Can't Grasp Why Pages rank Higher?
-
The first result
"Bankruptcy on IRS" is the search term.
Why does the first url rank higher in google. The second one, the IRS.gov page beats them in PA, DA root domains links. The title meta has bankruptcy near the front. unclefed does have the IRS keyword in the title, but an I missing something here?
What are the other factors, that are most obvious.
Sure one can have bad links, and other negative criteria, but these are pretty decent sites that probably don't engage in much in seo, let alone bad SEO. Sure link text and mix of links can help, but am I missing something here?
Actually what I think I really need IS A CHECKLIST OF WHAT TO CHECK IN WHAT ORDER WHEN COMPARING WHY ONE PAGE RANKS BETTER THAN ANOTHER. Appreciate all discussions. Thanks in advance.
http://www.unclefed.com/AuthorsRow/Daily/Fwdcsea.html
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98701,00.html
-
.edu sites and .gov sites are not necessarily more valued due to the extension, but rather the relevance they have to people looking for their specific content. More people looking for what a particular .edu or .gov site offers will go than random people stumbling around for the kind of info a .com site might offer. Not always, but generally speaking, that's an important concept.
Som of those people, in turn, tend to spend more time on those sites than people do on commercial sites.
Of course, this is only true of high quality .edu or .gov sites, not all just because they've got the TLD. That's why .edu and .gov sites aren't necessarily given automatic higher value for having the TLD. They do have to earn it.
-
Thanks again. 2 things.
1. I thought I read on googles site or matt's page that edu and gov dosn't pass any extra rank because of the extension. In general they may be better but not because of the extension.
'The more links coming from each domain, the weaker the trust factor." I wasn't aware of that. I have some key pages on my site that have a lot of links , like 100's from the same social site. Should I make attempts to remove them? are they hurting my sites ranking?
-
One thing stands out to me. Link to Root Ratio. UncleFed's got an average of 2.17 link for each root domain pointing to it. The IRS's ratio is 5.14 links for each domain. That's more domains pointing fewer links each. The more links coming from each domain, the weaker the trust factor. Sure, it may seem like a minor difference. It's not like sites are sending 40 or 400 links to the IRS site.
Yet again, as in the other factors, it does count. And head to head, it's a 2&1/2 times more refined profile.
Another consideration - among the highest quality sites that link to UncleFed, there are more .edu and more .gov links than compared to the IRS's top link sources.
So again, when looking at the total link profile of each, there's a higher ratio of non-commercial sites in the mix overall than compared to the IRS site.
So as in all the other issues mentioned, it's a David Vs. Goliath thing.
-
google works in mysterious ways.
-
Thanks for clearing that up. However if you can explain a bit further, so i can understand, how is unclefed's inbound linking more refined? I'm not seeing it. It will help me keep mine more "refined" if needed. My site's an excellent example where tens of thousands of links didn't make much difference.Starting to rank much better now, and expect to keep ranking better with the help of SEOMOZ tools and forum.
-
I appreciate the insight. I was getting caught up in the technical parts, and forgetting the rest. I just ran report carts on both pages. Unclefed got a D, and the IRS got an F. So on the report card I can also see the things you bring up. great help!
-
I agree with Alan. There is no mix up.
IRS is the larger site. You feel that because they are the larger site, their page should rank first.
Unclefed is decent sized, but they are nothing compared to the IRS site.
Why does the first url rank higher in google. The second one, the IRS.gov page beats them in PA, DA root domains links.
The first url, the one belonging to unclefed, ranks higher because it is the better article for the search term. The domain rank is one important factor in the overall Google calculation, but so are the other factors mentioned.
-
Great focused reasoning Ryan. A clear case where refined topical focus wins out over competitor size and perceived authority. It's all about matching the search intent. Which shows Google doesn't always get it wrong
-
Actually I don't have them mixed up.
Having authority for an entire site, and having a larger site itself are not always the issue. It's specific search ranking factors for a specific search. This is why it's deceiving to rely on ranking data from any tool, which should always only be used as a general guide.
The refined focus of a particular topic as evaluated by the several Google algorithms is what counts. And this is where my evaluation was focused.
If I've got less pages, but the SEO for them is even a little better than that of a much bigger site, and if the inbound link profile is even a little more refined than for a site with vastly larger inbound link counts, I can definitely outrank the larger site.
Think of it this way. Goliath gets lots of points because he's so big. He gets lots of points because a lot of people think he'll win, so they root for him.
David comes along, and with refined skills in combat, he's able to overcome Goliath's perceived advantages. So to it goes sometimes in SEO.
-
Take a look at both the pages involved.
The unclefed page is a very nice, long article with a lot of content. It has the term "bankruptcy on the IRS" in the content. That is about as close to an exact match as you can hope for with that phrase. The page also has the terms bankruptcy and IRS in the title.
The IRS page is very weak. The page does not mention "IRS" even once in the content, although it is mentioned in the URL and sidebar. The IRS page has less then 10% of the content when compared to the unclefed page.
