Should I promote a site, which promotes my products

[sbook]

Dear all,
I have a blog and have an idea to write an article, which will will be a quality backlink together with promotional article for the website, which is not mine. This is actually competitor's website, but it has my product added in his list. I would put a backlink to his website, to my product. This product has my website full name inside (watermark in image/no url), and everyone can clearly see it. And i am getting direct traffic from that page.
So is this a good plan to help him get higher rankings, and automatically i get more direct traffic. Or instead i should link directly to my product website and promote myself (with separate blog).

So is it better to have a backlink and investment in the future, or some direct traffic? What is more important to google?

Separate question. When user types my domain in search bar, while he is in competitor's website, is this shown in referred traffic, or direct traffic?

[keyplyr]

When user types my domain in search bar, while he is in competitor's website, is this shown in referred traffic, or direct traffic?

There won't be a referrer if the user is taken directly to your site after typing your domain in a search bar.

If the user is taken to a Search Engine results page and then clicks a link, a referrer may be present in your logs depending on browser settings or whether the user is incognito.

[lucy24]

There won't be a referrer if the user is taken directly to your site after typing your domain in a search bar.

Did both of you mean “address bar” when you said “search bar”? It is not, ahem, cough-cough, the same thing, no matter how much browsers in recent years have tried to blur the difference.

I remember years ago someone had to patiently explain to me that it is impossible for a site to know where you were* at the time you requested an URL. (This was before I was familiar with raw logs.) A site can only know if you clicked a link.


* “When I asked ... for his position / He said ‘sitting down--I’ve got a heart condition’.”

[keyplyr]

Lucy, I used "search bar" because the OP used this term. While I agree this text field is usually referred to as "address bar" I don't think it matters really, especially with modern browsers combining the function of this utility.

To call it a "search bar" when the OP was using it for search is likely the appropriate term.

[NickMNS]

I don't think it matters really,

it does matter, if you type a valid url into the address bar it will take you directly to the sight, and it will be shown as direct traffic in GA. Whereas if you type the same valid url into Google's or Bing's search field it will take to a search results page where you will likely find a link to that exact url. Clicking the link to the url will show up as organic traffic.

[keyplyr]

@NickMNS, the statement was directed at the vernacular between the two terms for the same thing. As for going to Bing or Google's results page and becoming organic traffic, that's what I said in my first post.

[aristotle]

This is actually competitor's website, but it has my product added in his list.

Is your product there at your competitor's whim, so that he or she could remove it at any time, even tomorrow? Unless you have some control over what your competitor does, my opinion is that you should work on improving and increasing traffic to your own site.

[sbook]

So to sum up.
If a user is in competitor's website and puts my domain i search bar. Google gives him my domain in the top. So this is organic.
If user types domain in address bar. Google treats this as direct traffic.
But if 100s his of daily visitors does the same everyday - goes to my website directly from his website. Isn't google smart enough to see who is the referrer.

aristotle, yes i can remove my product from competitor's website anytime. His website is stronger than mine, thats why i added my products there. Trying to get some direct traffic and be non-dependent on "my ex-gf".
So in your opinion i should choose giving him a backlink.
Its impossible to outrun him in serps. But i can help my product in his website to outrun his other products.

[Walt Hartwell]

Regardless of address bar vs search bar, if you are building a link, do it to your site.
That "trickle down" link building concept isn't worth the effort.

[keyplyr]

So in your opinion i should choose giving him a backlink

Why? Is he demanding a backlink? Why send your visitors away from your site?

[sbook]

My blog does not have lots of visitors, it is just for backlinks with high DA.
He is not demanding a backlink. My thoughts are just that i can bump my product there higher in his list. And in this way it will be a better result when i get direct ones from watermark, instead of no-guaranteed benefit from backlinking my store.

Product is listed there with high volume keywords. And more chance that competitor will go to serps, not me.
He might get 10000 uniques daily to this page, and i get 100 direct from watermark.
Or if i backlink myself, i get only crumbs from serps.

[NickMNS]

@sbook
if a user searches for your site by your domain name, there is a pretty good chance he will land on your site either by going through Google or direct. Ranking for your domain is generally easy provided your domain name is unique.

So if you have keyword rich domain like say "buyIwidget7.com" it might be more challenging to get a high ranking for it. Whereas, if your domain is "MikesWidgetEmporium.com" there is pretty good chance that you will rank number for "MikesWidgetEmporium.com" and "MikesWidgetEmporium" with no links and very little effort.

So whether someone types "MikesWidgetEmporium.com" into Google or into the address this will not have any real impact either way.

The problem with this is that potential customer that do not know your site are not going to know to type your domain name into a Google search. So instead they will type "Buy Widgets online" or "best price for widgets". So the goal is to rank for those search terms. As much as possible, it is best to rank directly, that is your site should appear in the search results, not a third party site. This is easier said then done in world dominated by the likes of Amazon and Ebay. But that is a different topic.

For Google, links boost ranking, whether or not users use those links. It is always nice to also get referral traffic from incoming links, but the traffic does not boost the value of the link. (This was stated today by John Muller of Google in the webmaster office hours hangout).

As for reciprocating the link, I doubt it will have any impact and if you do this often or the site that is linking to you does it often, as in demands a link back for every link out, that pattern could get you into trouble, with Google.

@keyplyr sorry, I skipped through the first few posts...

[keyplyr]

You seem to be defending why you have placed your product on his page. I understand that.

However, I don't see a benefit to the backlink. Others may disagree, but reciprocal linking schemes do not give you enough (if any) benefit to warrant the possible traffic loss IMO.

[lucy24]

Why send your visitors away from your site?

I've always said that sooner or later people will leave my site--I mean, they're not going to sit there until they mummify in front of the monitor--so when they do leave, they might as well go where I've sent them.

[keyplyr]

@lucy24 - That dynamic changes significantly if you are ecom. It's in your interest to keep customers on your site to buy your products, not send them away to buy from someone else.

[aristotle]

aristotle, yes i can remove my product from competitor's website anytime. His website is stronger than mine, thats why i added my products there. Trying to get some direct traffic and be non-dependent on "my ex-gf".
So in your opinion i should choose giving him a backlink.

That's exactly the opposite of what I said. You should read my post before you reply to it.