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Competition running link farm

by Patrick010
2 replies
  • SEO
    • |
So, we have enjoyed nr1 spot in google for 3 years. Months ago we dropped to 3rd place. Not a huge deal but the reason why is a big deal.

Our competition is running a linkfarm with 100+ websites that all link to the same 3 companies for my keyword. Not only have they took my 1st and second spot but the first 3 pages of google have been infected with nothing but these so called review sites always mentioning the same 3 companies. Most of these sites run of the same IP.

For 3 months ive been trying to gain more quaility backlinks but it's pointless. I have PR 3 and running a eccomerce site so getting backlinks is not an easy job. They have links from 100's of PR 0 sites and already have PR 4 on there company sites. Im so super frustrated and my income is dropping fast. It's not just that they took the first 2 spots but since the 1st 3 pages are spammed with there comparison sites where they only mention themselves, potential customers will trust these sites and choose them instead,

I have reported this to google numerous times but nothing happens. They have been doing this for years and started climbing slowly but steadily.

Is there anything i can do besides reporting tot google. Are there any laws against such tactics ? (fake comparison sites) Or does anyone have any ideas ?

Thanks for any help!
#competition #farm #infected #link #running
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Public PR was last updated in 2013 so that's not even a factor for any new links your seeing.

    Personally I can't stand any review sites, they're all bogus. There's no law for reporting a site to Google, Google owns Google SERPs. Find a cheap crowd sourcing site & have them all report the bogus domain/s from multiple IPs, lol.
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    • Profile picture of the author irawr
      Banned
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Public PR was last updated in 2013 so that's not even a factor for any new links your seeing.

      Personally I can't stand any review sites, they're all bogus. There's no law for reporting a site to Google, Google owns Google SERPs. Find a cheap crowd sourcing site & have them all report the bogus domain/s from multiple IPs, lol.
      Are you okay with niche sites with some reviews?

      Originally Posted by Patrick010 View Post

      Is there anything i can do besides reporting tot google. Are there any laws against such tactics ? (fake comparison sites) Or does anyone have any ideas ?

      Thanks for any help!
      It's hard to say without seeing the "fake comparison site." But if there is misleading or inaccurate information, then it could be illegal. Find out what country the site is hosted in first. I have quite a bit of "review" type content and I specifically worked with an attorney to hopefully ensure that I am compliant with the law. Anything that ended up being "gray area" I avoid since I don't want problems.

      It really comes down to the claims, you can call a document a "review" and then just describe it's features and that's fine as long as there are no invalid claims. This only works for certain types of reviews, it would be pretty much impossible to review a service without actually using it and if you claimed you say "went on a vacation and stayed at the hotel and really loved it" well if you didn't actually go there then it's not legal under US law since you claimed you did. If they say "I love the fact that the hotel is on the beach" and it's on the beach, well it's fact that it's on the beach, that's a valid claim and you can love anything you want to.

      To figure out if it's legal or not you really have to carefully dissect the wording. If you're careful enough it can even be adwords compliant but as many have found out, it's a dangerous game. For adwords it must be 100% compliant and pulling out a dictionary and verifying that your claims actually mean when you think they mean is a great idea. If a word has multiple meanings and one of those meanings makes the claim invalid, you can't use it. It might be FTC compliant but google will smack you.

      If they are comparing information that is available on the manufacturer's website or the product's packaging, sorry but that's totally fine. The site might be considered a "Thin Affiliate Site" but if they included their opinion about the product, well that's unique content and it's fine.
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