Comments on: A Little Known Way to Improving Your SEO by Linking to Your Competition

By: Jenni

Jenni — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:06:41 +0000

I’ve used this tip a long time ago and get a lot of success, just because other website will linkback to my site as I’ve mentioned them.

Thank you again for your tip.

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:24:15 +0000

Excellent advice here. Much appreciated. In the health niche I often link to high PR authoritative sites in my posts so now I will find ways to add my own site links in the same sentence.

By: Mark | Creative Team Events

Mark | Creative Team Events — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:49:38 +0000

This is the very first time I’ve heard of this principle, and I will give it a go. I think many people will be nervous about giving benefit to competitors, but it makes a lot of sense being associated with a market leader.

By: Vince

Vince — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:19:18 +0000

Hi Derek and Nathaniel,

I like the idea of “cool by association”. I also think when it makes sense then it makes sense to link to authority sources. I believe that will help build your own authority in the eye of your readers. After reading this article I plan on doing more of blend linking (without abusing).

One way to keep visitor on your site is to open the link in a new window.

Thanks for sharing,

By: Fred Siegel

Fred Siegel — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 01:42:11 +0000

I do this as well but I have several other websites and blogs, I link to them so it helps me altogether. I have a junk removal website that ranks higher than 1-800 Got Junk in San Diego (I’m #1)

I link to it from a new (81 days old) website. Already my new website is on the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing and just got page rank 3 from Google…In 81 days. I believe that using thesis 1.8 is a major part of this success because of the great built in seo but the “popularity linking” helps.

By: verf

verf — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:48:49 +0000

nice blog about seo……………thanks

good business for everybody

gr
marcel

By: Eric Goldman

Eric Goldman — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:28:36 +0000

Thanks for that interview and advice. I’m absorbing anything I can on this stuff, and I think this will be very helpful. I was always concerned to do outside links, however now I’ll make it a habit of relevance.
Thanks

By: Yurosie

Yurosie — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:44:03 +0000

Thanks for your tutorial… Nice post

By: Ana | Traffic Generation

Ana | Traffic Generation — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:13:37 +0000

Love the tip, Derek.

If I may also add, an interesting correlation noticed by Rand Fishkin in his presentation on Ranking Factors Data 2011 at SMX Elite Sydney: there’s a long-lived rumor that linking out to Google.com or Microsoft Bing can help your rankings. According to his report, correlation-wise linking out to MS is better. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/new-edition-ranking-factors-for-2011-live

Ana

By: Brandon Wilcox

Brandon Wilcox — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 05:10:51 +0000

In reply to Jim Hunter.

Jim, if you read the article more carefully you’ll see that Rae Hoffman is the one he is trying to help rank better, not his own site. That’s why he’s giving a link to her.

But the cool thing about this technique is that he’s not just linking to Rae’s site – in the same sentence he’s also linking to a second authority site. Rae therefore gets the benefit of association with the authority site. Or as Nathaniel said, ‘It can make you “cool by association.”’

He also makes it clear you can do this yourself by linking to an authority site and your own site in the same sentence, thereby making YOU cool by association. I guess it helps Google figure out that the two sites linked to are similar, and the lower ranked site is being compared or listed together with the authority site, so it gives a little bump to the lower ranked site.

What’s in it for Nathaniel? He’s an SEO expert. Rae has an SEO problem. Work it out.