I've similarly pointed out to WebPosition customers on the phone, that I rank for "International SEO" based on this old article. The ranking of that page goes up and down, but I'm not intentionally trying to rank on it. I would guess that the first few sites that DO rank for "international seo" are trying to rank on the phrase and probably put in a small bit of effort to maintaining their rankings for International SEO in a Google search.

Stoney G deGeyter from Pole Position Marketing has emailed to ask if I would link to their E-Marketing Performance.com blog in my article. I've added a link to his original E-Marketing Performance blog post rather than use only the link where I originally saw it republished.

I know some of you are probably cringing at this, but I don't have a problem adding deGeyter's link. While it's fun to rank on reciprocallinksarenotdead (see my screen shot at the bottom of the post), I'm not real protective of this ranking. But it does remind me of 3 rather good SEO points...

1) Request a link, you never know, they might add one.

If you see some one that is ranking higher than you, for a term that you want, email them and ask for a link. You may get it. You may not. Not every company knows or cares about SEO/rankings/etc. Some may rank for a term that you want and not even know it. So, if you can get a link from the page that already ranks, bonus! You are now more likey to rank for the term.

With a little bit of work, I think just about any one could take out my ranking for the odd-ball term reciprocallinksarenotdead. But if you are going to ask for a link, don't do it like this.

2) Grouped links do not equal normal links. You can break them or make them!

In this screen shot you'll see that I currently hold the number one and two spots for the term reciprocallinksarenotdead. The first ranking is for the article page and the second is for the MarketPosition home page. This is a set of "grouped pages". In our case, the home page really is not at rank 2. Weird, but true, stay with me...

Perform a search in Google then amend the Google URL with &num=9 and work your way down with &num=8, &num=7, etc. At some point the home page listing will be removed. Today I found that the MarketPosition home page really belongs in rank 7. There is a great article by Stephan Spencer that explains grouped results in more depth. In essence, Google groups multiple URLs together if they are from the same base URL and in the same page of search results even if they are actually several rankings apart.

You can control not only your own rankings but those of your competitors by understanding this Google feature.

3) Do consider editing Wikipedia, but resist the urge to immediately edit Wikipedia. Learn the rules.

I don't have an exact transcript from the SES 2007 San Jose session on Wikipedia (great interview with some of the speakers here though), but I did take a few notes. One presenter said that it might be helpful to add your URL to a Wikipedia page that already ranks on a term that you are targeting. It was also suggested that if see a Wikipedia page ranking for your term, you have a competitor that ranks above you for the same term, and your competitor's URL is listed in the ranked Wikipedia page, you might "edit" them out of the entry in order to "improve" the Wikipedia entry.

Before jumping on this advice, I encourage you to learn as much as you can about Wikipeia editing before you start any editing...

An audience member from Onecall.com explained that they were an authorized Sony dealer for several products. When they tried to add links to Sony related Wiki pages, they were labeled as "spammers" by Wikipedia monitors. Despite this, some of their competitors were already listed on Sony's Wiki pages.

Obviously, a frustrating situation.

While there is a whole nest of rules to follow when editing Wikipedia articles, especially if you want your edits stick, you should try to understand some of the basics around how to Wiki. Like SEO, there are some complex rules and even a "culture" that is evolving around Wikipedia, most things are in a constant state of change, so reading a few articles is nice, but they won't tell you everything. Also be aware that Wikipedia and similar services have to weather comedic editing sprees, aggressive SEO contests, and other non-welcome editing. Editing now means your IP address can be logged and blocked, or cause you to be accused of vandalism.

Summary

When it comes to terms that want to rank on, do ask for links from sites that rank above you. Do understand how you can make or break grouped links in Google. If a Wikipedia article ranks above you, consider editing it, but only after you've done your home work in how Wikipedia and it's editorial process works. Contribute, don't spam. Good luck!

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Extras:
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Onecall WikiPedia Exchange
You can read a 2006 dialog between Wikipedia and Onecall on this Wikipedia talk page:

"Links to OneCall.com
Hi Imroy,
Yes, I did setup several links to OneCall.com. I didn't think of the idea but actually noticed that several of our
competitors are doing this currently on Wikipedia and thought I should do the same in order to keep up with their SEO advantage for doing so. If you do not want me on Wikipedia then please also clean up the external links from my competitors. You can find examples of competitors on all the pages that I put a link on. The biggest violator is Vanns.com.
Until those other external links are removed I will continue to attempt to put external links on manufacturer pages in order to keep a competitive equality.
P.S. Yes I am new to Wiki . . . so if there is a better way to accomplish my goals please let me know. I don't me harm I simply need equality.
Thanks,
B. David Payne Business Development OneCall.com http://www.onecall.com

Did it ever occur to you to remove your competitor's links yourself? Instead, you're only making the problem worse! Thank you for making contact, but if you re-add your link to articles, it will be considered vandalism and you will be blocked. The actions you propose are simple unacceptable for anyone on Wikipedia. --Imroy 19:24, 23 October 2006 (UTC)"

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Screen Shot for Posterity: Reciprocallinksarenotdead.

Below, I took a few screen shots and created an image for posterity, my article ranking for Reciprocallinksarenotdead:

                 ← What is this?

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