Why am I not ranking although my domain authority is higher than competitors with same relevancy?

[chris.oursbourn]

So I am trying to rank the domain http://jamesriver.org for the term "Churches in Springfield, MO" Not sure why we are not ranking as well as we ought to rank. I have a few assumptions, but wanted to see what other have to say to get better input.

Below are some details about the us:

• We have done a brand name change in the past 2 years - James River Assembly to James River Church
• We have two locations: Ozark, MO - which has been there for a very long time and Springfield, MO which is a newer campus
• We have higher domain authority than others that rank higher for the term
• We have a new website that was launch about 3 months ago
• We have a location page for each of the 2 campuses

I am wondering what factors might be at play in our lesser rankings even though we are relevant to the term and have higher authority than those that are ranking much higher than us.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Steven,

As Miriam said, there are so many possible reasons at play here, but one point I would like to make:

• We have higher domain authority than others that rank higher for the term

Remember, that DA is a MOZ score and has absolutely no impact on where Google sees you or why someone someone else ranks higher than you.

• We have a new website that was launch about 3 months ago

Have you checked that all 301's and redirects are in place correctly? I am assuming this was a new site design on the existing domain?

-Andy

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Steven,

Coincidentally, we have a very similar thread going on right now for a church in Texas:

https://moz.com/community/q/an-apparent-ranking-mystery

You might want to read that and see if it helps answer some or all of your questions.

There are hundreds of factors that contribute to local rankings, including things you can't control like the age of a site or the user-as-centroid phenomenon. What you can have more control over are:

1. Website quality, usability and optimization

2. Citation consistency and growth

3. Review acquisition

4. Social marketing

In auditing your client's site and comparing it with his closest competitors, be sure you are really considering your most important terms. As has been highlighted in the other thread I've linked to, a term like Churches is really generic. To me (and other responders on that thread) it seems much more relevant to rank for the specific type of church (Baptist, Catholic, etc.)

Hope you'll pop over there and read the discussion. I think you'll find it relevant.