It is a very good thing the unclefed page ranks higher on this particular search, as it should. It is a well organized page written by someone with authority and great subject knowledge. Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be any apparent effort from the IRS towards SEO at all. There isn't even a meta description for their page.
Bottom line, you are asking to investigate the lesser factors while ignoring the big one. CONTENT IS KING. It doesn't always work out that way, but it should. It did in this case. No reason to look any further.
-
I might be wrong, but I think you have the two mixed up. Unclefed ranks first. The second one (irs.gov) has much more authority, and is the larger site.
-
My quick hit take is it's just the right kind of authority. 70,000 page site. As for links, even though there's hardly any, it's a very tight link to root domain ratio. Many of those are from very authoritative sites including .edu (not junk edu links, but real, valid links).
Of course, without a comprehensive audit, that's just an assumption, though it's pretty strong. And shows the power of focusing on quality SEO vs. junk SEO.
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
-
I am confused/frustrated/surprised how bad my website is doing on google ranking
Hello, I am confused/frustrated/surprised how bad my website (flyhy.co) is doing on google ranking and I have no clue why even though I have been doing my homework regarding SEO. Just a bit of background, I have created a new website about 6 months ago for the paragliding community, the primary goal is to provide a platform for people to publish their ads (osclass), but also to provide some interesting reviews and tools to help paragliders chose their wing. We have been putting a lot of effort to provide a nice user experience and tio build the tools mentioned above. Our main channel to connect with the community is Facebook, and we have been quite active there. I have looked at many SEO articles and I made sure the website provides a good UX, the URLs are SEO friendly, good meta data, etc. Also have been using the google search console and analytics to monitor all of this. But here is the thing, all these does not seem to change anything in our ranking for important keywords such as "paraglider for sale", "paragliding equipment", etc. We seem to only rank (looking at Google’s keyword tool) for very specific wing model names that people have mentioned in their ads. I have ran out of ideas on how to improve our SEO !!!!!! I know the website is only 6 months old, but by now we should get some results. As an example, I will mention one our main website competitors: www.paraglidingequipment.org. OK the URL is pretty obvious and this website ranks in page #1 for "paragliding equipment" (but also for "paraglider for sale" and other paragliding related key phrases). OK there is the URL (paraglidingequipment.org), but I thought nowadays google bots are smarter than just that. The website is 1 year old (so not really much older than us, and was ranking high anyway even 6 months ago). The website looks like it was clearly made by one person and then quickly just left it running, so no content has been added (except for people putting their ads), there is almost no activity on the Facebook account. I have run some test such as "pagespeed insights" and we both rank the same. On "seositecheckup.com", we are clearly better with more 10 points. Is there anyone out there who can tell me what is going on? Have I missed a very important aspect of SEO? Is our website somehow compromising the robots crawling (although I can see about 80 pages have been already indexed in google search console)? I know content is king, but in paraglidingequipment.org the only content I see are ads, and we have ads and other interesting (ie reviews and tools) for paragliders. To conclude, I am basically completely clueless of what to do to rank at least on the first couple of pages of google for the key phrases above. I need help. Hichem. PS: in Moz bar our score is non existing (PA=1,DA=10), on paraglidingequipment.org (PA=23,DA=15). So it looks that essentially we are not apparent on the web! PSS: We have also tried to build some backlinks on few important paragliding community websites.
Competitive Research | | hichemboudali0 -
How does my competitor website jump from a natural ranking of 10 to 1 in a matter of days?
OK this has really got me baffled, and I really hope the MOZ community can give me the answers I am seeking.... My statements and queries below are my own opinions and thoughts. I am not an experienced SEOer and I am learning all the time, so if I have written something incorrectly, please feel free to correct me 🙂 I have been told that natural rankings take time, and I have read with the recent algorithm changes from Google, that purchased links do not have an effect like they used to. I have also read somewhere that google has clamped down on bogus article writing (MOZ please clarify) But what I am seeking some clarification on is, how does my competitors website, that has had a natural rank of #1 in the past, suddenly drop off; for a lengthy period of time, then suddenly re-appear at #10 on page #1, then some three/four days later, hit #1? I have read that natural rankings are purely natural. I.e. a domain owner cannot pay google to boost their natural ranking. But is this really true? Why is it when I speak to a close colleague of mine in the same industry, he mentions that his maps listing has dropped off, and after making a couple of phone calls to his SEO guys in India, maybe a day or two later, magically his maps re-appear? I really am starting to question is a "natural ranking" really "natural?" I have heard that some of these SEO agencies do have some tools that dramatically effect the natural ranking of a domain. What are these tools?
Competitive Research | | Giorgio680 -
Rankings & Linking Root Domains
How are the Linking Root Domains under Keyword Rankings being found? We've noticed for many of our key terms that big brands like Amazon, eBay, Home Depot, etc. only list 1 linking root domain, while much smaller competitors in our industry have hundreds. Clearly big brands are going to get more links than a company most people haven't heard of and the idea that these companies only have 1 linking root domain to a specific subcategory on their site is not believable. What's going on here?
