My site is always in the top 4 on google, and sometimes goes to #2\. But the site at #1 is always at #1 .. how can i beat them?

[88mph]

So i'm sure this is a very generic question.. of course everyone wants to be #1.

We are an ecommerce web site. We have all sorts of products, user ratings, and are loved by our customers. We sell over 3 million a year.

So let me give you some data.. First of all one of the sites that keeps taking the #2 or #3 spot is amazons category for what we sell.. (i'm not sure if I should say who we are here.. as I don't want the #1 spot to realize we are trying to take them over!) Amazon of course has a domain authority of 100. But they never take the #1 spot.

The other site that takes the #2 and #3 spot is not even selling anything. Happens to be a technical term's with the same name wikipedia page! (i wish google would figure out people aren't looking for that!)

Anyways.. every day we bouce back and forth between #4 and #2.. but #1 never changes..

Here are the stats of us verse #1 from moz:

#1: Page Authority: 56.8, Root Domains Linking to page: 158, Domain Authority: 54.6: root domains linking to the root domain 1.42k

my site: Page Authority: 60.6, Root domains linking to the page: 562, Domain Authority: 52.8: root domains linking to the root domain: 1.03k

So they beat us in domain authority SLIGHTLY and in root domains linking to the root domain.

So SEO masters.. what do I do to fix this? Get better backlinks? But how.... I can't just email GQ and ask them to write about us can I?

I'm open to all things.. Maybe i'm not using moz data correctly..  We should at least be #2. We get #2 every other day.

[Vizergy]

You aren't doing poorly at all!

[88mph]

i wasn't sure about having free shipping in the title. does google see that an penalize you are all .. it's like an add in the title..

But we do offer free shipping. for everyone in the USA.

We do put FREE SHIPPING in our adwords title, but not our organic titles. But people here say to trust you, so in goes FREE SHIPPING.

[88mph]

Thanks for the responses.. we are undergoing a complete responsive site overhaul..with all the goals mentioned above. Speed, etc..

but don't expect that to be ready for nearly 8 months or so. However our first step is creating a responsive home page. .which is going to include mostly highly ranked,best selling, and featured product listings.. (right now we have a few feature products, and a bit of the last 2 blog posts, but no product listings on the home page).

I think that's going to help quite a bit.

Thank you for reminding me that improving the site itself can help just as much... I'll just have to be patient.

AFter all we are between #4 and #2 in a keyword the moz grades as 58% difficulty. We aren't doing THAT bad! People who do find us LOVE us and continue to remain customers.

[Vizergy]

Thanks!

[EGOL]

**These things seem to be more and more important. **

Yes... good addition... we just had some speed work done a couple of weeks ago.  Good investment even if no rankings increase results.

[Vizergy]

As always EGOL's response consists of words to live by - his white hat, good content approach wont only get you where you want to be, it will keep you there no matter what updates Google launches (unless they just go insane).

The only thing I would add is to really look at your website's usability compared to theirs.  How is your page load speed compared to theirs?  Is their website far easier to navigate?  Do you meet ada compliance?  If not, do they?

These things seem to be more and more important.

[EGOL]

The data that you posted are mainly onpage and offpage metrics.    See what you can do to beat these other sites on visitor engagement....  Start with clickthrough rate from the SERPs.  See what you can do to elicit clicks away from the other sites...

-- offer a kickass price in the title tag

-- offer immediate free shipping in the title

-- tell them you have the "Secrets to Success"

-- tell them you have "Free Beer"

These will get potential customers onto your website.

Then do things to lower your bounce rate.  Offer lots of related content or related products on every page.  This will entice people to view another page and keep them on your site longer.   I use big image menus for alternative reading on the right side of the page... and the bottom of the article I have a site search box and more reading options... within most articles I have links to related content.  Keep them on your site.

Figure out what you can do to have people ask for you by name.   Do you have content that brings people back regularly and typing "yourdomain.com" into google search as a navigational query.  Regular news, regular blog posts, a continuous stream of contests, daily deals, giveaways, coupons.   When you have this kind of stuff people return to your site regularly.   If google sees that people are asking for you by name then you might get a boost.  (this takes real work btw)

These are just a few things to try.. might not work but even if they don't they each bring other benefits.

[88mph]

Follow up.. why do google ranking bounce around so much.. i'm always in the top 4.. I was #4 this morning.. just checked and now i'm #2.. and my main competition is #3.. (i check with moz).. why can't google agree with itself for a few hours who should rank where?