Who is beating you on Google (after Penguin)?

[rayvensoft]

Hi,
   After about a month of Penguin and 1 update, I am starting to notice an annoying pattern as to who is beating me in the rankings on google.  I was wondering if anybody else has noticed this. 
   The sites who are beating me - almost without exception - fall into these 2 categories.

1) Super sites that have little or nothing to do with the service I am offering.  Now it is not the homepages that are beating me.  In almost all cases they are simply pages hidden in their forums where somebody in passing mentioned something relating to what I do.

2) Nobodies.  Sites that have absolutely no links back to them, and look like they were made by a 5 year old.

Has anybody else noticed this?  I am just wondering if what I see only apply to my sites or if this is a pattern across the web.  Does this mean that for small sites to rank, it is now all about on-page SEO?

If it all about on-page, well that is great... much easier than link building.  But I want to make sure others see the same thing before dedicating a lot of time to overhaul my sites and create new content.|

Thanks!

[EGOL]

For long tail queries I don't worry about junk sites beating me.  Because I know that I will get them over time.

[rayvensoft]

Hi Egol,
  Thanks for the feedback.  I appreciate your insight.

I forgot to add that I am actually seeing this more for my long-tail keywords.  Luckily not for my primary keywords where I am still ranking pretty well (#1 for most).  But the confusing part is that the sites I am being beaten by don't seem to be optimized for these long-tail keywords either.  In fact, one of the sites is only 3 months old and a lot of his content is stolen from other sites.

But not to whine, I know this is part of the game, I just wanted to know if this was something other people were seeing as well in order to make a game plan.  I am still planning on being in a holding pattern for about 2-3 more months to get more info on Penguin.  But every little bit helps.

Thanks.

[EGOL]

I see what you describe on four types of sites:

1. new sites

2. sites that need better on-page optimization

3. older sites that have not gained a lot of popularity

4. sites that are being held back by some problem