Writing articles and including links to competition

Hi,

a provokative thought (maybe to some at least)

With google checking relevancy also via the parallel links (that is links to other pages from the same page) wouldn't it be good in all my article activities to include a link to my strong competitors as well?

My thoughts are:
- I could tell them so they owe me a favor (always good:-)
- Google would give more relevancy to the article bacause it links to two (or three) sites with the same content as the article and amongst the linked sites
- if the article links to two strong sites and me, google might deduct "well, they are good so she must be good as well"

provocative thought? would it work (apart from the first point that works for sure with most people)

Get your clients close but your competitors closer

ALTHOUGH

* I will go for a direct link exchange from site to site
* Write another article for your competitors with a link to your site

Thx for sharing your thoughts. I agree with the link exchange and I am soliciting (and so far got three to agree and implement). It's pot that easy because they often fear doing these things.

What do you mean with the second point. Isn't that what I said??

What you said was

"...all my article activities to include a link to my strong competitors as well"

And what I said is:

I write articles for my clients and I never insert a link to my competitors BUT I always approach them and I asked if they want me to write an article for them with the condition to link back to my site. Thanks

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I am not an SEO (so dont have clients) but I am writing articles for my (!) site

Now I want to include a link to my competitors and dont want a link from them (would still be cool but is not the point here).

so the story goes:
I write yan article
This article links to my site
This article also links to my competitors site (same topic as my site and article's topic)

the main question here is:
Would that increase the relevancy rating for the link to my site in google?

thx

I know what you're talking about and I do it all the time. Well, something similar. I create a "great neighborhood", so to speak, but writing articles that include my site link (a pr 5 used car classified site) and elsewhere in the article mention similar sites with great reputation but not direct competitors (such as pr 8 edmunds.com, a mostly new car site).

To get down a little "dirtier", I will sometimes include somewhat negative links. For example, in an article about trade-in values I recently posted, it mentioned that "while Edmunds.com (linked) is one of the best places to find new car values, including invoice, it's used car prices are not realistic. Use sites such as (My site) to get used car values and kbb.com (linked) for new car.

It seems to work well that way.

It is provocative, but also a bit stupid. The main idea is nice: including a related link into the article. But why do you include your competition? Why are you working for them?

I doubt they will give you back what they owe you the same way as you did.

You can find many authoritative sites on your theme which are not competitors at all.

The best listed sites in the serps on my keywords are competitors, and they are up there anyway. So linking to them creates that neighborhood.

I might link to wikipedia, but I wouldn't think google falls for that. Best themed and credible is competitition, so if I do 20 articles and include different links, then I have added to all the top 20 guys just one link each, but 20 times great neighborhood for me, no?

Great websites link to other great websites without regard for rankings. This is no different than the citation model of a PhD thesis.... Now, think of the background of those who design the algos... If you imagine that they have PhDs then this concept might appeal to them. A document that does not cite authoritative sources has no credibility basis.

EGOL,

what you say is you agree?

And if so, do you agree of linking to the well-ranked (=authoritative for these keywords) competition from within those third party articles?

Would you also link to wikipedia or is it too obvious? (What I basically understand is you say link to both)

thx
Cri

Christine.. I love seeing thinking out of the box. But I cannot see this helping your serps directly. I do not think it will hurt directly either.

ie it wont help because you linking to competators does not do anything to increase your link juice. Your assumption is it may increase your trust rank and the qulaity score of your conetent. If you are citing good sources this may be true. i think where it may help you if you have quality content you may increase people linking to you. BUT the defining factor is 'qulaity content' if the conetent is poor to ordinary having links will not encourage people to link to your content. Therefore any benefit is only IMO indirect. The bottom line is create qulaity content. Quality content needs to be reserched and cited. It not the citations that create the qulaity. I think the biggest factor determint TR is the qulaity of links in not link out.

I agree that linking out will not hurt you directly. This myth has come about because of toolbar PR and the mistaken belief of pr drain. This is very misunderstood... PR leaks from a page not a site. So you only loose any PR from the page the link is on not your whole site. A link from a link page does not drain PR from a home page. therefore there is absolutly no reason not to link to sites for fear of loosin PR. On top of this PR does not matter anyway.

The indirect 'hurt' could come from people finmding you competaors through you site and clicking on them. having said that you compaetators are only two clicks away anyway.

Therefore IMO your experiment is unlikely to help you much or hurt you much. Give it a go. BUT put your efforts into the creation of qulaity original content. This is the key to succes.

best of luck

I like this idea of your thoughts, anyway I would change it slightly.

I often run two or three websites for the same product that seems to be competing, anyhow they are all mine. Writing an article, something like product review, that would judge three products/websites (all mine) would look as a fair customer review and only I will be profiting.

Having more products competing between each other produced by the same producer is nothing immoral, you have it often with FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) like chocolate bars, soaps or detergents.

In marketing... you should never speak ill of your competitors nor should you recommend them.

You can always find many other sites that do not directly compete with you to link to from your articles. You can talk about the competitors within the article, but DO NOT link to them.

I completely agree, but with an asterisk*:

Under the right circumstances, linking to competitors in articles can be beneficial. I have written articles that link to competitors and my own sites, but they were written in a way that I am using them as a separate example.

Here is an excerpt from one of my articles about trade values. I have underlined the anchor text:

"Every city has a handful of dealerships that buy vehicles off of consumers. Carmax is spreading rapidly across the US, plus established independent dealers such as Oklahoma City Ford Trucks still make cash offers for vehicles."

The closest Carmax is 100 miles away, so chances are I am not losing quality clicks to them. They are a PR6, I'm a PR4. The anchor text doesn't help them, as they already place tops for the term "carmax" (of course). And, most importantly, getting one more link to add to their 16K will not help them as much as adding to my 500.

Otherwise, my thoughts on it are as follows:

1) Related non-cometitive sites -- YES
2) Direct competitors -- NO
3) Indirect Competitors -- Maybe

There is a better way without linking to your competitor and linking to sites with even more authority. Try this:

"Oklahoma (link to www.ok.gov) has a handful of dealerships that buy vehicles off of consumers. Established independent dealers such as Oklahoma City Ford Trucks make cash offers for Ford vehicles (link to www.ford.com)."




What if Carmax spreads in your city as well, partly because you helped them to get more money? OK, your part is very small (16k +1 link), but why to help them?



Anchor text will not help them, but the topic of the linking page will and maybe more than the anchor would.