Competitor is buying links (big time) but google not doing anything about it

[bkseo]

hi
Our competitor is buying links big time and I along with a few other people reported them but Google isn't doing anything about it. It has been a few weeks should I give it more time?

Sorry if this question sounds kinda stupid considering I have been doing SEO for a few years I have NEVER reported any of my competitors in the past I just tried to get links naturally to outdo them but in case of this competitor, it seems to be the only way

[Test-ok]

hi
Our competitor is buying links big time and I along with a few other people reported them but Google isn't doing anything about it. It has been a few weeks should I give it more time?

Sorry if this question sounds kinda stupid considering I have been doing SEO for a few years I have NEVER reported any of my competitors in the past I just tried to get links naturally to outdo them but in case of this competitor, it seems to be the only way

Ya know buying links still works...depends on the links your buying..If they can stay under Googles radar they'll work. I wouldn't suggest doing it as they too may come crashing down. If you already reported them I'd suggest to just move on...no reason sending it again. Just keep moving forward.

[synapsesites]

hi
Our competitor is buying links big time and I along with a few other people reported them but Google isn't doing anything about it. It has been a few weeks should I give it more time?

Sorry if this question sounds kinda stupid considering I have been doing SEO for a few years I have NEVER reported any of my competitors in the past I just tried to get links naturally to outdo them but in case of this competitor, it seems to be the only way

May be the links that he had buying are of too good quality and have good page rank and similar theme.

[NMmarketing]

hi
Our competitor is buying links big time and I along with a few other people reported them but Google isn't doing anything about it. It has been a few weeks should I give it more time?

Sorry if this question sounds kinda stupid considering I have been doing SEO for a few years I have NEVER reported any of my competitors in the past I just tried to get links naturally to outdo them but in case of this competitor, it seems to be the only way

Yeah, been there. We moved on as Google didn't do anything about it. Good news is that that competitor of ours crashed in hell at this latest update.

Buying links does work. It is not about whether the buyer paid money or not, because honestly many of the link building techniques offered site owners something, if not money; something like content, discount etc.

Just as an example, if you buy links from a site that sells links to anyone, you are buying links and risk your life; if you buy links from a random site that may have nothing to do with your site, you are at least wasting your money; if you buy a link from a related authority site, the link benefits visitors, brings you traffic, and even if Google knows that you paid money, I doubt they are going to pick you out.

[DarrenHaye]

hi
Our competitor is buying links big time and I along with a few other people reported them but Google isn't doing anything about it. It has been a few weeks should I give it more time?

Sorry if this question sounds kinda stupid considering I have been doing SEO for a few years I have NEVER reported any of my competitors in the past I just tried to get links naturally to outdo them but in case of this competitor, it seems to be the only way

I reported a site in December which has thousands of links from spam blogs, included hidden links only visible by looking into the page source.

There ranks have dropped a little, down from #2 to #6 for a semi competitive keyword but you would really expect them to get a penalty and dropped like a stone, but not as of yet.

[NathanielB]

I reported a site in December which has thousands of links from spam blogs, included hidden links only visible by looking into the page source.

There ranks have dropped a little, down from #2 to #6 for a semi competitive keyword but you would really expect them to get a penalty and dropped like a stone, but not as of yet.

Google don't care so much for removing sites that people report because its not costing them any money. Plus a lot of the time, sites that are doing paid links are also paying for adwords, so google is making money of them meaning they aint gunu act any time soon on removing them from the organic search at the risk of them stopping paying for the paid search listings too.

I know its kind of a cynical way to look at it, but its google and like most other companies they are out to make money, not to do the right thing all the time!

Plus reports seem to take about 2 months before google looks at them from my experience in doing a couple of reports in the past.

[joshz]

When I reported competition it took about a month to three months really. At that point it's hard to even tell if the report went through or if it's just changes to the algo.

[eddyf]

I've reported competitors sites in the past via WMT and it's taken about a year on average to see any action. Can't say if the reports had anything to do with it, or if the algo simply caught up with them.

But the real value in reporting cheaters is that Google uses that input when testing algo changes. So while a report may not have a direct effect, the more data points Google has for testing, the better the outcome. I always include a detailed description of the issue in my report and not rely just on the check boxes. From what I've read from Google, this helps when they search the database for specific issues they want to test.

Ed