Why a terrible website ranks number 1??
-
Hi,
I'm an SEO newbie.
A couple of months ago I launched a new E-Commerce website for my client :
http://www.corporategiftsshop.co.za
The site has over 1000 pages indexed in Google. I've done some link building and on-page SEO for the keyword terms :
corporate gifts
promotional items
promotional giftsCurrently the website ranks number 31 for "Corporate Gifts" in Google.co.za
What I cannot comprehend, is that the site which ranks number 1 is simply shocking!
http://www.corporategifts.co.za/
It is a single, static webpage with all links pointing to another website : http://www.promogifts.co.za
It has 1 back link and a page rank of zero, yet it still ranks number 1? Can anyone give me a reason or some insight into this as it has me stumped..
Some of the other sites in the top 5 are also poor, yet they still rank high.
Our site has a Page rank of 5 and 67 unique domains which links to it ( according to our webmaster tools ) yet it still only manages a 31 ranking??
Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I need to make sense of this, otherwise hang up my SEO gloves..
Regards,
Marnus.
-
I know this is an old thread but both these websites are on the 1st page now hahahah
-
Very good question,Marnus.I also checked other websites such as giftwrap is also ranking high but has a low DA.
-
Hi,
If you have built good links then wait for some days Google will crawl your site. I suggest you should do local listing in .co.za and get backlinks from local directories of .co.za. SO it will good for your site for getting top rank.
-
Thanks for the suggestions. I've built numerous links from Relevant .co.za sites, but I see Google has not indexed them as yet. Not sure hat I can do to speed things up a bit? Still blows my mind that such a site can rank number 1. I thought google now rewards content and quality?
-
Ya it is redirecting, it open with or without www. but see with www it has 10 links and domain authority is also higher than yours and 67 % links comes from .co.za domain. so my suggestions are that if you increase keyword density and add that keyword in H1 tag then you can also beat that site. Try to do relevant and dofollw link building. If you get backlinks from .co.za domains the it will also boost your ranking.
-
I checked without the WWW. I checked OpenSiteEx sing the full domain www.corporategifts.co.za and it returned only 3 domains which link to the site
-
Hi,
My Client Website is www.corporategiftsshop.co.za
The site which ranks number 1 is www.corporategifts.co.za ( Does not return any data in OpenSiteExplorer )
-
<cite>www.corporategifts.co.za/</cite> <cite>are you check this domain ??? because i cheeked this domain and it has many indexed pages and 10 backlinks. I also check in</cite> ahrefs.com it has 8 Dofollow links.
-
I checked www.coprorategifts.co.za in OpenSite Explore and it says :
No Data Available for this URL
Site only has 2 Pages indexed by Google as well..
-
hi,
Please check both site in opensite explorer www.coprorategifts.co.za has 67% links from .co.za domain and you get only 33% If you get relevant backlinks and dofollow links then you can also beat that site. Also check keyword density of that site is has higher keyword density for corporate gifts compare to your site. They put keyword in title and also in H1 tag so Google gives more preference to that site compare to yours. Do link building which have .co.za extension so it will help you to rank higher.
-
Hi,
Yes it does, but that still does not explain why the site www.coprorategifts.co.za ranks number 1 for the term "corporate gifts"
Surely having just the keywords in your domain name cannot be the main ranking factor? I thought Google did not give that much weight anymore?
Regards,
Marnus.
-
Hi,
Please check these three sites in opensite explorer. Your site has less backlinks and domain authority and social presence then this site http://www.promogifts.co.za/ and it contains keyword in it's domain.
http://www.corporategifts.co.za/ This site contains corporate gifts keywords in their domain thats why it has top ranking. If you search with corporate gifts shop then your site appear on 2nd position.
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
-
Website's server IP address is redirected to blog by mistake; does Google responds?