Competitive Research | | Kingof50 -
Help ranking for a keyword
Ok well I'm serious about may business and everything I do the problem is that I just can't seem this ranking for a keyword thing I do rank on the 1st plage for every keyword but in this business it's all about the top 3 my page is a pr 2,I can't rank for this keyword it's low competitive the site has a pr 0 and has one back link to it on open site explorer. They rank first. i want to say my site is the best out there I have a seo company working on it and I have spent around 5k on it since we launched it in 2010. I just can't rank for "chesterfield lawn care" or chesterfield lawn service. My webite is www.greensidelawncare.com I have watch the. Videoson here but it just does not answer my question I need to know how to do the right seo. I have a ridiculous amount of content on the site everything I do it to help the customer. It just need to know what to do I have started to blog but what do I need to do to really help my seo? I mean is it blogging should i blog about stuff and use keywords should I blog and not use keywords maybe 50/50? Do I go out and blog about pages on my site or pages that are ranking of google? I heard that links are not as important as they used to be I do try to update my Facebook and twitter pages but its hard to anyone to RT or comment or like my stuff its lawn care it's not that interesting I try to make it as interesting as i can. keywords that I rank for are st Charles lawn care, st Charles lawn service,St. Peters lawn care, st. Peters lawn service, o'Fallon lawn care. Creve coeur lawn care. If you have any suggestions on how to make my site better please let me know. Www.greensidelawncare.com thank you to all that can help me
Competitive Research | | gslc0 -
Improving SERP rankings via strategic SEO tactics
Hi, We just build some of our new content pages on our website 1.https://www.practo.com/ray/dental-software 2.https://www.practo.com/ray/dermatology-software 3.https://www.practo.com/ray/homeopathy-software Could someone explain how do I build around a good SEO strategy to compete with others for better positions on the SERP's. I have not done anything apart from fixing proper title tags , and meta descriptions etc and of course putting down relevant fresh content onto these pages. These pages were published about 3 weeks ago - Only this url ranks on the 2nd page as of now for keywords like "dermatology software" https://www.practo.com/ray/dermatology-software The rest of the URL's do not rank anywhere till the 10th SERP too! What could be wrong and where could I have the opportunity to boost the SEO tactics since all the pages which rank above it are just not providing the right kind of product as we are and still they take up the top positions and genuine users miss out on our domain. Thanks . Looking forward to some awesome responses.
Competitive Research | | shanky10 -
Tool for finding what keywords a competitor ranks for?
Does anyone know of any good tools that display what keywords a competitor ranks for? I have many competitors that I know get a lot of traffic, but I'm not entirely sure where the traffic comes from so it would be nice to plug in their url and get a general overview of what keywords they rank for and what positions.
Competitive Research | | shawn810 -
I don't get it
Hi...I'm new here....not a professional SEO at all....just been teaching myself as much as I can about SEO on my own as I'm a small business owner desperately trying to make something out of herself. Could use your thoughts on this...please forgive me if this isn't your usual type of question you get here: so...I've been going through all the suggestions for on page optimisation and researching competitors links given through this lovely SEO Moz pro account . One competitor in particular....has spammed A LOT of sites...I think she's hired some company to do it for her. There's article submissions that don't even sound like they are written by someone who speaks English and very low quality sites for back links including some with adult content...however she's got thousands of these links so she ranks extremely high on all keywords. All her pages have very high keyword density and could be accused of keyword stuffing big time. I put her website through the SEOmoz grader....she's got a C and I've got an A. She's completely catered her site to Google not the customer and its obvious. But other competitors in my product have started doing the same thing as this gal and low and behold their sites are popping up in google searches also. Beginning to feel frustrated with my hours of efforts and wondering how I can compete with people like this when I'm trying to be a good girl with Google and focus on creating a great site. My hits per day are increasing slowly, my Alexa rank (hoping this matters) is improving rapidly and you can actually find me on the google search when I couldn't before (I'm page 10 now yay) so I don't feel like a total failure but still am wondering if hitting page 1 for my keywords will happen this lifetime. Why does Google seem to reward people who go against all these countless books and resources on SEO I'm reading? Could use any thoughts/suggestions you might have on this matter. Thanks for your help. x
Competitive Research | | ldnwickless0 -
Crazy SEO question (maybe I'm missing something?)
OK - so one of our customers just called us and told us an interesting story: A local SEO company called her yesterday to try to sell their services to her. She's in the process of starting SEO services with us, so she told them she wasn't interested. The sales guy told her that they were better (without even asking who she was currently using) and asked her for a term that she'd like to rank higher for. She said she'd like to rank higher for "spray in bedliners northern ky" and he said "Gotcha, call you tomorrow" He called back just now and told her to look at Google. She's now ranking number one for that term. He didn't have access to her site, so he wasn't able to change anything on her site. He won't tell her what he did, and told her it was legitimate - but it seems to me that with only off-site tactics, it'd be nearly impossible to white-hat her site to number one overnight... Any ideas what he's doing? First of all, we want to be able to tell her what he's doing, because she's curious. More importantly, we want to be sure he's not doing anything black-hat that's going to hurt our client's site. Thanks for your help, Mozzers!
Competitive Research | | Greg_Gifford0