Have Access to a Competitors Google Analytics account

Hi Everyone,

So i have a friend who is starting an online store and somehow he got access to his main competitors google analytics account (long long story but it got mailed to him by mistake).

This competitor also just happens to rank number 1 for all the keywords in the industry.

So to get to the point, how can we use this information to gain an advantage and help his site rank better...i know we can use it for keyword re-search other than that i need some ideas.

Is having access to this account a really big advantage or am i blowing it out of proportion.

Anyway,

Have an awsome week end

you definitely have some advantages but you blowing it out of proportion a lil bit IMO, i would like to know how did he gained access to his competitor's analytics account.. sounds like an interesting story.

You've got an upper-hand nobody else has.

I call BS!

Not only are you breaking the law, but you're also stupid enough to post this with a username that's associated with your personal information. Don't drop the soap ;-)

There was no hacking or anything my understanding is the company sent out a password list to an SEO firm and he used to consult with them on some things and was included in the E-mail by mistake..i personally have not seen nor accessed said account...just looking to help him out...i dont really do to much web work anymore..

rogerke said:

Not only are you breaking the law, but you're also stupid enough to post this with a username that's associated with your personal information. Don't drop the soap ;-)

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There is no law breaking if the details got emailed to him by mistake and he didn't hack the account. And he cannot destroy the site or anything like that by having access to the analytics account, just gather intelligence which might help him in beating his competitor easier.

remember karma just give it up

Speaking of karma...he just sent me a text saying he let them know that he received the details too...they thanked him for honesty and are sending him beer as a reward haha

He just viewed some keywords, top 10s and what not..

jak19 said:

remember karma just give it up

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Remember karma? This is a blackhat forum. Everyone seeking advice on this forum and practicing blackhat seo is doing something unethical, whether it's not abiding by Google's guidelines, having access to a competitors accounts (Which is always frowned upon in this forum... lord knows why... probably cause it's something that not everyone has so it stirs a sense of "unequal advantage" and thus the negative feedback) or just building a PBN and outranking that hard working family that counts on that little online shop to bring food to the table. It's all unethical, no way around it.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I guess we all draw our own lines somewhere. To me, there's no "in between". There's black hat and there's white hat. No grey hat

Just a thought...don't take legal advice from random strangers on the internet. Unless of course, you enjoy spooning with 'Big Dave'.

ghackseo said:

Remember karma? This is a blackhat forum. Everyone seeking advice on this forum and practicing blackhat seo is doing something unethical, whether it's not abiding by Google's guidelines, having access to a competitors accounts (Which is always frowned upon in this forum... lord knows why... probably cause it's something that not everyone has so it stirs a sense of "unequal advantage" and thus the negative feedback) or just building a PBN and outranking that hard working family that counts on that little online shop to bring food to the table. It's all unethical, no way around it.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I guess we all draw our own lines somewhere. To me, there's no "in between". There's black hat and there's white hat. No grey hat

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I don't want to hijack this thread and take it off topic but every now and then I see a comment like this. Blackhat and fraud are completely different concepts. Building a PBN is unethical? I dunno about that. Sure blackhatters take shortcuts, bend the rules. But stealing, cheating, fraud, this completely out of scope and heavily frowned upon here. You can see that from the many replies flaming people asking for tips to click fraud or negative SEO a competitor or flag competetion's youtube videos...etc.

Only i can say lucky and use it in proper way

ghackseo said:

Remember karma? This is a blackhat forum. Everyone seeking advice on this forum and practicing blackhat seo is doing something unethical, whether it's not abiding by Google's guidelines, having access to a competitors accounts (Which is always frowned upon in this forum... lord knows why... probably cause it's something that not everyone has so it stirs a sense of "unequal advantage" and thus the negative feedback) or just building a PBN and outranking that hard working family that counts on that little online shop to bring food to the table. It's all unethical, no way around it.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I guess we all draw our own lines somewhere. To me, there's no "in between". There's black hat and there's white hat. No grey hat

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Black Hat and fraud are two different things. Black Hat is not fraud, we do not tear down or cheat others unlawfully to gain.

