How better can we compare with a competitor ?

[monali123]

We were ranking 1st to 5th spot for the keyword, "PSD to Joomla Template"

for this page,

http://www.qubesys.com/psd-to-joomla-template/ for last 2 years! But since last 6 months, we are getting like 0 traffic to this page and absolutely no leads. We just tried to compare with a ranking competitor who has been on top for last 7-8 months already,

www.joomla6teen.com/Convert-PSD-to-Joomla-Template.html

I just compared it with my page,

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/comparisons?site=www.joomla6teen.com%2FConvert-PSD-to-Joomla-Template.html&comparisons[0]=http://www.qubesys.com/psd-to-joomla-template/

I see our page wins in PAGE METRICS , but falls in SUB DOMAIN AND ROOT DOMAIN Metrics . Whats that ?

How do we know, what all things we need to improve at ?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Run a "Full Report" to see more metrics. Here's a screenshot: http://static.seomoz.org/uploads/run-full-serp-report.jpg

[monali123]

Hi Cyrus,

Thanks for your reply! Here is my input :

1. In the SERP Analysis tool, it only shows the rank and view details shows page and domain authority. How else can we compare the metrics to see the space to improve ?

2. No such google penalty message from google to us. I checked Google Webmaster Tools > Site Messages.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Monali,

Root domain and subdomain metrics are definitely important. While I can't tell you what Google is using to rank your page, it's definitely worth reading about.

http://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority

One good way to see where your competitor is beating you is to run a "Full Report" using the SERP Analysis tool (run the full report after you run the basic report) This should give you an overview of where your competitor is beating you on certain metrics.

Also, you may be right that you've been hit with a Penguin like penalty. In this case, it may be worth it to clean up any bad links you have. If you've received any penalty messages via Google Webmaster Tools, then following this process up with disavowing any remaining links and filing a reconsideration request would be in order.

And keep building good content and earning good links!

Best of luck with your SEO. - Cyrus

[monali123]

So you mean, more the links coming to root domain is good ?

I dont think so!

The only reason I see is, our page was manually tried to rank like by submitting to websites and directories and thus it has affected. I think, we need to remove every link out there by requesting and then we should be good to go.

[Santaur]

You probably have more links pointing to your PAGE, but your competitor probably has more links pointing to their DOMAIN.