What sould I focus on to get over the top of my competors ?
-
Ok, I've been on this site for approximately one week now. There is a lot of good information but quite honestly, I don't know where to shoot at first in getting a better ranking against my competitors
I have done pretty much everything on my web site to optimize, but I don't get at all the ranking close to my competition. They don't have as much content as we have other than they have been doing SEO for much longer time.
I have worked a lot on the content optimization of our site, I get pretty much good result on some of the keywords, registered my site to google, bing , yahoo, I'm using the site map, configured the robot.txt, on-page metatag, URL canonical, clean-ur, H1 H2 tags, etc etc. Ho, And I just got today the approval of Yahoo Directory Listing. It's not sill showing up, but I guess it will come.
You will find attached the output of 2 of my competitors and Us. They both rank very well on the keyword we are interested. Where should I start ? I know the Links Juice i important, but how can I workout my strategy to defeat them.
Any help would be appreciated.
Best regards,
-
Hi
I have a quick question. Why do you have no internal links? Something is weird there, are those metrics for your homepage? Maybe you should check that you don't have "nofollows" on your links.
Also, your slice of the pie for external nofollowed links is bigger in proportion than competitors. You may want to focus on getting more followed links. Nofollowed links aren't bad and its good to have some too.
-Dan
EDIT: I see Ryan has pointed out the internal link situation - and again, I would check to be sure they are not nofollowed either in the robots meta tag or in your anchor tags.
-
Thanks for your advise, i'll take a look at this.
-
Thank you very much for your advises. I actually started to do internal links today. I'll see what it does. In terms of blogging, yes we do have this blogging capabilities, but quite honestly, for any of our 90 employes, it's kind of hard to keep the momentum of generating up-to-date contents, they are working an average of 50-60 hours a week. We are a professional services company for large corporation, we are doing B2B and our customers don't really spend time looking for information like some companies would do in other area or in a B2C model.
So, in term of continuous generate new contents I am kind of limited. I can probably take content from other sources but I supposed it's not well recognize by search-engine.
Best Regards,
-
Based on what you're saying, you've done a lot of on-page optimization, which is good. But the thing to remember is that on-page optimization, while important, is usually not enough by itself to deliver rankings. If you've done the on-page work, it's time to do off-site optimization, which means linkbuilding.
Here's what I would suggest:
- Identify the page on your site that you want to see rank for your keyword. Try to point links directly to that page where possible.
- There's some low-hanging fruit internally. Notice you have no internal links? I think internal links have a lot of unsung value - basically, you pass link credit back and forth to yourself. You say you have lots of content? Start pointing links from your pages to one another.
- Do you have a blog on your site? If not, slap one up and start blogging.
- You know the keyword you're chasing. Select blogs in that vertical and offer to do some guest blogging.
Remember: On-page optimization is the floor, not the ceiling. It gets your site to a minimum level of acceptability, but on-page alone isn't enough.
-
Hi Marc.
Based on the information you shared, your competitor has a small but clear advantage over you with respect to links. The answer most SEOs would provide to your question is focus on a link campaign.
I take a different approach which has been very successful. When I begin working with a site, my 100% focus is the on page factors starting with the home page. You have not shared your site URL nor that of your competitors so I can only offer general information.
For purposes of this example let's say you are selling Vitamin Z (mythical product). I would work to ensure your site was the best Vitamin Z site that exists, i.e. make it a world-class site. How?
1. Trust factors. Look at the bottom of the vzw.com site. I would establish a trust symbol block which included McAfee or Verisign, TRUSTe, BBB, Verified by Visa, MasterCard SecureCode along with any industry related symbols. For Vitamin Z an industry leading natural product seal would be helpful.
2. Social engagement. If your site has a login feature, then ensure your login is integrated to allow users to join with their accounts from facebook, twitter, google+, etc.
3. More social engagement. Prominently display (i.e. not in the footer) social sharing options from fb, twitter and google+ at a minimum. These sharing widgets should appear next to any article or product.
4. Allow User Generated Content. Web 2.0 is all about creating conversations with visitors. Allow visitors to create content by accepting comments were appropriate on articles. You can look to integrate a forums, or allow user created articles as well.
5. Expert content. Engage specialists, doctors and other experts for your industry. Ask for their feedback, their assistance in educating the public, etc. You can write the article and ask experts to review it. WebMD often uses this approach.
