Confused about sites ranking when compared to each other
-
I'm looking at the keyword "snow guards" for two competitor websites:
snogem dot com (SG)
snoshield dot com (SS)
I've been watching these two for about 4 months. SG stays in the top 5 SERPs consistently, while SS bounces around from 15-20 on Google.
I've looked at the competitive link comparison and SS appears to have a much better link profile when it comes to DA. Page specific metrics in OSE show SS with a higher mozrank, moztrust, internal followed links, linking root domains, total linking root domains, and linking C Blocks.
It appears to me that SG has many more links, but their links seem to be many site wide exact match keyword links, and paid for advertisements on a major site in the metal roofing industry.
Honestly the linking profile of SG surprises me that they rank so much higher than SS after the Panda/Penguin updates.
I have two questions:
1. When competing against these sites, should I model SG's link profile? I'm nervous to because of my previous statement thinking they will get hit with Panda/Penguin like updates.
2. What would it take to bounce SS to competing with SG on the first page? Is the number of links the only thing this site is missing, or is there something else to focus on.
-
I'd agree with Deb and it's good to keep an eye on competitors but always best to make them want to catch you
It almost sounds like SS rankings are being affected by your own type of personalisation or possibly something to do with this: http://www.seobythesea.com/2012/08/google-rank-modifying-spammers-patent/
Regarding SG if what you say is true regarding their links then they must have a lot of good quality links which is cementing their position near the top of the SERPs.
As discussed I wouldn't emulate any of their link profiles but build what's good for the site and feels right for them.
Lastly kind of on topic, site wide links aren't always a bad thing, if they bring traffic they are definitely worth it IMO.
-
Though people still love to track what competitors are doing, I am dead against it. However, spying on keywords and competitors backlinks may help you get some new insights about new SEO strategy, if followed blindly; you might be courting a penalty.
You need to check all the links carefully, figure out whether they are actually adding any value to the website or not. Once you are 100% confirm that these links adding value to your competitors website, you can proceed.
But again, I would rather suggest you to form your own SEO strategy because this is what will be separating your website from others.
_Rather than focusing only on links that can be devastated by Google at any point of time, you need to focus on brand based link building as this will have long lasting value. _
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
I can see competitors ranking for certain long-tail keywords but cannot find them on web pages. What am I missing?
Hi there. I'm pretty new to SEO and I've been doing a fair bit of training but there is one aspect I have yet to grasp. When I carry out keyword research, I get all these results and I understand the metrics. What I'm not getting is, when a competitor is ranking highly for say "where can I buy fresh turkeys", I assume that that phrase must appear somewhere on the page, but it doesn't. I realise I'm just not thinking about this in the right way. Can anyone offer clarification, please? Kind regards, Bruce
Competitive Research | | BruceBarbour0 -
Finding most popular sites within a category - who offers that information?
Hello Mozzers - I am researching the most popular sites within a category - are there any services that identify the most popular sites within a category - I noticed Alexa do offer a service but I have no idea who else offers such a service (Majestic, perhaps?). Thanks in advance, Luke
Competitive Research | | McTaggart0 -
How on earth is this site ranking so highly?
I'm trying (& struggling) to rank for the keyword property in italy. Yet in the past 5 weeks I've seen this site -- betterpropertyitaly (dot) com -- rocket from about #30 to #2 for the keyword and am trying to figure out why. The obvious is that it's in the domain name, but that can't be the be-all-and-end-all, surely? It's a 2 yr 9 mth old site, so why the sudden spurt? I look in Open Site Explorer and the metrics look pretty weak: Domain Authority: 17 Page Authority: 29 Linking Root Domains: 9 Absolutely zero social shares. Good luck to him and all -- but I'm trying to figure out what he's doing right and I'm not. My site apart, he's beating some pretty big-hitters.
Competitive Research | | Jeepster0 -
Ecommerce seo - competitors are using spammy links to rank HELP
After setting up SEO Moz and whilst waiting for it to crawl my site i have checked out my competitors who are ranking for the keywords i am going after. It appears from what i can see in OSE that they are ranking with back links from spammy looking sites and lots of exact match anchor text. I have tried to match a few links with what they have currently without getting myself into anything too spammy but i really don't want to follow how they have done it exactly. The niche i am in is pretty boring but the rewards are great but i am finding creating content and distributing it correctly difficult which is why i need some help. My site is roughly 9 months old and the product descriptions are hand written trying to give as much info as possible with a hint of personality so no cookie cutter back of the box descriptions. i have matched a few of the links from competitors which weren't too spammy and as relevant as i could get to my niche, i have also created articles for some article directories - all of which isn't really getting me very far and i am running out of ideas on how to create new content & the types of new content to help me get back links naturally. If any of you friendly guys could offer me some assistance in setting up a basic seo campaign which would help me target my keywords i would be very much in your debt
Competitive Research | | GarethEJones0 -
Analysis tool that returns all possible phrases that a web site ranks for
Is there anything out there similar to the semrush.com's competitor research that can tell you a web sites total amount of appearances on Google that includes the phrases for which the domain ranks?
Competitive Research | | thebaldman30 -
Identify keywords certain sites target
Hello, I've been asked to identify what keywords a group of blogs/communities might target so that we might gain some insight for our own SEM purposes. It's been several years since I used SEOmoz's tools, so they have changed a lot. I couldn't remember if you had such a tool, but it appears you do not--or at least not that I am finding. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of such a tool where I can input a subdomain, and have a report stating which keywords are the ones the domain rates highly for. To be clear: I'm not looking for a traffic estimation or anything; simply a breakdown of what keywords a specific page or domain support most. P.S. I did a search on here for certain terms like "competitive keyword targets" and so forth, and saw no matching QA. I'm sorry if there is a duplicate! Thanks,
Competitive Research | | krisgosser
Kris0 -
Why my site is not crawled by open site explorer?
Hello friends, Im new here... I just create a campaign for my site www.electrosecurity.com.ec , but when I try to use open site explorer to see anything there... I receive a message saying that my site is not crawled... What can I do? I have a few links coming to my site.. but these links does not appears on my campaigns details.. for these links my site is PR3, but i can not see any of this links on the general view of my campaign. Sorry for my english....
Competitive Research | | lans27870 -
Local Real Estate Site vs Larger National Sites
Hello all, I am a local realtor that created my website with an idx feed. I am on page one but at the bottom. Question is how can a local real estate website rank better in the SERPS than the larger national brands? Any tips out there from those who have worked with real estate websites and seo? I'm trying to out rank the larger sites for my main keywords. Thanks all.
Competitive Research | | bronxpad0