by Structured Settlement Watchdog
How far will Structured Settlement Quotes (SSQ) and those who control it (Genex Capital), go to compete with its competitors? So far apparently, that you may need a passport, a visa and to make sure your vaccinations are up to date!
The SSQ website purports to include reviews of its competitors. Special attention is paid to JG Wentworth and Peachtree and now Woodbridge. But it turns out that what is overtly presented on the SSQ site is supported by a clandestine network of back links from foreign sources that are extremely hard to detect unless you subscribe to a service like ER-RUFF, sorry Ahrefs.com, ( it's the structured settlement watchdog in me) and know what to look for.
Let's have a look at Woodbridge Structured Funding and the review page that appears on the SSQ website. A clandestine linking scheme from 13 foreign blogs provides 843 backlinks to Woodbridge Structured Funding Review page on SSQ website with Anchor text Woodbridge Review. The link building process in this method of competition is ongoing, according to research performed on Ahrefs.com today.
There are 208 sitewide text links covering just about every page from www.lunetterie.com.br/blog/ . (scroll to bottom of the blog's pages)
Here is a pdf of the Ahrefs.com report which shows 208 links from the Brazilian blog alone.
Download SSQ Backlinks woodbridge-structured-funding-review.utf-16 Lunetterie.com 1-15-2013 report
In addition there are 192 from colomboprice.com, 150 from belle-aroma.com, 75 from marcoviaweb.net, 62 from polisplus.com, 60 from hamtechnews.com, 40 from rcdoij.nl, 28 from associacaorestauracao.br, 20 from fratiacreatorilor.ro, 4 from ezerets.info and 1 from a handful of other foreign blogs. Have the back up. Source: Ahrefs.com
As you can see from the following sample, the Brazilian blog includes additional back links to JG Wentworth and Peachtree pages and to the SSQ main page. There is even a "thank you" given to "Woodbridge Review". Again please scroll to the bottom to view the links.
Download SSQ Backlink scheme Brazil website page_id=133 (again this is 1 of 208!)
Now let's move on to JG Wentworth
My research appears to show that SSQ fancies a "pig pile on JG Wentworth", as there are 4,200 of the same type of back links, pointing to the JG Wentworth review page on the SSQ website from 70 referrring domains! The foreign blogs emanate from Australia, Argentina, Romania, China and some US domains are included. One interesting statistic is that one relatively new Argentina registered website provides over 500 back links!
The back linking scheme appears to target only JG Wentworth , Woodbridge and Peachtree
What Are Backlinks?
For those technically challenged, backlinks are are incoming links to a website or web page. Inbound links were originally important (prior to the emergence of search engines) as a primary means of web navigation; today, their significance lies in search engine optimization (SEO). Source: Wikipedia
The structured settlement secondary market has a bad enough rep without such blatant brandjacking, black hat seo, and senseless business practices based on greed.
I've heard various smaller companies complain, time and time again, JG Wentworth has too big of hold on the market, other big names low-ball clients, etc.,... but then the same companies behave in the above manner .
The secondary market can, and should, be able to produce better than SSQ. Instead we get:
Cash Now Tv Ads. Blackhat SEO. Falling share prices and lawsuits when a company does go public. News feeds (including Google's) are full of Press Releases designed to build links. PR Spam. I did find these two article 1. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/11/idUSWNB306220130111 2. http://www.edmondsun.com/opinion/x503823967/It-s-time-to-show-Mr-Wentworth-the-door
"A former Kentucky lawmaker had another term: He called it a “sleazy industry.”
Ever step in tall grass where seeds ticks are? Hundreds move up your leg in a couple seconds, much like this kind of link spam spreads and infects like a cancer.
It's OUR job, everyone in the secondary market, to take the market back. Thanks for the find, John. I enjoyed your research.
Posted by: Who is John Galt? | January 17, 2013 at 05:37 AM
They are clearly doing using black hat techniques lately. Just get the word out to report them to Google.
Here is a link to help in reporting.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35265
Here is the actual link to report them: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport
You have to be signed into Google in order to complete the report.
Posted by: Josh | January 15, 2013 at 10:03 PM