6. Review your navigation. This critical step is often overlooked. Your navigation should smoothly and logically present your site's content. Determine how easy it is to locate content. Ask others who are not familiar with your site for feedback. Can they immediately locate the information? Or do they stumble around trying to find it?
7. Provide a search function. This feature usually requires a database or CMS. Users like this feature, along with an HTML sitemap.
8. Provide a clear Call-To-Action. When a visitor lands on your site, how clear is your message? Is there a large, bright red ORDER NOW button? Does your CTA button compete for attention with other messages?
9. Add video content. It may be expensive to produce, but it is very marketable and can share your message in a way that words cannot. It also opens up YouTube and other channels for your site.
10. Integrate current events into your site. Using the Vitamin Z example, anytime Vitamin Z is mentioned in any news article either directly or indirectly, you should include that content on your site. Ensure your site is the world's number one source of all information on Vitamin Z.
11. Crisp, clear web design. We live in a world strongly influenced by appearance. Looks count. Some sites pay thousands for web design, and it's worth it! Create a design that is so smooth and great looking that web design sites link to it as an example of a great looking site.
The initial focus of this work is the site's home page. Once completed, it is relatively easy to integrate the changes throughout the site. There are other steps to take, and we can talk about meta tags and site linking, but the initial SEO focus I recommend is begin at the beginning, your site's home page. All your remaining work builds upon the solid foundation you create.
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
-
Can anyone explain to me why this website is top of the listings?
Hi folks, Since the latest penguin update, this website: <cite class="bc">www.sterlingbuild.co.uk</cite> is now appearing top of the listings for most 'Velux' related search terms e.g. velux windows, velux, velux windows online. I say top, VELUX themselves are actually top but then Sterling Build are top of all the other retailers that sell VELUX Windows. Why? Their link profile is appalling, the website is no better than their competitors as far as I can tell, their prices are more expensive - it makes no sense? Would be very grateful if anyone can work out why Google has decided they have the best website? Thanks, Luke
Competitive Research | | LukeyB300 -
Moz Rank Moz Trust and Authority higher than my competitor but still getting outranked
Hi There, I'm new to SeoMoz but ive been using it for the past month and I've been using the tools to try to optimize my site but for some reason even though my metrics are showing that my rank and authority are rising past my competitor they still rank higher in the searches. my website is the site on the far left with the domain authority @27. the competitor that keeps outranking me is the third from the left with a domain authority of 12. If anyone can advise as to why I'm being outranked that would be very helpful. I'm stumped here. Thanks guys! eYtMRr9.png
Competitive Research | | SamRaskin1 -
Why my site doesn't come on top even though search terms are very similar or exact?
For example, when I search in google for "Kookaburra Pro 600 wheelie kit bag", my site comes 9th on 1st page but 3rd link doesn't even match the exact key word rather it has few of the words. Can one of you expert please explain how it works? Thanks, CricMax
Competitive Research | | cricmax0 -
How do I know top pages (first on Google) for one website?
Hi! I'm SEOMOZ PRO user and I want to know which pages of other website are ranking on top on Google, Yahoo, Bing, ecc... with relative position (rank). Is there a features of SEOMOZ for it? Regards
Competitive Research | | jadlib0 -
How do I get listed in DMOZ? I have submitted 2 times, but no luck..
Hi All, How do I get listed in DMOZ? I have submitted 2 times, but no luck.. Is there another way besides the site? I have not even received a reply from them.
Competitive Research | | doctormac0 -
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
Competitive Research | | ThePod0 -
Pushing for the Top 3 Spots
Getting a site listed on the first page for most keywords is fairly easy but pushing for the final 3 positions can be difficult. Have you ever experienced a point where you feel you have given all you can for a campaign and are left scratching your head as to why your not taking over the competitors site ? From experience SEO only tends to count once you reach those top positions. When you reach burnout with a keyword with link building etc Where do you turn ?
Competitive Research | | onlinemediadirect0 -
How does a site get to no 3 in Google with no KW in their links?!!
Hello everyone, my first post - ahhh I'm investigating a niche and there is a site that should have no right being there in my view. It's no. 3 Google UK for 'company formation' with a small site with 65 weak links from only 7 domains and hosted in the US. But more importantly, the Open Site Explorer says there is not 1 link with that term in its anchor text. This I find crazy and makes me suspicious. But before I go back to my client saying "oh they must be black hat" I would like your expert views. I'm not sure whether to tut or congratulate them and for the first time I'm not sure what reasons to give for their amazing performance! What's your views?
Competitive Research | | GOYMedia480