How to Use Competitor Websites to Improve Your Own Business Website Rankings

2009 February 3

presented by Karen Scharf: Helping You Improve Web Conversions

By Darren Jones

The number of websites which link into your site is one of the factors which search engines use in their ranking calculations. The quality of these sites and their relevance to yours (and to the phrase being searched for) is also taken into account. A link to a carpet retailer website from a website which is all about soft furnishings should carry more weight than a link to it from a site about fly-fishing (all else being equal).

It can be quite daunting knowing where to start looking for sites to approach for links. Luckily, there is a simple way to use successful/competitor websites to generate a target list of sites you can approach for links.

1. Visit Google

2. Enter the *realistic* search phrase you would most like to be found for and search. By realistic, I mean don’t target single words (way too much competition) or very general phrases which you would have a huge amount of competition for. If your search phrase returns 50 million results, you may struggle to reach the top ten! A combination of a service you offer and the area you operate in (eg. “Carpets Manchester”) can be a good phrase to start with as a target, and can deliver quality, targeted traffic if you are successful.

3. Starting with the site that appears in position number 1, work your way through the following steps for the top results.

a. Copy the web address of the site.

b. Open a new tab (in a tabbed browser), or open a new browser window, then go to siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

c. Paste your target web address (the full address eg. neighbourhoodprofessionals.co.uk ) into the search box at the very top and press the “Explore Url” button.

d. On the resulting page, press the button labelled “Inlinks”

e. This will now list sites which link into the target web address.

f. (optional) You can export the list as a TSV file by clicking the “TSV” link.

A TSV file can be opened in Word, but it is much easier to read if opened in a spreadsheet program like Excel.

Alternatively, if your browser supports multiple tabs (eg. Internet Explorer 7, Firefox) you can now right-click on each link in the list and choose to open the website in a new tab.

4. Now you have a list of sites that link to your target (or competitor) site. Ideally you would like a link to your website on each of these sites. You should work your way through the sites on this list, looking for information on how you can be included, or for a contact email address which you can send your lirequest to. Some of these sites may allow free submission of your link for inclusion, some may ask for a payment, some may want a reciprocal link, some may just need asking nicely (eg. If they are not for profit sites or personal sites).

5. Finally, for those sites which don’t have automated submission or paid for listings, you’ll need to send your requests for links (via email or using contact forms on those sites, if present).

The best approach is probably to be friendly and offer an exchange of links up front. For example…

“Hi,

I just visited websiteaddress.com and I was wondering if you would like to exchange links with my site - mysiteaddress.com ?

I will put a prominent listing to your site on my links page at mysiteaddress.com/links.html , if you link back.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Your Name”

6. Keep a record of which sites you have approached. This will help you to monitor the response and will be useful next time you perform this exercise.

Don’t expect a high success rate. Many emails like the example above will just be ignored by seasoned and cynical webmasters. However, if you keep at it, putting in the odd half-hour here and there, you should gradually see the number of inbound links to your site increase.

About the author

Darren Jones is Webteam manager at Oldroyd Publishing Group, whose services include affordable website design.