9 replies to this topic

[howardd]

Recently I realized that 3 competing sites are ranking on the first page of google for a very competitive keyword (246,000 searches/month exact). After analyzing the backlinks using Ahrefs, I found that each one of the sites has about 500,000 backlinks from 8,000 referring domains. Of course they're all spammy backlinks. These are all new domains, under 1 year old. The visual appearance of the sites are extremely low quality too.

 

My question is how are they ranking so well and what tools are they using to build so many backlinks? Any speculations? I really want to find a way to serve justice. These guys are ruining the industry. 

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Howard

Edited by Jill, 20 December 2012 - 08:48 AM.
Removed tool name

[Jill]

Why does it matter what they use?  Google should catch it in the next Penguin update. 

[chrishirst]

And how do you know that it is the "backlinks" that you can see that are making the URLs "rank".

 

Do they actually derive any converting traffic from the 'Important' key words?

 

Thirdly, your "ranking" results will be badly skewed because you probably "search" for the same few "key" words or phrase at least once every day.

[howardd]

Why does it matter what they use?  Google should catch it in the next Penguin update. 

I agree, but if they can achieve high rankings before the update hits them, they can keep repeating the same process until the next update. This means there is a loophole in the system. Don't you agree?
 
 

And how do you know that it is the "backlinks" that you can see that are making the URLs "rank".
 
Do they actually derive any converting traffic from the 'Important' key words?
 
Thirdly, your "ranking" results will be badly skewed because you probably "search" for the same few "key" words or phrase at least once every day.

 
 
It's my best guess, really. I see no value on the actual site itself. Little content, poor design. I'm sure they get pretty decent amount of traffic but not sure of the conversions. 
 
 
 

[chrishirst]

So basically you have no idea at all whether it is even useful to bother about what the "competition do"

 

 

Instead of looking at what you assume they are doing (and getting it wrong) why do you not put the same time and effort into improving and PROMOTING your URLS (NOT 'site) for and to USERS.

Forget about chasing 'rankings' and start looking at getting VISITORS.

[SelfMade]

Thirdly, your "ranking" results will be badly skewed because you probably "search" for the same few "key" words or phrase at least once every day.

 

Can google make your own site rank bad if you keep checking?..

 

I've heard theories like this left right and center...I've always used proxies though.

[Jill]

 

 

Can google make your own site rank bad if you keep checking?..

 

 

 

They can do whatever they want.

 

Have you read my "Why Ranking Reports are a Fool's Errand" yet?

[SelfMade]

Jill that is a great Article.

 

I really didn't know that at all.

 

I thought the search results were the results and that's it.

 

But if you don't run ranking reports or your not interested in the rankings..how do you know your efforts are not in vain?

 

Don't you even check in Google to see where you are.

 

The question I'm asking is, what is your measuring stick then?

[torka]

Traffic from organic search referrals can give you an idea of the average rankings you're getting. More traffic = higher average rankings across all visitors. Less traffic = lower average rankings across all visitors.

 

But the ultimate measures of whether you're doing well, IMO, are conversions and revenue. The effort it takes to improve those can easily keep you from fretting over rankings and toolbar PR and all the other shiny (but mostly meaningless) things that distract less experienced webmasters. And it will bring a lot more benefit to your business.

 

--Torka

[Jill]

SelfMade, here's basically what I do:

 

 

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