Sneaky SEO tactics: Bait and Cloak
Most internet marketing consultants will tell you that getting links from related websites is the best way to improve your rankings on Google. The problem is that the majority of these related websites are your direct competition and are unlikely to want to link to you.
Obtaining links from your competitors is almost impossible unless they don’t realise you are a competitor. Some websites are willing to exchange links but you need to be a really good resource and a trusted site for them to want to exchange links with you.
The best way to use your competition is to set up an extra site that isn’t associated with your main site.
For example if you are selling MP3 players you would start up an MP3 player retailer directory and fill it with good content and articles and exchange links with all the other retailers.
You can even add your competitors links if they don’t want to exchange links - the key is to create a valuable resource. Make sure it is all done under a fake name and that its not hosted on the same sever as your main site.
Once the new site has taken off and attracted lots of natural links you simply need to implement some sneaky cloaking so that your main competitors see normal links but the search engine spiders see nofollow links. Don’t nofollow all the links on your site, just the ones to your nearest competitors.
if((preg_match("/msn/i", $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']) == 1)
||(preg_match(”/slurp/i”, $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']) == 1)
||(preg_match(”/google/i”, $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']) == 1)){
echo”<a href=\”http://www.competitor-site.com\”
rel=”\nofollow\”>Competitor Site</a>”;
}
else
{
echo”<a href=\”http://www.competitor-site.com\”>Competitor Site</a>”;
}
The beauty of this tip is that even if Google finds the cloaking and bans the site they have no way of associating it with your main website.
I will try to make the Sneaky SEO Tactics a regular column so if you have any tips please send them in.
Categories: Search Engine Optimisation
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Read some similar posts
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How to redirect outbound affiliate links
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Digg bait vs Link bait
Googles policy on Widget Bait & my thoughts
Or you could just get all of the links from them and apply the 301 from it to your main site after a few months. Maybe some of them won’t notice and will keep the links up…
Everett July 6, 2007 5:10 pm | Reply
Awesome tip! I have always had a problem with getting competitors to link to my site. However in my niche it my be harder to implement this with another site.
Kanwal July 6, 2007 6:44 pm | Reply
What’s the importance of hosting it on another server?
Kyle July 6, 2007 7:01 pm | Reply
Now that is sneaky tactics, waiting for the sneaky SEO Tactics a regular column.
Vijay
Vijay Teach Me July 6, 2007 7:20 pm | Reply
It’s advice like this that makes me think, don’t bother with reciprocol linking.
However, I also think it’s a mistake to think - I shouldn’t link to me competitors. I’m happy to link to my “competitors” if they are a good site. And I’m not going to put a sneaky no follow in a few weeks later.
Tejvan Net Writing July 7, 2007 8:22 am | Reply
Its a good idea maybe I’ll use it on some enemy sites.
Mitja July 7, 2007 10:41 am | Reply
Yes, I vote for the 301 after 2 months or so
Scot Smith July 7, 2007 12:15 pm | Reply
Hehe, nice … i’m doing it for some time :p.
Vlad July 7, 2007 8:35 pm | Reply
well if someone links to me I give back link to him and it is not fair to deceive like that (that’s why it’s called snicky seo). But I don’t think it is worth of loosing good links in the future in case they find out that you got nofollow atribute to their link. They just delete your link.
Meble Biurowe July 10, 2007 1:41 pm | Reply