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Help with my competitors backlinks please- they are all reciprocal

by lotre
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi guys

I ve been cough spying cough on my competitors backlinks and it seems they are almost all reciprocal links. I was always taught that reciprocal links cancel each other out- this is true correct?


I use Angelas and Pauls links and some of my own and although i know a lot of them dont last forever, they are all 1 way links. Yahoo site explorer says my competitor has 133 inlinks and it says my own site has 128, but my webmaster tools show my saite has 1000 links to it.

His site is 8 years older and his pr is 3 to my 2 but i cannot beat him to the no 1 slot for any keywords. I could understand it if his links were all 1 way but Yahoo explorer shows almost every 1 to be reciprocal. Ive used SEO spyglass and it doesnt show up much more than 130 links os i dont think he actively builds links like i do


Any advice please ?
#backlinks #competitors #reciprocal
  • Profile picture of the author slashman
    It seems like your competitor has the edge. It seems to me that domain age is important. 8 Years is a pretty old. I don't know the age of your domain but the lack of age of your domain could hurt. PR is just a measure of the strength of backlinks (to some degree) so that tells you right there that his links (even if they are reciprocal) are probably on pages with more authority. How about domain name? Is his better then yours? Probably with the age his domain has better key words, fewer words?
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  • Profile picture of the author lotre
    Hi slashman
    thanks for the reply. My domain is around 2 yeras old, his 9 or so i think. My domain name has my keyword in it, his doesnt though. His site is well optimised but i ve done mine at least as well as i can i think. But i also know that enough backlinks can make non existent sites rank well so i should be starting to outdo him now, i ve been building links for around 1 year and i dont think he builds any?
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  • Profile picture of the author Ronny Kibet
    What value are you links to the search engines? Are they dofollow or nofollow. you can have 1000 links and they are all nofollow backlinks, while you competitor had 100 dofollow backlinks. Tha can make a huge difference.
    Check that out as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author lotre
      Originally Posted by ronsang90 View Post

      What value are you links to the search engines? Are they dofollow or nofollow. you can have 1000 links and they are all nofollow backlinks, while you competitor had 100 dofollow backlinks. Tha can make a huge difference.
      Check that out as well.
      Hi
      i use Angelas packets and i m sure that most of those links are do follow, though i have seen several threads on here disputing if follow/no follow actually makes a difference anyway.

      I am just wondering if reciprocal links actually do cancel each other out or not. Does anyone know?
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        You are making a lot of BIG assumptions, which a lot of people do when they
        just can't take someone else ranking above them.

        Ranking #1 is not all about backlinks. There's a thing called authority and relevance.
        Authority is hard to beat for certain keywords and niches.

        Why would reciprocal links cancel out? That would kill anyone linking to anyone else
        in every single case. Think about things like youtube, warriorforum, icanhascheezburger,
        to name just three. Now I agree that link swapping is dead for me, but many sites
        link back and forth. I have swapped links once. With a high PR, relevant site. Those
        are few and far between.

        You are proof positive that you do not need to keep building links like a mad
        man, once authority and google love are achieved.

        I'm not even mentioning things like site structure and content.

        Paul
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Hi lotre,

          The fact that you are comparing the number of backlinks between you and your competitor indicates you may not understand how Google ranks your pages in SERPs. The quality of your backlinks is much more important then the quantity.

          You may be able to beat your competitor with a single high quality backlink. Why not go that route instead?
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          • Profile picture of the author lotre
            Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

            You are making a lot of BIG assumptions, which a lot of people do when they
            just can't take someone else ranking above them.

            Ranking #1 is not all about backlinks. There's a thing called authority and relevance.
            Authority is hard to beat for certain keywords and niches.

            Why would reciprocal links cancel out? That would kill anyone linking to anyone else
            in every single case. Think about things like youtube, warriorforum, icanhascheezburger,
            to name just three. Now I agree that link swapping is dead for me, but many sites
            link back and forth. I have swapped links once. With a high PR, relevant site. Those
            are few and far between.

            You are proof positive that you do not need to keep building links like a mad
            man, once authority and google love are achieved.

            I'm not even mentioning things like site structure and content.

