I've been trying to figure this out, but haven't had much luck so I'm hoping somebody here will shed some light on the mystery. I have a client that is setting up a swimming pool website and wants the positions for "swimming pool" and several other keywords. So I'm looking at one of the top competitors and their site shouldn't be ranking in the top 3 on google for the keywords they have: * 99% of the site coding is done with javascript and images, there is very little actual text on the site. Most of the text that Google can read is anchor text. * The links to the site aren't really related. Most of the links shown by google are from Addresses.com, which is just a collection of yellowpages. Some of the deeper pages have content on them, but most of the pages are images and javascript. Can somebody tell me what is going on here? It doesn't really make sense why this site is ranking so well to me. URL: http://www.lesliespool.com Any help is greatly appreciated
They have a good site up. Your right a lot is javascript and a lot, okay 400 or so links come from those yellow page sites. This makes it even easier for you. Do what Leslie did. The only thing I would do is watch out. G is finding more of those paid links every day and taking them out. You could also report the website for paid links and see what happens. But that takes some of the fun out of beating them. I would say try to optimize the site better, since you have a template to work from. It does not hurt you to pay for those links, right now. If it was me I would pay for them and then once they are removed get rid of them unless you see they drive you traffic. Try to diversify your links though. Get them from other places that way when Leslies Pools crashes you stay up there.
Edit your post and add a space to the competitiors URL . Backlinks from DP carry a lot of link juice. Don't make your job harder than it needs to be. Good luck!
I'm not really worried about the link helping the competitor. A link to their site from an seo/marketing site won't generate that much of a boost to them considering where they currently rank. Anybody think they're cloaking somehow?
I hit the site using Googlebot/2.1 UA string and it looked the same. And the G cache shows I think Greenguy's advice is sound. Produce a good crawlable site, replicate their backlink strategy while at the same time get relevant non-purchased IBLs.