, articlebase)
3. Posting on HubPages and Squidoo
4. Bookmarking
5. Here and there few comments, to make it more mixed up (i choose blogs which are not overspamed)

That is all i do and get great results. It is true that it takes little bit longer to rank high, but it is lasting longer.

Thanks for this, it's really useful. Can you share how many backlinks you would try to acquire in point 1? I need to improve my backlinking strategy and I would like to know if I'm shooting for 10, 25, 100, or what.

[drvosjeca]

Originally Posted by Karen Barr

Thanks for this, it's really useful. Can you share how many backlinks you would try to acquire in point 1? I need to improve my backlinking strategy and I would like to know if I'm shooting for 10, 25, 100, or what.

Sorry but i can't give you some number becouse it deppends how strong is your competition.
In Some cases you will need 20 high quality backlinks to outrank competition, in other cases you will need 100 or more.

But no mather what is the case in the end you will be happy person, becouse you will use such a small amount of backlinks and will outrank those with xxxxxx numbers of links.

I dont undarstend why all people is in such a hurry creating numerouse backlinks?!
This is not bringing longterm success.
Why do i need to be #1 in a week?
This doing is sure raising a flag in big G eyes. You should make it look natural as possible to last. For me great deal is if i get to top five spot in 3 months. Why? Becouse i know that i will stay there and big G wont cancle me over the night.
Do it slowley and make it last!

this is just my 5 cents

[FrFai]

Nice post mate. I have been eying on Authority Backlinks now as it Matters a lot. I was creating forum profile backlinks like crazy because I was always in a hurry to get backlinks.

Have 1 question, do u consider web 2.0 links as authority links ?? and what about High PR blog comments with low OBL ??

[gearmonkey]

What happens when my competition has 32 backlinks that are all spam? Should I use the same spam tactics? I can recreate what he did manually, but it's spam...

If I can get his position, I'd get his get 3,300 unique visitors per day,right?

[LemonSqueezy]

Congrats on the success, I found out my secret to getting great page rankings a few months ago. It is amazing what a good strategy can do over a shotgun hodge podge approach

[drvosjeca]

Originally Posted by FrFai

Nice post mate. I have been eying on Authority Backlinks now as it Matters a lot. I was creating forum profile backlinks like crazy because I was always in a hurry to get backlinks.

Have 1 question, do u consider web 2.0 links as authority links ?? and what about High PR blog comments with low OBL ??

Dont hurry with backlinks...
It is better to get small amount of HQ then getting tons of low value links.
I dont even ping my links, i just let them drip slowly, this will give you some steady constant.

About web2.0 links... YES they can be authority, like in case when there is some "old" blog with tons of original content which is interesting and great value to readers.
Blog comments are ok if it is not over spamed, but dont stick up just to commenting. More you mix it up, more you get

[drvosjeca]

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

What happens when my competition has 32 backlinks that are all spam? Should I use the same spam tactics? I can recreate what he did manually, but it's spam...

If I can get his position, I'd get his get 3,300 unique visitors per day,right?

No man, dont use same tactics. Spam is not going to bring you any good in longterm success. Look for other, more quality way

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by orvn

Hey Paul, thanks for your help and tips this past year.

You, Yukon, Dburk and a few others were instrumental in guiding my increasing comprehension of all things search.

It took a little while before I figured out who to listen to in the cluttered mass of ambiguous and downright incorrect threads in this subforum,.

few others eh? Cough cough um.... What happened to me bro. Wheres my mention ? I mean how many times have you seen me blasted by the profile masters for daring to say they are very very weak. Some epic threads on the subject. They've even posted things about me on other forums because I've been stating loudly that those links have lost their luster.

Shucks when I see a site ranking with those links I can just stop my competitive research go back to the client and say

"Its in the bag we can rank for that one easily."

I got to laugh and shake my head sometimes. I get my head bit off when I object to People pushing that nearly two hundred dollars a month senukeX profile capability junk.

nearly $2400 dollars a year and they could be getting link opportunities to rank multiple sites with real authority but no tell them to look for quality and they get all upset.

[paulgl]

Yeah, Mike. I owe you big time. Fraggler, GeorgeR, Yukon, and bunch of others.
I'll even give a shout out to Mike Grant!

I'm making more an adsense than ever before and I made record
sales for links last month.

Contrary to popular belief, I wish EVERYONE here success!

Paul

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by paulgl

I'll even give a shout out to Mike Grant!

Okay now you went too far. LOL

[PeterPimmel]

i don't agree completely. while its true that blasting a website with random links doesn't work very well, or only for low profile serp results, BUT if you have an professionally assembled team that sorts through the **** and takes the time to build proper links lists for your tools, you will get many high PR backlinks on authority domains which are just as good as any manual backlink trust me. we have so many statistical data from hundreds of clients. these tactics work even in highly competitive niches. of course you can also do it manually, but what you can do manually works automated aswell its a simple fact.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by PeterPimmel

time to build proper links lists for your tools, you will get many high PR backlinks on authority domains which are just as good as any manual backlink trust me..

Nope will not trust you at all.

[drvosjeca]

well said Mike

[orvn]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

few others eh? Cough cough um.... What happened to me bro. Wheres my mention ? I mean how many times have you seen me blasted by the profile masters for daring to say they are very very weak. Some epic threads on the subject. They've even posted things about me on other forums because I've been stating loudly that those links have lost their luster.

Shucks when I see a site ranking with those links I can just stop my competitive research go back to the client and say

"Its in the bag we can rank for that one easily."

I got to laugh and shake my head sometimes. I get my head bit off when I object to People pushing that nearly two hundred dollars a month senukeX profile capability junk.

nearly $2400 dollars a year and they could be getting link opportunities to rank multiple sites with real authority but no tell them to look for quality and they get all upset.

OMG YES! I checked this thread today, and upon scrolling down, I noticed that you thanked me and I thought to myself in a moment of dumbstruck reminiscence: "that's who I was trying to remember!!".

You'll notice that Yukon, Dburk and Paulgl have short usernames. Silly as it sounds, that's why I was able to recall them more readily.

Thankfully the same memory lapse does not occur when I'm trying to remember my long-tail keywords!...

(I think)

[Abbie88]

Sitting and carefully reading..
I'm just a noob (..look at my post number )who's still trying to find the best methods for seo purposes.
Was about to order profile links but this post holding me back for a while.
Thanks..