            Paul
            Hi Paul

            Thanks for the input. As far as site structure goes we're both ok, neither of us are what i consider to be real 'authority' sites but were both relevant.I beat his content by what i think is better and more diverse content- definitely more of it. Ive compared his site to mine and it seems that he knows very little about any SEO- ive got better keyword density, each page is optimised for a given keyword, bolded keywords, my keyword in my domain name, alt tags given keywords, ive got a sitemap, my places account has certain keywords, etc etc all my on page SEO is done as best i can do it. All he has it seems is: older domain, higher pr- i cant see any other reason he ranks so highly for so many keywords. Ive checked his links in several types of link explorers and they all seem to say a similar amount of links.

            His site does not seem to optimised hardly at all- that said it may be a wordpress site, mine is Joomla for now (which im hoping to change soon)so that will help a little. I went on some government funded (UK) courses to learn basic SEO and they said reciprocal links were a waste of time?

            I do know its not all about backlinks BUT i have seen crap sites beat good ones by sheer backlink numbers. I ve been building links yes, but steady not too mad. Im learning slowly but surely and i know it takes time- this is the only thing that i need considering everything else. His home pr is 3 mine is 2 but its took him 9 or 10 years to get that, mine has took me a lot less so im obviously doing something right (i know plenty of people get decent pr quicker than that, but im a novice).

            ps Paul , i came across one of your sites today when following a T Kyle backlink -comments closed though !!

            Dburk, you obviously see im stil llearning what G sees as important but do you mean for me to buy a really good link?

            Its slowly dawned on me that Angelas and other links are ok but so many dont stick they can lead to variations in SERPS, so now im wondering what to do best for good links. My niche is small and there are not many good forums to use to get good links from, it seems most PEOPLE in my niche are completely oblivious to SEO.

            I do appreciate your input guys, and i hope to give back to this forum when im more able to give good advice. Let me know what you think


            cheers
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            • Profile picture of the author dburk
              Originally Posted by lotre View Post

              Hi Paul

              Dburk, you obviously see im stil llearning what G sees as important but do you mean for me to buy a really good link?

              Its slowly dawned on me that Angelas and other links are ok but so many dont stick they can lead to variations in SERPS, so now im wondering what to do best for good links. My niche is small and there are not many good forums to use to get good links from, it seems most PEOPLE in my niche are completely oblivious to SEO.

              I do appreciate your input guys, and i hope to give back to this forum when im more able to give good advice. Let me know what you think


              cheers
              Hi lotre,

              Backlink types can be broken down into two basic types:
              1. The type you earn naturally from other webmasters that like your content and link to it.
              2. The type that you create yourself (promotional) when you post content on other websites.

              As I'm sure you have already realized, folks aren't likely to link naturally to your profile pages, so those backlinks will never be worth much unless you promote them yourself. By creating and including backlinks from high quality content you are more likely to build a reputation as a thought leader or expert in your niche. This not only creates backlinks from quality content, it is far more likely to generate natural backllinks. A great way expand on that approach is to do guest blogging for other bloggers in your niche, or even similar niches.
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  • Profile picture of the author socialbookmark
    As Yahoo explorer doesn't count all of your backlinks, it possible that it doesn't count the backlinks of your competitor too. I am not sure if all backlinks of your competitor to be reciprocal. Because i think you have checked his backlinks using Yahoo explorer and Yahoo explorer or any other tools is not accurate and maybe Google indexed more backlinks of your competitor.
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  • Profile picture of the author flx89
    reciprocal links have a good value . It's an important step if you want to make a perfect white hat seo
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by flx89 View Post

      reciprocal links have a good value . It's an important step if you want to make a perfect white hat seo
      Hi flx89,

      You may want to "qualify" this advice just a bit.

      A limited amount of reciprocal links are okay as long as they are useful and relevant to your visitors.
      Originally Posted by Google Webmaster Guidelines

      However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:
      • Links intended to manipulate PageRank
      • Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
      • Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.")
      • Buying or selling links that pass PageRank
      The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page's visitors?

      It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the buzzing blogger community can be an excellent place to generate interest.
      Source: Link schemes - Webmaster Tools Help
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  • Profile picture of the author lotre
    Dburk Well i can try blogs on other niches, but there are none in my niche. that is to say none that allow guest blogging anyway. I do get a few people linking ot me from twitter now and then and i often find my stuff in other places later on.

    Now i know reciprocal links are ok i can ask that some of my fellow college members do some reciprocal linking between us, that might help as long i dont overdo it.

    cheers
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