How can you rank nr 1 for high competitive keyword with low DA and only 1 backlink?

[AleksanderOlsen]

Hi!

Was wondering if anyone can explain this a bit clearer...
Image attatched...

How is it possible to rank on Google Norway for spot nr.1 (page in English language) and spot nr.2 (page in Norwegian language) , when all you competitors have higher PA, DA and a lot more backlinks and better on-page optimization according to MOZ?

Is there something I´m misunderstanding?
Just when I thought SEO started to make sense

7sXH00d

[NgEF]

Hi Aleksander,

As what Claudio and Kate have already mentioned, there might be other factors in play. Just a question though, in the screenshot you posted, was the search retrieved from your normal browser or an incognito/private tab? A simpler explanation for the rankings might be that whilst using your normal browser, your search results were personalized. When someone (in this case you), performs a search, the results are influenced by not only the relevancy/links/DA etc, but also whether the sites have been visited by the user on other queries in the past (or someone else using the same browser).

A simple way of finding out is to open up an incognito tab (Chrome), or a private window (FireFox) and using the same keyword to search again. If the results are different, then it might simply be a case of personalized search influencing the results.

Hope it helps!

[katemorris]

As Claudio said, there are many things behind the scenes we can't always know. The sheer number of links, PA, DA, etc, those are from a third party, Moz. As much as it is the best external look at link equity, domain strength and more, it's still not from Google.

There is more to ranking than just links and strength though. On page factors are important of course, but there are so many other pieces of the puzzle.

In this instance it looks like a language preference issue. Your screenshot shows that the first result is in English. The others are not, as they offer translation inside the SERP. The first result is the best result for this particular search for this particular user. It might not be across the board, but that is why you are seeing this result right now. It's a relevance to the user issue.

[ClayRey]

These sites could be penalized (Panda, Penguin etc).

Hope it helps