How did my competitor do this? How can I beat him?

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I need some advice. I am ranking very high on page 1 of G for a competitive keyword phrase, and recently a new competitor has entered the picture and grabbed the #1 spot. His domain was registered less than 3 months ago and he already has over 97,000 backlinks, most from the homepages of high-PR blogs. How is that even possible? I would think there's no automation software that could build links that fast, much less manual backlinking. And there's no way he could own a link farm that large. I also don't understand how it hasn't thrown up a huge red flag to G. I have an aged domain that is 5 years old with the keyword phrase in the domain. Is there any way I can outrank him? I mean I know the vague answer would be "hard work and dedication," but that is what I've put in for the last year or so for this site, then this guy just suddenly jumps in and takes the #1 spot with an MFA site with scraped content. Just don't see how it's possible. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.
#beat #competitor
  • Profile picture of the author simpleonline1234
    They were probably using an automated linking package like Scrapebox....it auto post to as many blogs as you can find...100k isn't undoable....question is how long have they been in the #1 spot in Google? Chances are that their efforts will be short lived because they haven't been flagged as of yet.

    also Google could be dancing with them so the chances are that very soon you should see that site move down in the serps.

    spammed links don't hold up very long but they are good for the short run...IF you don't get nailed by Google for something first...or get reported by others.

    I don't suggest running out and doing the same thing because the new Google is liking the aged domains better and if you keep building your links and doing what your doing you will find that those folks will come and go over time but consistancy will win in the end.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Originally Posted by simpleonline1234 View Post

      They were probably using an automated linking package like Scrapebox....it auto post to as many blogs as you can find...100k isn't undoable.....
      true but I am having a problem thinking the home page links the Op stated is accurate. Even with scrapebox you aren't going to get a majority of the links being on the home page.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    John I don't know about the details of your post. I am kind of doubting that he has 97,000 high on page PR home page links. Clearly he is buying them or he has his own blog network but that many?. On automated systems that can build that fast yes not a problem but look again and tell me if what you said is true

    that Most of the 97,000 are on high pr home pages.

    You need to completely analyze his links etc before you panic. He could also drop off the front page entirely in a week or two. Sorry just not enough details to be more helpful. Fell free to PM me if you don't want the details on the board and I can take a look at it.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Williamson
      Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

      John I don't know about the details of your post. I am kind of doubting that he has 97,000 high on page PR home page links. Clearly he is buying them or he has his own blog network but that many?. On automated systems that can build that fast yes not a problem but look again and tell me if what you said is true

      that Most of the 97,000 are on high pr home pages.

      You need to completely analyze his links etc before you panic. He could also drop off the front page entirely in a week or two. Sorry just not enough details to be more helpful. Fell free to PM me if you don't want the details on the board and I can take a look at it.
      Yahoo has 94,357 backlinks indexed for him that point directly to the homepage. I did some research with both SEO Elite and SEO Spyglass; the majority of them are indeed links on the homepages of high-PR blogs. They are 'Top Commentator' links in the sidebar, indicating that he also has many links within these blogs, most of which employ KeywordLuv and/or CommentLuv.

      I thought it was something like Scrapebox at first too, but every comment I've found from him has been a genuine, well written, valuable, relevant comment that is specific to each post on each blog. Even with autofill or bot software, I just think it would be impossible to do that in less than 3 months. Even if you outsourced it all, it seems like it would take months to do that "semi-manually."

      Anyway I guess all I can do is hope for the best. Thanks for all the input, guys.
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  • Profile picture of the author debra
    Originally Posted by John Williamson View Post

    I need some advice. I am ranking very high on page 1 of G for a competitive keyword phrase, and recently a new competitor has entered the picture and grabbed the #1 spot. His domain was registered less than 3 months ago and he already has over 97,000 backlinks, most from the homepages of high-PR blogs. How is that even possible? I would think there's no automation software that could build links that fast, much less manual backlinking. And there's no way he could own a link farm that large. I also don't understand how it hasn't thrown up a huge red flag to G. I have an aged domain that is 5 years old with the keyword phrase in the domain. Is there any way I can outrank him? I mean I know the vague answer would be "hard work and dedication," but that is what I've put in for the last year or so for this site, then this guy just suddenly jumps in and takes the #1 spot with an MFA site with scraped content. Just don't see how it's possible. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.
    There is a software that can accomplish that many links but it is only temperary before the drops/bans begin.

    There's another way to do it that is perfectly acceptable in Googles eyes.

