Why do some websites that have hardly any backlinks, poorly optimised get placed above sites that are doing all they can with SEO?
-
For example take these two websites. www.rfasecurity.co.uk is a site that Iam working on and have had some success with yet snifferdogs.org.uk seems to be poorly optimised with little backlinks and still gets place higher. is it due to the key word in the domian name?
The key search word is sniffer dogs
New at this so any help would be appreciated
regards
Dave
-
I do some local SEO work and regularly see exact match domains with little or no other SEO positives (relevant links, great content etc) outperforming much better, optimised sites.
That is why people believe that exact match domains have to be knocked down a peg or two at some point although it doesn't seem to have happened yet.
My advice is to continue to ensure you have relevant, keyword targetted, unique content and to build up your link profile so that even if that isn't enough currently to overtake the exact match domain site, when the expected algorithmic tweak occurs the site is perfectly placed to leapfrog its rivals.
Likewise where I manage/advise sites with exact match domains I tell them not to be too complacent and that they have to follow the best practices so that if they lose their domain name advantage at some point in the future that the site will still remain number 1 on merit.
-
Thank Barry for your comments which are taken on board. Dont you just love SEO? We must of jumped a place overnight how weird is that?
-
I see you ranking higher than them.
However, that video the EGOL linked to and the exact match domain are definitely things to recognise.
-
Hi, had a look at the video, and understand whats being said, but still doesnt stack up in this case. If the site had great content then OK that combined with the domain i could live with. I need more evidence somehow
-
thanks I will have a look now and come back to you,
-
ExactMatch.com keyword domains tend to rank a little higher than optimization and backlinks warrant.
However, watch Matt Cutts in this video....
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
-
How can I project changes to Page Authority?
Lets say I have a PA 50 website, and I just got a PA 60 link from another site. Is there any way to project, mathematically, what that new link will do to my page's authority? Would the formula look something like this? New PA = Current Page PA + ((New Link PA*dampening factor)/Total number of links on new page) In the absence of a mathematical model to predict shifts in PA, how can you be confident that a specific action will help you progress towards an authority objective?
Competitive Research | | phantom0 -
How to track competitor who uses another website on the url?
Hi everyone, The thing is pretty simple: I have a competitor who uses a different format of url, very similar to this: www.example.com - but he started to use a thing like this: example.mtv.com The problem is that every analysis that I make tell me something about mtv.com instead of the site I want. The url is redirected. Sorry about my english, but I think it is very clear. I want to know how to track something like this, because even in competitor analysis I'm getting info about the big site, and not the one I need. Thank you very much.
Competitive Research | | bluehelmet0 -
Excel workbook for SEO?
A while back someone on here posted a really good workbook for analyzing ranking factors for competitors. Unfortunately I lost it, and I am hoping someone might know what i'm talking about and hit me up with a link to it, or perhaps your favourite seo workbook for excel? Thanks!
Competitive Research | | adriandg0 -
How can I obtain analytics and social data for a site that I'm not authorized on?
I'd like to get traffic information and facebook /twitter stats for a company. Don't know their ua, logins or have access to any of their pages. Where can I find this information? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Competitive Research | | brandonschultz0 -
How does TTH have only 220 Domain Backlinks?
Was looking at these guys today http://www.tentonhammer.com/ One of the orginal games websites, an authority in its niche and 7 years old (about as long as that niche has existed) Its all unique, high quality content but it has a only 220 linking domains, including BBC etc It doesnt make any sense to me that this website should have so few linking domains. Anyone have a thought as to whats going on here? S
Competitive Research | | firstconversion0 -
Use of competitive kw search software for KW discovery for SEO
I use traditional methods for keyword discovery, but occured to me that perhaps competitive keyword software should be applied to competitor's sites for further possibilitites. Any opinions or experience using this strategy? I know it used primarily for PPC, but value for SEO KW discovery? Any personal recommendations on which programs considered most effective? Thanks. Alan
Competitive Research | | ahw0 -
Where are the best places online to build powerful profile pages
So on SEOmoz you can create a profile page with followed links (after 200 points), just as you can do on Google Profiles. I'd like to build a strong backlink profile which features some of these highest links that my competitors will not have the time or effort to do. I'm working hard to answer questions on SEOmoz and to be a helpful part of the community, and have published some Google Knols for the Google profile building. My question is; are there any other sites that allow the same type of responsible profile building, preferably SEO related as this is my area of expertise. Thanks Aaron Solar Monster Ltd
Competitive Research | | aarondicks0 -
In Open Site Explorer, what does it mean when a linking page does not contain any reference to the URl entered?
When running Open Site Explorer on a particular URL, I get a list of linking pages. Many of these pages have a high Page Authority. I am assuming that this is a list of pages that presumably link to the URL I entered. First, is this correct? Next, when I click on an entry in the list I don't see any reference to the URL on the page, even viewing the page source. What does this mean and why is the link in the list?
Competitive Research | | jkenyon1
