How can a site rank higher when you beat them by A LOT on virtually every SEOMOZ factor?

[rickt007]

Any insight into what's driving these results would be appreciated.

Another site ranks #6 and we rank #22 on a keyword that scores 67% for "Keyword Difficulty", but we score significantly higher than them on almost every ranking factor including having nearly 10 times more backlinks along with higher PA and DA scores,etc. Here is a comparison from the Keyword Difficulty Tool report.

Question: What could be going on?

Factor and ranking comparison (us v. them) with our higher rankings are listed first.

PA: 61 v. 39,

mozRank 5,85 v. 4,54,

mozTrust 6.00 v. 5.49,

mT/mR = 1.0 v. 1.2,

total links = 4,198 v. 90,

internal links = 4198 v 90,

external links = 275 v. 57,

followed links = 4171 v 85,

no follow links = 27 v 5,

linking root domains = 46 v 30

on-page grade = A v B

broad keyword usage in title: yes v yes

broad keyword usage in document: yes v yes

keyword used in url = no v no

keyword used in domain = partial v no

KW exact match - no v no

exact anchor text links = 2373 v 13

%links w/ exact anchor text = 56% v 14%

linking root domains w/ exact anchor text = 7 v 8

% linking root domains w/ exact anchor text = 15% v 26%

partial anchor text links = 0 v 0

Domain Authority = 54 v 27

Domain mozRank = 5.4 v 3.2

Domain mozTrust = 5.8 v 3.7

DmT/DmR = 1.1 v 1.2

External links to domain 9261 v 63

Linking root domains to this domain = 355 v 33

linking c- blocks domains to domain = 267 v 30

tweets = 4 v 3

FB shares = 13 v 11

Google Plus one shares = 1 v 0

[PeterAlexLeigh]

That's the problem! Although some do surprisingly!

Google's wise to this though and so if it sees that you have a good number of quality links, it won't penalise you for it. Otherwise a competitor could just build spammy links on your behalf and ruin your ranking!

[chickster]

Shelly, that is very helpful. Id pretty much thought that was it. Though I somehow doubt the owners of these rubbish sites are going to take the time to remove the links.

[PeterAlexLeigh]

You should probably start a new Thread for this Tina - you'll get more responses.

The only way to remove bad links really is to contact the site owners where the bad links reside and ask them to remove them! There's no quick fix unfortunately.

You can use opensiteexplorer to seek out the links which are bad, then you'll need to go through them one by one, seek out the contact details for the site admin (using WHOis if necessary) and then ask for the link to be taken down.

If you have spammy links, you should also concentrate on creating QUALITY links at the same time. Google will usually ignore most spammy links as long as you have a reasonable number of good links in your profile as well.

Hope that helps.

[chickster]

Im sorry to ask what is probably a not too bright question - but how exactly do you get spammy links removed? For example, how did you get the Forex links taken down Andrew?

[Entrusteddev]

Look at where your links are coming from and try and get rid of any links that may come from spammy websites.

These could be websites that have many outbound links which bear no relation to each other or Sites which have no relation in subject matter to your website.

I recently checked my link profile and found loads of links from Forex trading sites, which all appeared to be really spammy! Cleaned up and saw my SERPs rise back into top 10!

[rickt007]

Thx.  watched it, makes good sense.

[ResslerMotors]

Here's a good video on it: http://acumenstudio.com/articles/2011/09/exact-match-vs-partial-match-in-seo-today/

You will want to start diversifying your anchor text.  Start contacting some of the webmasters that you have links from, and ask them to change the anchor text.

[rickt007]

I have considered this, but I suspect something else is playing a much bigger role.

Here's why --- a couple months ago we were not optimized for "exact match" and we were still below them.  We've only been building exact match in the last couple months.

Also, if a site beats another on so many factors, is it really possible that just one factor like "exact match" links being over 20% could put you below them?

Seems like something else is in play here.  No?

[rickt007]

anything specific you have in mind to "clean up" the link profile?

[rickt007]

2 years v 9 years; theirs is older, but ours is over 2 years old

[Entrusteddev]

In my experience it sounds like your link profile could be letting you down. Use OSE to analyse your links and try and clean it up.

[ResslerMotors]

Here's what Blueglass said about too many exact match links:

"Penalties, as opposed to rewards, are being reaped for too many exact match links."

In this article: http://www.blueglass.com/blog/link-building-in-a-pandas-world/

It used to be all about getting exact match links, but things have definitely changed.  For starters, guess how easy it is to see if you are having a major hand in your link building?  Super easy if you keep forcing exact match text.

I would suggest:

Making your link profile look more natural

Making sure most of your exact links come from the higher quadrant of your link profile (but still under 20% saturation)

Continue growing

[USHoleInOne]

Age of a domain registered seems to be a factor. I have been working on a newer site and our new site is ranking higher than our competitors in all seomoz factor but not over taking the older sites. All I can say is keep up the good work and one day you will catch up.

[Malarowski]

What is the age of both domains?

[ResslerMotors]

%links w/ exact anchor text = 56% v 14%

I've heard that 20%, depending on the vertical, is about the maximum threshold for exact match links.  Perhaps you are over-optimized?