    One way is through graphics. Let's say that he has a site about "Barbie". He would have created original or near original wordpress templates that targeted the niche Barbie. He then would upload those templates to all the wordpress templates sharing sites freely. The advantage that this gives him is that he has embedded an anchored link backlink to himself and encryped it in the footer of the templates.

    You can do this with:

    twitter backgrounds
    myspace backgrounds
    etc...

    Then you can also create banner glitter graphics. People actually hotlink to this graphics to put them on thier own social network pages. Sometimes, depending on your target, you can make hotlinking a good thing.
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  • Profile picture of the author jhonsean
    Its an automated software package that can only do that so fast with a results of almost an hundred thousands of quality backlinks, Just do your routine as an SEO professional and also improve your link building process I thinks its just an short term results or google is updating its system, Be patience and boost more efforts. hope this helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author bmoney76
      I had this happen to me for very competitive keywords two different times. Both times the site lasted at number one for only a few days then it vanished for good. I remember looking at the backlinks and there were thousands of them. The site itself had no good content on it, just a bunch of affiliate links. I figured it was a spammer just trying to make a quick buck and I was right. Google booted them soon enough. I wouldn't worry too much. Just keep working on your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author jesus72knight
    This is so questionable. Even Scrapebox can't do such tremendous number of backlinks. Maybe, he spent tons of cash for outsourcing but that's also a far cry to reality. Don't worry. Surely, KARMA will go down and punch their lights out. Everything is shortlived. Jut do your thing. Nothing beats the feeling of reaping the rewards of hardwork.
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  • Profile picture of the author petevamp
    I was able to build over 5k back links in the first month of buying a domain. I achieved this though submitting software which got picked up in hundreds of thousands of locations after I submitted it. However they where not all home page backlinks nor were they all high pr baklinks since the site is still only a pr1 site ate the moment. However when I got that many in the month i decided it was best to take a break for a little while before google drops me off for building that many links in a month. This process brought my site up to the number 2 spot for a term that gets over 500k broad searches a month.

    The process I used is automated as well but is perfectly leagal as well. So I should not have any problems in googles eyes but I do not want to take the risk so once I let another month go by it will be time to start this process all over again.
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    • Profile picture of the author jesus72knight
      Originally Posted by petevamp View Post

      I was able to build over 5k back links in the first month of buying a domain. I achieved this though submitting software which got picked up in hundreds of thousands of locations after I submitted it. However they where not all home page backlinks nor were they all high pr baklinks since the site is still only a pr1 site ate the moment. However when I got that many in the month i decided it was best to take a break for a little while before google drops me off for building that many links in a month. This process brought my site up to the number 2 spot for a term that gets over 500k broad searches a month.

      The process I used is automated as well but is perfectly leagal as well. So I should not have any problems in googles eyes but I do not want to take the risk so once I let another month go by it will be time to start this process all over again.
      Would you mind if you share what automation process you are using, mr. Pete?
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  • Profile picture of the author stephanrobert
    Originally Posted by John Williamson View Post

    I need some advice. I am ranking very high on page 1 of G for a competitive keyword phrase, and recently a new competitor has entered the picture and grabbed the #1 spot. His domain was registered less than 3 months ago and he already has over 97,000 backlinks, most from the homepages of high-PR blogs. How is that even possible? I would think there's no automation software that could build links that fast, much less manual backlinking. And there's no way he could own a link farm that large. I also don't understand how it hasn't thrown up a huge red flag to G. I have an aged domain that is 5 years old with the keyword phrase in the domain. Is there any way I can outrank him? I mean I know the vague answer would be "hard work and dedication," but that is what I've put in for the last year or so for this site, then this guy just suddenly jumps in and takes the #1 spot with an MFA site with scraped content. Just don't see how it's possible. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

    He must have use some black hat technique. the backlinks in such a quantity in short time frame can't be get without black hat technique. But what you think which type of black technique he have used? check his back links and do analysis.
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  • Profile picture of the author LangeTroels
    These numbers just blow my mind.. 5K backlinks in a month.. 97K backlinks in three months.. Pretty extreme in my eyes..
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      So many replies and info on backlinks.

      You never really know why a site is #1 with google.
      You do not know what kind of love, trustworthiness, and
      authority that google gives. Backlinks alone are not the
      complete picture. Especially all 90,000+.

      If the site is as you say, could be a matter of time before it
      drops. But that's no guarantee your site will take it's place,
      even if you build 100,000 links.

      I would also point out that this kills the myth of building links too fast.

      The truth,
      hard work and dedication....
      is the way to keep going. That and a few more high PR, high authority backlinks.

      Paul
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