Tracking a competitors links

[Rani]

Hello everyone,
I'm back from a tour of one of my competitors backlink list.
I went through part of the list and visited each and every site to find out if i could exchange links with them too.
Of course i was looking for the "add your site" or "exchange links" button but i could rarely find these.

But i did notice the "adwords" or "adsense" promoting my competitor.So is that the source of the link?
And if it is,could this be used as a link strategy?

[celgins]

It's always a good link development strategy to find out what sites are linking to your competitors, and ask them if they will also link to you. Better yet, find the top 10 sites for your keyword and ask them to link to you.

Other sites that use Adsense to promote your competitor won't have a lot to do with your links. If your main keywords and your competitors main keywords are the same, and you sign-up for Adwords, your ads will likely begin to show on those same websites that currently show your competitor.

[martinibuster]

adwords and adsense are not links. They are generated through JS.

[Rani]

I see what you mean,Martinibuster.
I guess its just like those news-tickers that promise you a constant flow of fresh content but in reality all that googlebot sees when he pops in for a visit is the same Javascript code.Am i getting this right?

Now listen up celgins,i descided to take your advice seriously and scan the "top ten ranked sites for my keyword".But before i go about hasseling them with a link partnership-request i want to lay out their situation and
analyze this more deeply.So here we go ,this is the list as it appears on Google:

site 1)Homepage PR=5 NO LINKS PAGE

site 2)same url as site 1 but different page.

site 3)Homepage PR=4 NO LINKS PAGE

site 4)same url as site 3 but different page.

site 5)Homepage PR=6 linkspage PR=6 Title of links page="other sites we like".6 outbound links on it.No invitation for a link exchange

site 6)Homepage PR=4 linkspage PR=3 Title of links page="links to other fine sites".23 outbound links on it.invitation for a link exchange exists

site 7)Homepage PR=4 NO LINKS PAGE
site 8)Homepage PR=5 NO LINKS PAGE
site 9)Homepage PR=4 NO LINKS PAGE

site 10)Homepage(some kind of a redirect) PR=0 NO
LINKS PAGE

About my site)Homepage PR=4 linkspage PR=0 60 outbound links.invitation for a link exchange exists.
Ranked no 15

A comment from anyone will be highly appreciated.

[rkhare]

do a backling search, that would help you more to find compt. strategy and source of traffic

[afterburner]

if your competitors are buying links through link building companies there probably will not be an add link section on the site. I know of several top-rated web sites in google that are buying links from a link broker company. It must be working because they are all in the top 5 for there main keyword phrases in google.

[wheel]

Rani,

You want to check the backlinks of your competitors, because if a site linked to them it's entirely possible that they might be interested in linking to your site. You've got to evaluate each one on it's own merits. It's time consuming but a good start.

You're unlikely to find someone who'll give you a link in the top 10. However if you get looking at the top 100, you may find a few gems. Personally, page 5 is about where I start to assume I'll find stuff.

The idea as I understand it is that if sites that are ranking are linking to you, and you have the same sites linking to you as do the top sites, then the SE's will see you as being related to that search and thus more likely to show up in the serps.

[Rani]

Thanks guys,this is helping me a lot.
I have another question:
Many of the backlinks of some of my competitors are comming from some kind of dmoz related sites.In fact,tons of them.
My site has some (i am registered in dmoz) of these kind of backlinks but not in those quantities.
What is the nature and value of these backlinks (pr)and what does one have to do in order to get many of them?
Thanks.

[wheel]

I suspect that these other sites have downloaded the dmoz data at some point before you were listed, then used that static data as a starting point for their sites. Hit the sites and see if they have a 'submit' page, if you feel that these links would be of value to you.

[Rani]

No,none of them have a submit page.
But for what reason would a site do that-download dmoz data into their site and use it as a starting point?
Please explain that a little more.

[nippi]

How do i get access to backlinsk >500 on msn?

I want to check my OWN site, as have stacks of links, but accidentally deleted my own directory.

Need to re-add links based on the link to my site.... but can not find a way to get them all as after 500 all search engines seem to refuse to show them?

[Rani]

nippi,
Many of your link partners will soon be comming in to your website to check up on their links.Some will do it manually and some use software.
I Would create a redirect to a page with a message explaining the unfortunate situation and requesting the linkpartner to email his info.

As for those who use automatic linkcheckers.I d'ont know....