Ranking Oddities
-
In my local marketplace, I have competitors who have the following:
- unoptimized title tags and description tags (really long using keyword stuffing),
- stuffing keywords into the Meta keywords tag,
- lacking keywords in the body copy,
- using spammy footers or sections of text with a lot of local cities listed where no physical business is located,
- unattractive design (in my humble opinion),
- lower page authority,
- lower domain authority,
- lower number of back links
and are organically outranking my site that I have tried to optimize using the MOZ tools, Market Samurai, other tools, and other great advice provided by people much more knowledgeable than myself about SEO.
I don't understand how these sites that lack SEO continue to rank in the #1 or #2 spots in Google for my main keyword phrase + location, while my site is either not in the top 50 or in the top 40s range.
How is it that sites with little to no optimization, no blogs, and very few backlinks, continue to rank quite well?
These are not all new sites. Domain ages range from 1 to 10 years. What I am seeing appears to go against the grain of SEO recommendations.
Any general thoughts?
-
AJ,
I took a look at your backlink profile and it's pretty clear what the problem is. You basically have nothing but spam backlinks (I will PM you examples). It looks like there was a big influx of links around September 2013. Did you pay someone to do SEO about 6 months ago?
Your site doesn't look bad, but it's got some instances of over-optimization (again, I'll PM you examples).
You should definitely verify Google Webmaster Tools, if you haven't already, and check to see if you have a manual action against you from Google. After looking at your backlink profile, I would be surprised if you don't have one. However, if you don't, it may be coming soon. If you don't know how to do the backlink cleanup and reconsideration request yourself, it would be a good idea to hire someone with experience.
-
I sent you a PM with the URLs for the sites.
-
These sites are in a boring industry; divorce lawyers.
None of these sites are "popular," nor do they have any user interface experiences that are cutting edge or fund or exciting. Each site provides information about the law firm, the lawyer(s), and the services offered. None of the sites utilize much media, such as video or audio.
I can provide the URLs for the sites, but I don't know if that is acceptable to do in this thread. If not, I would be happy to send them via private message.
None of the sites are providing anything truly unique, however my blog does provide information for people that goes beyond the stereotypical divorce information blog. The information is related and relevant, and I would like to think it is somewhat unique.
-
Do they offer information of value to the people who visit the site? Are there some user-facing reasons why the sites are popular?
-
What's your backlink profile look like? There's literally a million questions that I could ask you but without being able to see the query, the websites, or the backlink profiles, it is really REALLY tough to pinpoint the issue.
-
How old is your domain? Is your site speed good?
-
As far as I can tell, these other websites are not updated frequently. There are no active blogs on any of these sites. Google+ accounts are non-existent or not active. Facebook business accounts are non-existent or not active.
-
curious if these site that are ranking higher than you update their content more regularly than you? and how active are their social media communities (especially their Google+ account)?
Chris
-
I literally was just about to type this same question. I'm baffled too. The only conclusion I arrive at is perhaps the other sites receive more traffic. Hopefully a zen master chimes in on this one.
chris
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
-
Redirect chains and rankings
Hi All, I've got interesting question for Moz community today. Has redirect chain got any impact on rankings or not? Thank you in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | Optimal_Strategies0 -
Why i my site not ranking
I have been building my website www.ubodo.com ( its a property portal ) I have feeds coming in from nearly 200 estate agents and I have just over 26k properties listed all over the world. I have tried to make the site fast, mobile friendly and followed several SEO tutorials but I am looky If I get 10 new visitors a day !!! I have managed to get 1st page ranking for terms like " Property for sale in Hambye" ( less competitve than " Property for Sale in France " ) Can any one see anything obvious I have done wrong, I feel like there is a switch to turn on the traffic and I cant find it. Any help would be greatly appreciated Barry
On-Page Optimization | | Bazconnolly10 -
URL, page title, item name - which is most important for google ranking
We are a bridal store and are able to use different information in the URL, Page title and item name. In item name we give the product a name for us to identify ie. Alex Lace Dress in Black/Nude, Ivory/Nude, Red/Red In Page Title we use the suppliers name and product code as well as the item name ie. Jadore j8075 Alex Lace Dress Online Australia URL = alex-lace-dress/ Are we using the correct format ? What could we do to improve them?
On-Page Optimization | | CostumeD0 -
Review my website and guide me what can do for top ranking.
Hi Guys, I really need your advice for my website (bmgapt dot com). I'm loosing ranking on (Buffalo Apartments) keyword. Two months ago my ranking number is 3 but now loosing to 15 number. What can I do for get again top ranking. Thanks in advance. John Smith
On-Page Optimization | | KLLC0 -
Some of my pages have KWs in common and google is switching those resulting in rank loss, how to fix that?
Hello, my site deals with pictures you can download and print for free. Because people search for it I have several page with similar content. For example: picture of dog free printing image of dog free printing painting of dog free printing picture of cat free printing image of cat free printing painting of cat free printing Just as an example. Now after tracking my ranks I found out that google changes those sites in the rankings. For example for the kw picture of dog free printing the site for picture of dog free printing is in the rankings but on another day it is image of dog free printing and on another painting of dog free printing. So those Google is switching the pages for one kw some times and it seems each time it does that I'm loosing rankings. I'm thinking it is because image of dog free printing and painting of dog free printing isn't as well optimized as the page that should appear: picture of dog free printing. With the more general kw of free printing it is even more complicated. I get some traffic through free printing (just an example) and all 6 example pages are being shown in the google search results from one day to another and again it looses some rank each time. What can I do to stop this?
On-Page Optimization | | SeeSharp10 -
Ranking well with Google but not in Top 50 with Bing and Yahoo?
I have sometimes pages ranking very well on Google but in comparison with Bing and Yahoo they are not listed within the Top50 SERP's What are the ranking factors for Bing and Yahoo? Although Bing and Yahoo play a minor role it would be fine also to rank well with these engines. Thanks for any tips!
On-Page Optimization | | inlinear0 -
Could incorrect H1 tag stop a page ranking?
A few weeks ago I added an image to the top of each page and somehow (I've only just noticed) the image was inside an h1 tag. Presumably this would be the first element google would crawl and would it consider the image the h1 possibly confusing google about the pages content? My actual h1 further down the page would then possible be disregarded by google? The pages I am talking about have dropped in google and I wonder if this could have been the issue?
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
Will deleting excess self serving links from old posts damage established ranking
My SEOmoz report showed many posts with "too many links." I can easily go back into wordpress and delete self serving links. But is there a downside to this if these posts are already ranked well on google search for the desired key words? Or will deleting the excess self serving links improve ranking
On-Page Optimization | | wianno1680