SEO - how can I find out what links competitors have

[wellwood]

I am trying to improve our links and would like to make sure I have at lease the same links as competitors. The question is how do I find out what links a site has to them?
Regards
john

[Chris Jones]

Hi John, there are several ways to do this.
The tool i use is SEO Quake which you can download from http://www.seoquake.com/. This will give you the inbound links for a site for Google, MSN and Yahoo along with other info.
Regards

[HarryL]

Do you know of anyway to capture the outbound links too?

[PintoPotts]

I prefer to use the link:nameofsite command on Yahoo for checking backlinks.

You can't capture the links, it needs hard work building them over a period of time and also finding your own.

PM me if you want the details of a reliable, reasonably priced SEO company.

[Chris Jones]

Do you know of anyway to capture the outbound links too?
Hi Harry sorry i don't.

[Pete W]

for google, links:www.etc.etc also works

[sirearl]

Hi Harry sorry i don't.

Chris well I would have thought that looking at your competitors site might tell you where the outbound links are and going :D :D ;)


Earl

[PeteYoung]

for google, links:www.etc.etc (http://www.etc.etc) also works

Actually no it doesnt it merely shows a snapshot of links, rather than all llinks to your website.

Google webmaster tools however will give you an overview of your inbound/outbound link stats, however I am not aware of any quality tool out that shows outbound linkage - although a simple spider script would this for you.

There are a number of services tools availble for checking linkage
- SEOQuake
- WebCEO
- SEOStudio

or more simply merely typing
linkdomain:www.example.com -site:www.example.com

as below

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=linkdomain:www.e-gain.co.uk%20-site:www.e-gain.co.uk

[HarryL]

That SEO Quake extension is great! A gold mine of information.

[pay-on-performance-seo]

Out of the search engines, Google only shows a few of the links and MSN has recently shut down their service to show inbound links.

I use Yahoo site explorer which can show inbound links to the homepage and also to internal pages. However just because these links are listed doesn't mean they are passing on any link value particularly in Google which is really fussy.

Also I would download the Firefox search tool from seobook.com this can provide useful information in Google searches.

[sirearl]

You can use IBP by Axandra gives you all the info you want.


Earl

[Chris Jones]

Chris well I would have thought that looking at your competitors site might tell you where the outbound links are and going :D :D ;)


Earl

Hi Earl, yes obviously you can look at the individual site but that is not what was being asked.

[barney1]

Try SEO Studio which gives information on competitors links, page rank, serps etc.

[Astaroth]

Search engines can have different approaches to their links: tool but another method is to search for...

"sitename.com" -site:sitename.com

This finds references to your site minus pages actually on your site and tends to work well on all the search engines

[loredan]

Web CEO is also a very useful tool you may want to try

[I, Brian]

I am trying to improve our links and would like to make sure I have at lease the same links as competitors. The question is how do I find out what links a site has to them?
Regards
john

This is completely the wrong attitude IMO.

All you're doing with this strategy is trying to follow in the footsteps of everyone else. But not only will you be unable to get all the links your competitors have, it may not do you much good either.

Links in volume work much better for more established sites - it, creates better results.

But here's the warning - sites all getting links from the same sites forms a network that Google can detect and devalue. Earlier this year is was reported that Google had devalued a huge link exchange market in the Real Estate industry, wiping out lots of sites because this was their only source of links.

My day job is specialist link builder - that means finding new methods and opportunities to help rank clients. I trailblaze. :)

I never reverse engineer a site's links unless it's a competitor I'm having difficulty removing.

[sirearl]

I never reverse engineer a site's links unless it's a competitor I'm having difficulty removing.

could you explain that a bit more ?

Earl

[I, Brian]

I don't look to see where other people are getting links - I create my own opportunities, develop my own assets, and leverage the whole lot of these for clients.

Over the past couple of months I've found some brilliant ways for getting powerful links. I know other link developers have already been using some, but others I know I'm the only one exploiting.

I've also made a big point of developing my own resources - I develop links for clients, and develop links for my own sites which are then used to leverage clients.

The world of link development is always changing, so it's always the case of looking out for new opportunities and using these.

The only sites that can outrank my big clients are well known high street brands that already have huge organic link profiles, else other companies who spend a huge amount more on their SEO. Even still, I can beat them on most keywords if I'm targeting them - they simply offer stiff competition. :)

What really matters, though, is how much the client will stump up for link development, though. I'm ridiculously cheap, especially compared to big SEO companies and PPC spend, but sometimes I come across clients who are more worried about costs than returns. The bigger my limits, the more limited my campaigns.

2c. :)

[RayB]

Earlier this year is was reported that Google had devalued a huge link exchange market

"Exchange" is the KW here as opposed to one way links surely?

[I, Brian]

Yep - it was link exchanges targeted. But bear in mind these link exchanges were isolated using network theory, which means that Google can seek out entire network connections and devalue them outright.

On the subject of not trying to replicate competitors, Aaron made a nice post a while back:
http://www.seobook.com/archives/001923.shtml


If you want to outrank established websites you can't just replicate what they have done, you also have to do unique and linkworthy things that will help you overcome their early market lead and the self-reinforcing effects of search.