Grade F page on Moz positions No 1 on Google Keywords not contained

[Eff-Commerce]

Hi

I am trying to understand why a page list in position 1 on Google despite the fact it does not include the search terms anywhere in the page source.  One of our sites has been in that position for years has great content and links for the key word terms so how can the other page overtake it and all of the other keywords without so much as a sniff of the keyword in the URL, Meta, content or images. It grades F on Moz!

How can I discover the technique that has been used.  This really is black art stuff or do Google accept payment from major corporations to list their pages irrespective of content?

[Eff-Commerce]

Thank you Patrick

that was a great and very thorough response.  I have worked through the page improving links and key word popularity this has caused three of our pegs to move overnight to take P1,2 & 3.

the major corporation we are battling do not have the key word we are promoting in their page.  It is a registered trademark so we assume they are promoting off page and feeding links.  How can we search for links to their page to understand what they are upto?  Any ideas welcome.

Thanks

peter

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

I would check out Rand's Whiteboard Friday called How Google is Connecting Keyword Relevance to Websites through More than Just Domain Names. There is some great information in there.

You could also dive into your backlinks to see if you have a healthy backlink profile from relevant sources and also take a look at your content to see if you are providing what users want in their searches.

Have you ran your keywords through the Keyword Difficulty tool to see how you square up with different domain and page authorities for those ranking? This is a good time to an unbiased look at your site and see how you square up in your industry.

Hope this all helps! Good luck!