Hi all, Our website's server IP address is set to be redirected to our blog by mistake and it stayed same for months. Is there any way Google recognises it and how it responds if so? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz1 -
How to outrank list and lifestyle websites
Hi everyone, We have a fully optimised client site with Moz optimisation scores of 95% and above. Each month we also create 1-2 backlinks. However, for the keywords we track, our client's site is stuck and no longer moving up at the bottom of page 1 and further down to page 2 and 3. The keywords ranking on first page are also getting very low click through rates - between 1% and 3%. The sites that outrank us are a mix of: Top X Places to visit... X Best Places to see... Trip advisor Things to do in... A guide to the best... Is there a chance for us to outrank the type of sites above? Will persevering in link building do the trick? I understand this may take a while because we have a fixed time and budget for each of our clients. If we can't outrank these lifestyle and list sites, will beating just direct competitors be enough? However, this won't change the low CTR issue... Another solution we're looking at is to change our keywords, which may be a bit tough because the current ones we track, even though they are a little broad, are exactly what the client offer and already have low search volumes. Going more specific will surely have lesser search volumes. Thanks in advance.
Algorithm Updates | | nhhernandez0 -
Do keyword target landing pages increase rankings?
Let's say we create landing pages for targeted keywords in our niche. So like we have landing pages optimised for 80% of the top keywords with decent search volume. If these pages started ranking at first page or around; will this scenario improves the ranking of website? Right now, only few of our top pages are ranking good. Planning to create more of such.
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
My Website No Longer Appears in Mobile Google Search but Does in Desktop...Why Is This?
For a long time my website has appeared in both desktop and mobile search in Google. Yet recently it has stopped appearing in mobile yet still on desktop. Any ideas why this is happening and how to rectify it please? Many Thanks.
Algorithm Updates | | WSIDW0 -
How on earth is a site with ONE LINK ranking so well for a competitive keyword?
Ok, so I'm sure you get the gist of what I'm asking about in my question. The query is 'diy kitchens' in Google UK and the website is kitchens4diy[dot]com - which is ranking in third from my viewing. The thing is, the site has just ONE BACKLINK and has done for a good while. Yet, it's ranking really well. What gives?
Algorithm Updates | | Webrevolve0 -
Does anyone know if Google ranks a responsive site, or a specific mobile site higher than each other?
I have heard that Google favors specific .m sites overs responsive designs in it's rankings. Does anyone know if this is true? And, if there is any supporting information. I have been in contact with our account team at Google but haven't had a response on this as yet. I appreciate any help on this. Cheers!
Algorithm Updates | | Fasthosts0 -
Shouldn’t Google always rank a website for its own unique, exact +10 word content such as a whole sentence?
Hello fellow SEO's, I'm working with a new client who owns a property related website in the UK.
Algorithm Updates | | Qasim_IMG
Recently (May onwards) they have experienced significant drops in nearly all non domain/brand related rankings. From page 1 to +5 or worse. Please see the attached webmaster tools traffic graph.
The 13th of June seemed to have the biggest drop (UK Panda update???) When we copy and paste individual +20 word sentences from within top level content Google does bring up exact results, the content is indexed but the clients site nearly always appears at the bottom of SERP's. Even very new or small, 3-4 page domains that have clearly all copied all of their content are out ranking the original content on the clients site. As I'm sure know, this is very annoying for the client! And this even happens when Google’s cache date (that appears next to the results) for the clients content is clearly older then the other results! The only major activity was the client utilising Google optimiser which redirects traffic to various test pages. These tests finished in June. Details about the clients website: Domain has been around for 4+ years The website doesn't have a huge amount of content, around 40 pages. I would consider 50% original, 20% thin and 30% duplicate (working on fixing this) There haven’t been any signicant sitewide or page changes. Webmaster tools show nothing abnormal or any errors messages (some duplicate meta/title tags that are being fixed) All the pages of the site are indexed by Google Domain/page authority is above average for the niche (around 45 in for the domain in OSE) There are no ads of any kind on the site There are no special scripts or anything fancy that could cause problems I can't seem to figure it out, I know the site can be improved but such a severe drop where even very weak domains are out ranking suggests a penalty of some sort? Can anyone help me out here? hxuSn.jpg0 -
Rankings in Bing/Yahoo lower than in Google
Other than a few keywords, my rankings are consistently lower in MSN/Bing/Yahoo than in Google. Any ideas or suggestions as to why?
Algorithm Updates | | NueMD0