Why is this site ranking #1?
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I've done extensive research into http://www.maggiesottero.com/ and cannot come up to any definitive conclusions as to why this site is ranking #1 for the term "wedding dresses." The page is not optimized for the keyword.
**Any thoughts? **
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Sorry, everyone that responded so far. Should have been more clear here. We are well aware of all the factors mentioned above, however if you conduct some competitive analysis relative to all other sites in top 10, they are clearly getting beat out in all categories mentioned below by more than 1 site. More links from a higher PR and Domain and Page Authority, more exact match and phrase match anchor text, more linking root domains, more linking C block IP's, more external links, better internal links to the homepage with exact match anchor text, more highly optimized on-page elements, better social engagement, etc.
We are well aware of the general info mentioned above, but that is why it is so puzzling. If they are so clearly getting beat on many of these metrics, why in the world are they ranking at #1 vs. companies that are beating them on the metrics that matter?
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Plus it has a solid domain age: Creation Date: 2001-07-16
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Look at the strength of their link profile:
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.maggiesottero.com
Their home page has a page authority of 74 which is fairly strong. Look at the anchor text section, they have many links with "wedding dress" and other variations of this term in the link text. They also seem to have a strong social presence on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
With shorter term phrases the link profile is a massive factor.
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Well the title tag has "wedding gowns" in it, and if you look at the backlink profile in open site explorer you'll see an awful lot of relevant anchor text around wedding dresses/gowns from other sites in the wedding niche and from high profile/high authority sites... I don't see why this is a mystery! (2,058 linking root domains).
Ranking isn't just about the on-page optimisation.
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