Your analogy of "building a PBN and outranking that hard working family that counts on their little online shop" being unethical is absurd.

If you outmarket a competitor, it is what it is. That little shop could study SEO, invest etc. to maintain their position in Google, they have the same tools as anyone else.

That's like saying if you open a new bar in your city and take all the business from other "hard working bars" that you're unethical. That's not unethical, that's competition/capitalism.

Now there's a big difference between outdoing the competition and "destroying" the competition (ie negative SEO, hacking, etc.)

To keep with the analogy it'd be like if you opened a bar in your city and then burned down all the other bars to win business. That would be unethical.

There is a difference.

Anyway back to OP, that data other than keyword research is pretty much useless.

THUNDERELVI said:

There is no law breaking if the details got emailed to him by mistake and he didn't hack the account. And he cannot destroy the site or anything like that by having access to the analytics account, just gather intelligence which might help him in beating his competitor easier.

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Wow, I can't believe I've just read this. Like myopic1 said, don't take any legal advice from a stranger on the internet, so please consult a lawyer if you think I'm telling BS, but accessing that analytics account is definitely illegal.

Just because you got an email with the login and password details doesn't change a damn thing. It's still unauthorized access and illegal. If I find the keys to your house doesn't mean I can just enter it. To think otherwise is absolutely retarded.

ghackseo said:

Remember karma? This is a blackhat forum. Everyone seeking advice on this forum and practicing blackhat seo is doing something unethical, whether it's not abiding by Google's guidelines, having access to a competitors accounts (Which is always frowned upon in this forum... lord knows why... probably cause it's something that not everyone has so it stirs a sense of "unequal advantage" and thus the negative feedback) or just building a PBN and outranking that hard working family that counts on that little online shop to bring food to the table. It's all unethical, no way around it.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I guess we all draw our own lines somewhere. To me, there's no "in between". There's black hat and there's white hat. No grey hat

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Sorry dude but blackhat and fraud are two different things. Blackhat is still a part of SEO and we all work hard to build business and help websites and businesses grow. Blackhat SEO is about finding loopholes in search engine algorithms in order to rank websites better. It does not equate to fraud, cheating or robbing etc.

Fuck all y'all lol. You damn right I'd look, and I'm sure most of you that say you wouldn't, you would.
Some of you taking the ethical high road saying Black Hat isn't cheating, or harming anyone?
If I bust my ass for years to build a white hat authority hat and some BHer comes along, and in a couple months buys links to rout rank me, that's not cheating me? That's not harming my business? Because I think it is.

The UK's Bribery Act of 2010 (applies to England and Wales, Scotland and North Ireland) carries a maximum of a ten year jail sentence, disqualification for being a company Director and was once described as "The toughest anti-corruption legislation in the world". A bribe is a "financial or other advantage" to an individual in exchange for improperly performing a function or activity.

With the above said (also remember all these other okes suggesting not to take legal advice from anyone online...), this means, if you pay someone (say a blogger or "link builder") to do you a favour (like write about your client or add a link to their site) which they weren't going to do otherwise. It's a bribe. It's a bribe because Section 4 of the act defines "improperly" in conjunction with the expectation of good faith or impartiality.

Yes; there are regulators and groups within the UK who have in the past heard the description of some paid link tactics and described them as bribes.

Equally, if you are handing money over to bloggers, editors and site owners for coverage and links then you need to make sure you record that expense appropriately or you may also be breaking some financial laws. Who knows whether you can claim VAT back on paid links?

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Above is para phrased. Anyway, point is, the law has a thin line and I can guarantee you that most blackhat SEO methods are probably illegal somehow or involve a tiny action that's illegal.
Who is to say it's wrong just because the government made the rules, but it's not wrong cause Google made the rules. It all comes down to if it's ethical or not. If you feel what you're doing is right and it's fair, then by all means, go for it. If you have the slightest feeling of it being unfair somehow or you feel like you need to hide your backlinks or get privacy hosting / domain, get fake referrer scripts or whatever, IT'S UNETHICAL.