Why is this site ranking so good?

[Tonyy3]

Site in question: http://bit.ly/aBvVbm

Our main competitor in the UK seems to be ranking extremely good for the keyword "jigsaw puzzles" even though their linking profile doesn't seem all that great?

They mainly have site-wide links on 2 of their other ecommerce sites which seem to be given them their ranking power as this equals to 100's of links.

Does sitewide links on 2 sites really give this much ranking power or am I missing something?

[Tonyy3]

So you're saying, the 4 things you mentioned are the major factors for the site ranking?

[RyanKent]

My response is....

I give ZERO weight to the domain being 12 years old. NONE. Whether a domain is 12 weeks old or 12 years old has absolutely no direct consideration in rankings.

Indirectly, the longer a domain has existed the more time it has had to earn links and that is an advantage, but the domain age in and of itself is not a factor. If you bought a domain 12 years ago and let is sit parked all that time and began to use it now, you would not have any advantage over a new domain in SERPs.

I appreciate your perspective Rhys but I disagree with it. For me, the rankings make perfect sense, and apparently they do for Google as well. In my experience you are overlooking the major factors which are readily apparent while looking for explanations in less obvious and less important factors. You are welcome to disagree in which case I am not able to help. Perhaps someone else will share some the feedback you prefer.

[Tonyy3]

I know that there are over 200 rankings and that the weight of each is unknown BUT on a logical level, the things you stated wouldn't give that much of a ranking power.

Lets be honest, the things you stated are some of the easiest things to manipulate and change for a website to benefit so it's very unlikely they would have much power.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying what your stating is wrong or that it's bad advice (because it IS good advice). Just saying that because I don't want it too look like I'm getting mad at you haha.

I do agree the domain is extremely helpful and like someone else mentioned having a store up and running for 12 years, is very trustworthy.

Therefore, it's main power ATM seems to come from it's links... which comes back to my original question.. is it those 2 sitewide links giving it the most juice?

[RyanKent]

There are over 200 ranking factors and not all of them are known. Even for the ones which are known, the specific weighting is not known. I can easily name off dozens of other ranking factors which I did not check, but then again I did not need feel the need to based on seeing the above major factors which are so clear and obvious.

[Tonyy3]

While those are rankings factors, surely they aren't responsible for such good rankings?

[avassa]

Add to that the fact that the domain has some good age. It was registered on 27-Sep-2000, so it is a 12 year old domain to be precise.

[RyanKent]

Our main competitor in the UK seems to be ranking extremely good for the keyword "jigsaw puzzles" even though their linking profile doesn't seem all that great?

Before even thinking about a linking profile, take a look at the site and onpage factors.

1. The domain name is jigsawpuzzlesdirect.co.uk, a partial match domain name with the first two terms in the domain name.

2. Their page title is "Jigsaw Puzzles Direct - A huge range of jigsaws, jigsaw puzzles, mind puzzles and accessories for all ages that you can buy online." It's not a great title, but it begins with a match to the phrase and contains another match to the phrase.

3. The H1 tag on the page is Jigsaw Puzzles

4. The very first words of content match the search term: "Jigsaw Puzzles Direct have made buying a jigsaw puzzle online easier than doing one! "

There are certainly opportunities for them to improve SEO but the above factors are very strong. How does your site compare on these factors? I would not even think about links until you addressed the main factors above.