Competing against a monster

How can I compete against 6,000 links?

[askjoe]

A competitor of mine has approx. 6,000 + inbound links. Most of these are generated through an affilate program. How can I, without creating an affilate program become competitive with this individual? He has pages rank higher than me for keywords(product names) that aren't even on the page being listed - a true giant.

My site is doing fairly good. I'm comming in at #1 for a lot of key phrases, however I'd like to be coming in higher for keywords - they're more targeted in terms of sales.

Just looking for some ideas on how to tacle this situation.

[Mike12345]

Im no expert on this, but i find that readin bretts post usually helps:

[webmasterworld.com...]

And i have learnt, from this place, that content is most important, so get yourself some kick ass content related to the keywords and you might jus be a winner.

Of course thats just my opinion.

:)

[bobmark]

I don't have a solution but I have the same problem with a site. The site is extremely content rich and I do very well on keyphrases but get hammered on generalized keywords (e.g. search for "widgets blue" you get me 1 or 2 - search for "widgets" I'm nowhere to be found.
I add good links as fast as I can, but certainly not at the multi-thousand level a few competitors do. I'll keep am eye on this thread for suggestions too.
I also agree with Brett's advice and content can take you a long way, but for generalized keywords - as opposed to keyphrases - inbound links and hence PR still seem to rule in Google.

[edited by: bobmark at 4:15 pm (utc) on Mar. 11, 2003]

[askjoe]

My content is very good.

For example: a keyword search for "widget review" or "widget for less" or "widget ABC" nets me a first place spot.

What I'm looking for is a #1 slot for just plain "widget"

I have this individual beat with content - I'm not far behind him. However, I believe his enormous amount of inbound links is landing him a # 1 position even though his content is inferior.

[SlyGuy]

Originality still goes a long way.

Either take the time to source out 6,000 links or spend that time adding content, features and resources to your website. I would personally opt for the second choice.

I recently overhauled a sporting goods website with an extra 250 pages of content and products. It took about 2 full months of work to complete everything and was picked up by Google last week during the update.

A vast improvement across the entire website has now been realized. Furthermore, while it didn't topple the giants of the industry (the very large sporting goods websites), it has managed to grow and develop into a medium sized website from a small one.

It's important to remember that these large websites were small websites at one point.

There is no magic formula, it involves time, work and dedication to turn a seed into a tree.

Just my 2 cents..:)

[TWhalen]

Well then, find out all the places where your competitor has links and request a link from those same sites for yourself.

Doesn't hurt to try...

[MetropolisRobot]

Also, consider adding something to your site that gets updated very often (maybe a message in an image) that is of use to other people and getting them to embed that on their sites (of course the message etc has to be popular/useful)

[dwilson]

Affiliate marketing is very strong right now. You might want to start an affiliate program to really make it into the big leagues. One of the leading sites on associate programs gives information for those considering starting them -- not just those who want to take part in them.

[EliteWeb]

Figure out how the company did it, what you think their business plan entails and think about how you can integrate what worked for them into your plans. Overnight it can not be done, something against someone with such links will require work and it wont be easy. Once you get up there you will be a direct competitor.

How many links do you have currently, I believe you can obtain great placement even without 6000 inbound links by targetting directly for archor text, did they do that also?

[Powdork]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with #2. Especially if you can get a better description. Some people don't even trust #1.

[korkus2000]

Get a couple high pr links with widget in the text. Is widget a part of the other peoples domain. If so I think it will be pretty hard to beat them out for that.

[steveb]

The only way to beat quanity is with quality, and even then it is hard. Higher PR inbound links and higher site PR is one thing you can do.