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Analyzing Backlinks - Competitor Linking From His Own Websites

by RatRaceWatch
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I was studying the backlinks of a competitor of mine, and I noticed he has some blogroll links and footer links from his own websites (I know they are his sites due to style and he has them linked on his social media accounts.)

The interesting thing is the websites he has linking (to the site I'm competing with), aren't very High PR, 1-2, but they are in the same niche.

Each of these links via the blogroll and footer links is giving him 100's of backlinks, and after analyzing all of his backlinks, yep I looked at almost every single one, it looks like these are giving him most of his power (at least via backlinks).

My questions are:

Does anyone know where to analyze a website and find out if it is on a different IP?

If the websites were on the same IP, would that make the backlinks virtually worthless since he has a connection he is linking from his own websites

I'm sure this has been discussed before, what do you guys think is more powerful, contextual backlinks with low OBL or blogroll links that essentially give you a backlink for every single page of the website, many blogroll links I've seen have given competitors 1000's of backlinks

Thanks,
Ryan
#analyzing #backlinks #competitor #linking #websites
  • Profile picture of the author Matt Ward
    On Windows:

    Start -> Run -> type "cmd" (no quotes)

    When the console pops up, type "tracert xxxxxx.com" (no quotes and obviously use the website)

    This will give you the IP of the website.

    I'd appreciate you letting us know if the websites are all on the same IP, different C-class, etc. now that you have this info. :p
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    • Profile picture of the author TBInternetMarketing
      Originally Posted by Matt Ward View Post

      On Windows:

      Start -> Run -> type "cmd" (no quotes)

      When the console pops up, type "tracert xxxxxx.com" (no quotes and obviously use the website)

      This will give you the IP of the website.
      Yip that will do it.
      Or instead of tracert xxxx.com, just do an ipconfig www.domainname.com

      Should give you the IP address as well.

      My bet would be that they are on the same class.
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi Ryan,

    Based on your post, it sounds as if you have bought into some myths that have been spreading across the pages of this forum recently.

    First, IPs have no bearing on search engine rankings, forget about all that nonsense. It was made up by dubious hosting companies to part naive webmasters from their money.

    Secondly, SERP rankings are not based on the number of backlinks, but on the total relevancy score of the web page for the searched keyword.

    Backlinks do indeed influence relevancy scores, however they carry different weight based on PR and trust. Site-wide links do carry weight, but since they share a common set of inbound links there is only so much PR passed due to the limited diversity in backlink graph. That limitation of backlink sources has nothing to do with IP addresses, and everything to do with lack of diversity in the backlink graph. If a competitor has a diverse backlink graph, then more PR is passed due to that diversity, even if the diversity all comes from pages that share the same IP address.

    Forget about IP addresses that is a red herring, backlink diversity has nothing to do with IP addresses.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      ryan anyone telling you that IP does not matter does not know what they are talking about. The web runs on IP addresses, Domain names are just for humans and they merely map to IP addresses.

      Unfortunately many people (not just on this board) rail against IP diversity and SEO hosting because they do not understand the full purpose of it.

      First for anyone to say IP diversity does not matter indicates a personal knowledge of Google's algo that none of us have. Since web crawlers utilize IP addresses there really is no indication that a diverse Ip link profile is non beneficial. We could debate that back and forth however it is NOT the sole reason to consider IP diversity.

      Certainly since you can have multiple sites and parties on one IP address Google should not discriminate merely on the basis of a singular IP address BUT it is also clear and undeniable that if all your main links are coming from the same IP address such a link profile does not look normal on a manual review. This is where SEO host naysayers just completely miss the boat

      IF you want to link from your existing sites for the purpose of SEo and you are aiming for top rankings then you have to take under consideration the possibility of a manual review. Google and purists claim that if you link to your own sites in any way to manipulate rankings then you are on the "black" side even though all the big well respected sites and companies routinely do it - even Google has been caught linking to partner sites with followed links,

      So related to your question we can debate if there would be added juice based on IP diversity but there is no doubt whatsoever that it holds a long term benefit. Just wanted to add that to the discussion.
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  • Profile picture of the author RatRaceWatch
    Alright this is some very interesting stuff.

    To Matt Ward: Love the technique! I first typed in one of my websites to make sure it showed a different IP. But all of the Pr-1-2 Websites I mentioned with relevant domains and tons of pages had the exact same IP.

    To dburk and Mike: Both your points make a lot of sense, the one thing for sure is right now, these links are helping him tremendously. The question now is, should I jump on board with the same technique, I have relevant sites that can help out.

    Tricky situation when I'm working on an authority website I really care about and have invested a lot of time and money into.
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