Why would a site with virtually no external links and low authority rank very high?
-
Hey there:
I'm not sure anyone's going to be game to answer this but...
I have designed, done on-page optimization for and done ongoing content marketing and linkbuilding for a local fitness site. The site is about nine months old and I am attempting to achieve rank for the keyword "personal trainers in philadelphia." We've made progress; having taken a new site from +100 to 19 in about four or five months worth of content creation and linkbuilding on a very modest budget. I'm not complaining.
What has me confused though is that there are one or two sites that are ranking very high for this keyword string with considerably shoddier metrics than our site and I'm wondering how a stock WP theme site with very few inbound links can rank top five for a reasonably competitive keyword?
Our site is http://vtrainersinc.com. The site I've noticed that ranks top five and seems to have an inferior SEOMoz profile is bodycrafters.net. Anybody got any ideas as to why these things seem to occur? I have this feeling this site has stumbled upon a magic SEO elixir which I'd like to get my hands on!
-
Thanks, Matt and William, for taking a look and offering input. I'm going to give William's tweak a go and see if I get a bump. I'm suspicious that any of 1 -3 apply here, Matt, as the domain is not that old and it's pretty content-deprived and static. (Even though it is built on WP, it's not being updated or blogged to...)
Thanks again,
dave
-
There are many "possible" reasons - hard to know which one is causing it.
-
Could be that they've done well in places that aren't showing up.
-
Could be that they 301'd an old domain with a lot of juice you aren't seeing to the new site.
-
Could be that you are connected to them in some way so you're more likely to see them on personalized results.
-
Could be that they're just doing something exceptionally right.
-
Could be temporary - a lot of sites like this come and go on page 1 these days. I track "seo melbourne" almost every day and the top 10 changes ridiculously often.
I could probably think of more "possible" reasons but I don't see a way to determine which it is. If they owned the former #1 site and rebranded, a simple 301 with almost no links would still outrank almost everyone else. If they update frequently, they could be getting some sort of freshness bonus.
-
-
I just did a quick review and would note the following.
Google search is now VERY precise. A search for "personal trainers in Philadelphia" (without quotes) returns the results you quoted.
But a search for "personal trainers in Philadelphia AND SOUTH JERSEY)" - which is the 1st text encountered in your main content containing your keyword phrase) - puts you in #1 position in SERP.
It is possible you are diluting your effectiveness by adding the south Jersey part.
I would try removing that and putting this phrase "personal trainers in Philadelphia" - period - in the 1st sentence of your main content and see if the results change.
Your competitor seems to have done that, and even without a strong link profile it is easy for Google to see clearly and unambiguously what their site is about.
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
-
Looking for traffic estimator for specific pages or subdomains on a site I do not control
I'm looking for a free traffic estimator that allows me to look at monthly visits for specific pages or subdomains on a site I do not control. So far I've found trafficestimate.com, but that only lets me look at domains. I'd like to see estimates for subdomains or specific pages. Does this even exist?
Competitive Research | | JGoldberg0 -
Why do keyword competition rankings differ between Google and SeoMoz?
I am a novice at keyword ranking etc. so I appreciate your patience! I checked a longtail keyword - how do i get out of this relationship - in Google AdWords and it came back 'low competition.' When I entered it in SeoMoz it came back as 'very competitive.' Any thoughts? I appreciate your help.
Competitive Research | | UncleTodd0 -
I must be tripping. How is this site ranking for the term "SEO Company"??????
When I go to Google non-custom search results and search the term: seo company The website "greencowseo.com" is ranked 3rd. OpenSiteSearch shows nothing. And get this... the domain was registered 14 days ago by somebody in Egypt. Do I need to quit my SEO Moz membership and hire this guy? 🙂
Competitive Research | | Bo-Jangles0 -
Competitor Keyword Rankings
Is there a way within SEOMoz to uncover the keywords your competitors rank for and their respective SERPs? Thx
Competitive Research | | qiherbs.com1 -
Tool to compare which links competition has but i don't?
Is there a tool that I can use that will show me a list of my competition's links that I don't have?
Competitive Research | | ballhogjoni0 -
Is open site explorer running on your side
I am facing trouble to open the website http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/ please check on your side and let me know
Competitive Research | | 247Email0 -
How can I find the pages on my site with the highest page rank?
I have a lot pages on my site and I'm wondering if there is a tool out there that will find all the pages with the highest pagerank for me? Also, it would be helpful to find that on competitors sites as well. Any ideas?
Competitive Research | | shawn810 -
Keywords in URL structure for Large Site
We are creating a national real estate website which will contain 2mil+ listings. Our aim is to compete with the National leaders in the field. We are trying to lock down a url structure and it basically comes down to if we should put a major keyword in the url structure or not. The structure would have regional keywords naturally. Its the addition of a more descriptive key word which is in question. Our domain name has no keywords in it. For the sake of this example, we would be targeting "city real estate"... oursite.com/real-estate/state/city/ or oursite.com/state/city/ Here is what the big sites use as an example: http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/New-York-NY/ http://www.trulia.com/NY/New_York/ http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/New_York-New_York/ http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/New-York Id love to not have to throw keywords in there and be as clean as possible but i also dont want to shoot myself in the foot. The big boys do add additional keywords in the url, does that mean we should? Id much rather be a leader than a follower but again, I dont want to mess this up from the start and these guys have probably tested this (or have they?). Input would be greatly appreciated.
Competitive Research | | cobbsfriedman0