Another how the *%#^ is this site ranking question
-
I saw a question posted by someone a while back asking how a certain (in their opinion crappy) site was ranking in the top then.
It happened that there were some good reasons for that site ranking.
Well.... I have stumbled on a site that seems to be ranking for (almost) no reason at all:
-
relatively low DA/PA
-
very few inbound links (none seem to be that special)
-
thin content
The only thing I can think of, is that the site has the keyword in the domain name. But looking at the search results, there are other domains with exact match keyword in URL and somewhat stronger metrics that don't rank.
-
-
I am sure those reasons are part of the answer.
When ran the site through OSE, I saw 18 inbound links. That is fewer links than other sites ranking in the top 10. So, I thought maybe the site has a high domain authority. That was not the case either.
I think I figured out the reason (in addition to what you listed):
-
They have a lot of unique content on their pages. Even product pages.
-
When I run a backlink analysis on Majestic, the number of links are much higher.
Mystery solved!
-
-
This site does not look that bad to me, why should it not rank?
a) pr3 homepage
b) a large amount of pages indexed with unique anchor texts and title tags
c) good breadcrumbs and decent url structure
d) no obvious keyword stuffing
-
What's the URL?
-
Probably because google has killed all their competition and they are the last ones standing.
-
Interesting. I guess you are right. There are only two domains in top 10 with those two keywords in the domain name. I don't think Exact Match is a huge factor anymore but that's the only explanation in this case.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why is this page ranking #2?
Hello, I am hoping someone can shed a bit of light on why this page http://www.leveragerx.com/physician-mortgages is ranking #2 for "physician loans"? It isn't optimized for that keyword and PA is only 1, DA is 9. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Competitive Research | | myriad_ricardo0 -
Why do some sites perform great but show no data on the tool bar?
Hey everyone, Been a paid member for 3 days and this is my first time posting 🙂 I have a quick question about competitive analysis with the MozBar. I do not want to point out the exact website (unless that is something cool to do on this forum), but there is a site ranking for a single keyword in the local 7 pack in slot one, which is also slot one for the SERP entirely. When I go to look at the page in more detail, the MozBar is showing no DA, PA, anything at all, and the Open Site Explorer is showing no links internal or external. I know that the page has to have at least some of these elements populated in order to be ranking for a term this competitive, so why is the bar not showing anything? The bar works GREAT on other sites below this one. Thanks for any help!
Competitive Research | | tonyflorespsa0 -
Rankings & Linking Root Domains
How are the Linking Root Domains under Keyword Rankings being found? We've noticed for many of our key terms that big brands like Amazon, eBay, Home Depot, etc. only list 1 linking root domain, while much smaller competitors in our industry have hundreds. Clearly big brands are going to get more links than a company most people haven't heard of and the idea that these companies only have 1 linking root domain to a specific subcategory on their site is not believable. What's going on here?
Competitive Research | | Kingof50 -
Why do keyword competition rankings differ between Google and SeoMoz?
I am a novice at keyword ranking etc. so I appreciate your patience! I checked a longtail keyword - how do i get out of this relationship - in Google AdWords and it came back 'low competition.' When I entered it in SeoMoz it came back as 'very competitive.' Any thoughts? I appreciate your help.
Competitive Research | | UncleTodd0 -
Why is the Site indexed?
Hi, I'm trying to test a few things for which I've registered and set up new domains. For the set up I used Wordpress. Each Site has about three articles in it but no links pointing to them. Also I didn't take any measures to get my site indexed. However, one week later all my sites were indexed. Why is that and how can it be? I'm thankful for any answer since the problem is really ruining my test environment. The only clue I have, as to why this could be happening, is that I didn't remove the ping sites.Is that the reason? Or are there also other reasons? Thanks
Competitive Research | | Windex0 -
Best way to check a sites traffic that you dont own. (Canadian Site)
We are looking for a way to get the estimated traffic for some sites in our niche. Usually we use compete.com or spyfu, but they only track traffic in the US. Does anyone know a way we can get traffic estimates in Canada? Thanks in advance.
Competitive Research | | ClaytonKendall0 -
Government Sites Cluttering Results?
Hi Guys, Have you ever come across government sites that are cluttering up SERP's that you're trying to rank for? For a new site that I'm working on one of the keyword terms is "driving test cancellations" and is in the UK. 3 of the top 4 results are government related sites which have verry little (if not nothing) to do with the keywords. Whilst these government sites are (very) loosley related to the keyword terms, and understandably have high pa/da, what would be the best way to try and rrank higher than these sites. I'm in the process of building links and social profiles - I'm really just wondering if there's something I'm missing that is an "easy fix" for jumping ahead of these sites - or getting them removed due to their lack of relevence. Gary...
Competitive Research | | perfectweb0 -
PA and PD better than my competitors is a way to rank better?
I got a site that stuck in last position of google's first page. My on-page is grade A for this particulary page, i got links for that page too. But My competitors PA and PD is better than mine, not too much, but it is. If i build more quality backlinks and start increasing my PA and PD probaly i will rank better than my competitors? Thats the factor that i have do cara abour now?
Competitive Research | | Ex20
