What works when common ranking factors fail?

[PreetSibia]

I have seen in few instances where the ranking factors doesn't seem to work for competitive keywords. The websites which don't have more than one or two links rank much higher in search results.

Any clue what SEOs should do in that scenario?

[PreetSibia]

Thank you friends. Got the answer in the latest white board friday.

[EGOL]

David's answer is really short... but it's really true.

[DavidKonigsberg]

Focus on providing a better user experience - bounce rate etc play a part in rankings these days

[BrightHealth]

External factors play a big part in this. If you aren't carrying a site like Amazon.com to use for your linking disposal, you're going to have a big uphill battle. Unfortunately, right now, part of that battle is the quantity of Time and significant natural growth within your link profile. Sites like Diapers.com can become a major competitor quickly (and you'll see this with Media groups & corporate conglomerates as well) as they have the whole network of sites at their disposal. Linking schemes between the properties can bring these relatively new players hundreds of thousands of dollars in organic traffic revenue in a relatively short period of time.

Your specific scenario is a tough one to speculate on.. simply because we can not see what you are seeing without looking at the sites in question.