SEO Myth: Are Competitors Backlinks Not Counted?

Aug 12, 2010 - 9:08 am 11 by
Filed Under Link Building

I always wonder how certain SEO myths get started. A new one I spotted today at WebmasterWorld is saying that if you have some of the same links of your competitors, Google will discount them for you, since your competitors already have those links.

In other words, if you have a link from the Yahoo Directory category page after your competitor, Google would only count the link to your competitor and not you.

Wow!

He phrased his question as, "Is is true that it's not possible Google count same back links for your website which your competitor have."

No it is not true! A link is a link, of course some links are not counted at all, due to them not passing PageRank or having a nofollow attribute. But if you and your competitor both have a link on the same page, Google should count them both.

So where the heck did this theory come from? martinibuster thinks it came from the concept of link cliques. He explains and I love how he said it, so here is a full quote:

The idea underlying link cliques is that poaching the competition creates a backlink profile for your site that is derivative of established sites, creating a situation of diminishing returns because you cannot exactly duplicate the competitions backlinks and jump ahead with a partial set of duplicate links. The answer that link cliques suggests is to develop a set of backlinks that are entirely relevant but completely different than the established websites. If you study the top five you will see that many times the backlinks of even the established sites come from unique directions that are exclusive of other sites ranking in the top five or even the top five.

It is amazing how we go from this to the above question. Can you imagine that? First come first serve, for a link on a specific page.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Bing Ads

Now Important Google Ads PMax To Microsoft Advertising PMax - Fully

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Canonicalizing From WWW to Non-WWW Won't Impact Your Search Rankings

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google News

Google Changes: Liz Reid New Head Of Search, Pandu Nayak Steps Down As Search Quality & Rankings Lead

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:11 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2024

Mar 18, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Previous Story: Google Help Center's Rap Video