How can a site with two questionable inbound links outperform sites with 500-1000 links good PR?

[northerncs]

Our site for years was performing at #1 for but in the last 6 months been pushed down to about the #5 spot.  Some of the domains above us have a handful of links and they aren't from good sources.  We don't have a Google penalty.  We try to only have links from quality domains but have been pushed down the SERP's?  Any suggestions?

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Graham

A quick look at your anchor text tells me you have an over optimization issue

--> http://screencast.com/t/lwzNZgEu5X

The very high percentage of commercial keyword anchors linking to the site is why the site used to rank well, and now this is not helping sites anymore or even hurting them.

I have seen this many times now, where sites with less authority but more "natural" anchor text perform better.

There are some options;

• You can request these sites change the anchor text to the brand name or domain name
• You can disavow the links (NOT recommended unless done with a super amount of care).
• You can do step one AND work on building newer more natural links

When Google sees those commercial anchors they know some form of link building has been done, and it gives a negative mark on the site - now sites like that have to work hard to earn Google's trust again.

[RichardSEO]

Could help you with this. PM me your email

[northerncs]

I implemented all these suggestions and it looks like google has re-indexed most of our page.  We are still experiencing low rankings but when I use open opensiteexplorer it shows that we should be ranking better as our overall rank is 53 (Compared to 38, 31, 25, 41)

I looked at our links and we have about 75 links from DA 40 or above?

Is the site explorer flawed or am I missing something?  I appreciate your feedback so far.  Some great suggestions.

[northerncs]

Thanks!  You could move to Canada

[Llanero]

But how to get those 10-20 quality links (natural ones, not bought)... that is a harder question!

[RichardSEO]

Took a quick look, few things:

A. You lack authoritative links. Your highest PA/DA link that is not internal is 20/40 and its a directory site. Get high PA/DA links.

B. Probably insert a Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions to meet Googles Quality guidelines and general good practice.

C. Your top competitor "mydefence.ca" is using SAPE links. Usually this is unsustainable for more than 6 months but who knows how long he can rank with it.

D. Your other competitor simply has more authoritative links than you.

E. Add more content onto your homepage. 400 words or more.

F. Reduce the word count of "law," "criminal," "criminal law". Word density is too high.

G. Switch up your H1 so it doesn't match your title exactly. Change the order of words.

Make these changes and get some high PA/DA links. This analysis was just done in 5 minutes. One month and 10-20 quality links and you will rank. Damn, this is so much easier than in Los Angeles. :S