Backlinks Question

I am targeting a niche and am in the top 5 for a lot of my keyword phrases in Google. There is one site that shows up consistently above me on every search. I am going to try to move myself up the list by getting backlinks.

Let's pretend for this discussion that the niche is related to dog products.

In the particular niche that I'm working in, I've sub-niched out. So for example, my biggest competitor might have a massive dog site showcasing lots of different dog products, while I'm targeting dog collars only.

When I'm trying to determine how many backlinks I'm up against with the other site in the SERP's do I need to look at the backlinks for their entire site or only at the backlinks for their-site.com/dog-collars? I'm hoping it's the latter because that would be a LOT easier to conquer than the many, many links they have to their main page.

Thanks!

Lots of factors to consider here. Your competitor will inherit link power from all those homepage links and it will filter down to their-site.com/dog-collars but that doesn't mean that you can't get trump their position.

The key is quality of links and the anchor text that backlink to you says. You want to try and aim for a good spread of links from different types of websites that in your example say I know a great site that sells dog collars (link to your site).

Aim for some links that sit near related content but also chuck in some links that sit on homepages or sitewides (you can contact most websites and offer to pay for these if you have the resource). Homepages will have most link juice, so these are most powerful to boosting your Google rankings, but they are the hardest to get so don't just focus soley on them.

Use Yahoo Site Explorer to look at the backlinks of all your competitors that sit on page 1 of Google and use that to draw up a target list of potential link sites (don't concentrate on just one otherwise you will never beat that one site).

Get Google Webmaster Tools installed on your website - it helps you do some funky page analysis on how Google views your pages (every tweak helps on that target keyword) and it also shows you what backlinks Google has indexed for your website. Once you can see a few, see how it affects your positions, then chill for a little before commencing link building again - last thing you want is to get pinged.

Hope it helps,

Nugget

I'd avoid sitewides, as they've been devalued by G. Used to work great, now, not so much.

swipethemagnets said:

I'd avoid sitewides, as they've been devalued by G. Used to work great, now, not so much.

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You are correct that they may have been de-valued in terms of providing the power to get the positions you want, but they are an expected part of a natural link spread, which is something Google are looking for.

In summary, they may not help you get there, but they certainly will help you stay there and avoid any pings from Google.

Remember - Google rewards sites that look like they are rated and used by real people so make your link building look like it has been done in that way.

Thank you!!!! I appreciate the info!!!

If google views your competitors site as the "authority" then all you can do is keep building links gradually and consistently, with the relevant anchor text, update your content often and eventually the crown will slip off their head and on to yours. It will just take time...

Digitalblue hit the nail on the head! Be patient, you obviously know how to achieve results, so keep doing what you're doing. By the way, SE ranking isn't everything. Are you converting your traffic? Are you happy with what you're making?

Also, why not repeat what you've accomplished in another sub-niche?

digitalblue said:

If google views your competitors site as the "authority" then all you can do is keep building links gradually and consistently, with the relevant anchor text, update your content often and eventually the crown will slip off their head and on to yours. It will just take time...

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Hi cloaked guy

i can tell you that most of the sites wants links to their index, and not to an inner page

but in some cases, yes, they are linking to inner pages.

so what you need to do is backlink them both pages, index and inner page, try to get better links, contact with the sites that linking to your rival here, and get much more than that


dont forget the age of the domain and site - google gives it some points.


i wish you the best, and i hope that you will beat him eventually

take care mate