Dodgy link profiles?!?!
-
Just started working on a new pharma based client in the UK. I have been carrying out some link profiling on page one results for several key terms and have discovered that almost all of the sites ranking in top positions appear to have all kinds of rubbish links (links in irrelevant content / articles, links in forum signatures, single page blogs and sites that appear to have little association with their products). These links seem to be about the only links some of them have yet they rank top!
It seems a very difficult prospect to build a decent white hat link profile if everyone else is STILL capitalizing on the sort of rubbish links that Google is supposed to be getting tough on. Are online pharmacies the world that Google forgot or is this a really common issue?
-
Thanks for the insight guys. I think I am resigned to the fact that doing this white hat is going to be a bit of a slow burner. It will be an interesting one to see grow though as the site is more or less a blank canvass in terms of link profile. Trying to figure out a good strategy to beat the spam sites (and occasional authentic site) will be a good challenge.
-
Ah, I would say the pharmacy industry is probably one of the most competitive verticals in SEO, specifically due to the blackhat tactics you mentioned. The short answer is that obviously these kinds of dodgy link schemes are still quite effective but you are right that Google is definitely getting tougher on these kinds of links. My bet is that the sites that are currently ranking in the top spots for your desired keywords will be slapped with penalties and removed eventually but that a new group of sites with spammy links will soon pop right back up in those spots.
That being said, I don't think it's a lost cause to get your client ranking well using legitimate white hat links, although it's likely to be more of a gradual long term process. I certainly know how frustrating it can be to have to battle against these shady sites since I have clients in similar situations (mortgages and insurance), but over time, we have made steady improvements in the rankings by creating good content as well as utilizing press releases and social media which in turn, results in high quality backlinks from authoritative sites. While it does take time, it's at least comforting to know that it is highly unlikely that your client's site will be slapped with penalties and should gradually rise to the top as Google continues to work on weeding out the spam sites.
Also, try to focus on long tail keywords that the spammers are not targeting and make it a goal to increase overall organic traffic rather than simply ranking #1 for something like "viagra."
-
You did say you were working on a "Pharma" site right? What other types of viagra sites exist besides spam sites?...
Kidding aside, sites may rank in spite of their poor link profiles. Links are not everything. They are a lot, but not everything. If the sites are old enough and perform well enough, their history may outweigh the updates. If you don't want to follow the crowd then better for you. Your very own diversified link portfolio is better than trying to match another site's. Go for links a spam site can't get. Get quality Edu links. Put out quality content. Go for long tail search and rankings. Watch your site slowly pick up speed. It's a slow road, but has sure footing.
Or follow the crowd and go for that automated link building. Just remember, if you want a quick road to the top then you can expect a rapid decent as well.
Disclaimer, either approach could fail, either could win. Know your risks.
-
IME crap links still rank if everyone else in that niche has a tone of bad links as well (remember google need relevant search results for its users), but chances are little or no value will be flowing from thiose links. This is just my opinion... I have no evidence to back it up. Build some good links and see what happens....
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Reddit LInks
Are Reddit links worthwhile? I hear they are sometimes follow and sometimes not follow. Also what about links verses self links? I'm pretty handy with reddit so I can probably make content that would actually be upvoted a lot. Let me know, thanks.
Link Building | | RafeTLouis1 -
Manual Links Vs. Smart Links
Hey Everybody, Is there any downside to the smart link plugins that I see all over wordpress? Basically in short I enter a keyword and where I want that link to go (primarily internal) and set the parameters of repetition etc and it automatically adds the link to that. Now other than the obvious situation where it might put a link in an awkward place, is there anything wrong with this sort of software? Part of me things that this sort of software would not be liked by Google, and that it isn't really getting counted as a true link, but i wanted to see if there were other thoughts or experience with this.
Link Building | | HashtagHustler0 -
Does the twitter link shortening service reduce link value (strength).
We have many SEO team members that use Twitters link shortening service, will this reduce the strength or value of the page to be indexed? I ask this cause the displayed URL isn't the actual page it is going to and would like to make appropriate changes to improve our company's SEO For example: http://t.co/zHu8vIcjPx is going to page http://4wheelonline.com/atv/QuadBoss.107503 Thank you for your assistance.
Link Building | | WebRiverGroup0 -
Link from Dmoz.org
hi, first question on here. Just starting to get into link building and after a day already confused. I'm using the seomoz pro link analyser / open site explorer to look at my sites links against competitors. First up was dmoz.org. great rankings so a great link target, turns out though that I already have one!! Any ideas why it isn't showing up on my linking domains. Is this a seomoz oversight or am i not getting my alloted 'juice' from this domain??
Link Building | | rattleanddrum0 -
Back Links
Hi there, I have been guest posting on blogs trying to build some back-links into my website, which so far is going not too bad, however I was wondering when writing these guest posts should I limit my post to let's say 2 back-links per guest post? If 2 back-links are going to different pages on my website, does the first back-links in the guest post have more value than the 2nd back-link? Kind Regards,
Link Building | | Paul780 -
Whats with these links
I have a competitor
Link Building | | AlanMosley
that has shot up lately taking number one spot for various keywords when I look
at his links in Open Site Explorer I find many links that are links to downloadable
objects, not web pages. A few
examples, if you click on them, do not open who knows what they are. But what
the story, how are these links to his site, anyone know anything about this. Thanks http://wolfet.co.uk/etmain/mitchelldown.pk3 http://www2.dupont.com/Tyvek_Weatherization/en_US/assets/downloads/cad_fluidapplied/FA-S-201.dwg?Action=livre_or&start=24750&forum=alainfrancois http://mobile.earthcam.com/download/EarthCam%20Mobile%20v4.0.msi?faq&page=39560 -
Where do you buy your links from
OK which brokers / sites do you use to buy your links or gain links from and why.
Link Building | | therealmarkhall0 -
Link Ratio
Does Google (or other search engines) penalize websites if they have a too many inbound links from a single domain? (Say for instance, I have 500 inbound links, and 400 of them are from one root domain.)
Link Building | | EricVallee340