Dilemma - black hat competitor
We've recently acquired a number of dental sites from one of our competitors mainly because they offer poor service/design. They have been using lots of black hat stuff (not even subtly) resulting in a few of their former clients being banned by G. We have been successful in getting the redesigned sites re-instated.
However, on doing some back-link checking, I found a number of the competitors sites with hidden text and links back to what are now, our client's sites.
Do I:
However, on doing some back-link checking, I found a number of the competitors sites with hidden text and links back to what are now, our client's sites.
Do I:
- report the toss pots and lose the links (how long before G catches up anyway - seems G is much better at finding hidden divs these days!)
- leave it and hope that the links stay up and we don't get penalised as a result
Maybe I should tell their clients what is going on a grab a bit of new business!
What do you reckon?
Dave
posted by Spon at 5:01 PM
3 Comments:
For a start, ask them to remove the links. If they refuse, you have no need to feel bad about reporting them to Google - if someone else reports them first, it doesn't exactly look good for your site...
As for poaching their clients... You could always send a polite email informing them of the problem, with an email sig promoting your services...
Ask them to remove the links. Some people get indignant about doing so, but at the end of the day it's your sites that are (or could be in the future) suffering.
I recently went on a "bad link" purge and managed to get 99% of links removed.
Just mailed 'em and politely asked them to remove all of the links. The fan will hit the proverbial tomorrow as they don't like us at all (we've taken several of their clients recently).
Failure to comply will result in reports to Google - but I'll hold off with that bit for now :)
Dave
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