Competitor ranks high, but how?
-
On our campaign, I have three local competitors which I like to keep an eye on. Two have been around for years but the other is pretty new. According to Moz, he has a Domain Authority of 1, has no backlinks and ranks lower on every keyword I keep track of.
How then is he getting ahead of us for certain search terms? Can Moz not give any more information?
-
If you click a users profile, you can click a link that allows them to message them directly.
-
Very welcome. I came across that article yesterday so it was fresh in my mind when I saw your question.
Best of luck!
Zack
-
That is very useful, thanks Zack.
-
Thanks Robert. I suppose really I'm a bit frustrated that Moz doesn't do a bit more when it comes to competitor information. Majestic and a couple of other FREE tools list quite a few backlinks (though less than ours) while Moz reports... zero.
-
Thanks for your response. Is it possible to send URL privately? Distinct possibility that the other person is on here!
-
I think it's well worth mentioning also that there are many other important factors beyond backlinks. You find the following article very helpful:
Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List by Brian Dean for Backlinko
http://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factorsBest,
Zack -
Hi Rob and Sarah,
My first guess is that the websites is answering that specific question/query better than yours. Are those well performing pages significantly different than the pages that don't come up so high?
Ps: keep in mind that Domain Authority is an interpretation of Moz, and not from Google. Also keep in mind that Moz is nog aware of all the backlinks. Even if the links are out there for a year. Moz tries to "only show the most important links to the domain".
Google sees a lot more links to a domain than Moz does.
-
Rob and Sarah,
I would like to point out a few things:
1. Try Majestic's backlink checker. It more comprehensive than Moz's.
2. Don't forget that Google Algo isn't that simple. There are a ton of factors that could be influencing it: Maybe the website has great user signals like CTR, dwell time, etc. Do they have a great social presence that has provided visitors?
Anyway, i am speaking in generalities and we would need more specifics to help further...like both your web addresses
Nails
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
-
Moz Rank /Moz Trust Tips and Tricks
I've been working on the following website (www.pleasantparkkennels.com) for about 2 years now for SEO and been able to place the site for many keywords. At times some competitors seem to come into the mix and 'just get lucky' in their rankings regardless of all the work I've done ... it seems they've implemented no SEO strategies whatsoever and yet them sometimes rank better. Upon comparing link metrics with these competitors, I seem to be doing well in most criteria but Moz Rank and Moz Trust always seems to be a category I fall short in.
Competitive Research | | MainstreamMktg
Does anyone have any resources / tips and tricks / checklists that I might be able review to assess my website for to see how I make it better. I'm running out of ideas 🙂 Thank you!0 -
How can I find out the exact match visitors for a competitor's website?
Hi, I'm trying to find a way of finding out the estimated number of exact match visitors that a competitor's website has got. I know that SEO agencies can find this out, and there must be a way of doing this for myself. Thanks
Competitive Research | | MThacker0 -
How can I tell if a competitor has a KML Geositemap or not?
Is there someone to tell if a competitor has a KML Geositemap or not? Would it be in the source code on their homepage? or can I just put their url in a "Open Site Explorer" type product to find out? Thanks, Ruben
Competitive Research | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Comparing 3 sites and their ranks
I am looking at 3 sites and what they have going for them and why they are ranking how they are. I would like to get some of your feedback on why certain sites are above other ones. One of these sites is a client of mine, I will not point out which one. The other 2 are just competitors. http://www.cornhole-game.org/cornhole-bags.html http://www.samscornholebags.com/ http://www.ajjcornhole.com/cornhole-bags.php I have compared them in OSE and they have PA of 39, 29, and 58 respectively. AJJ has a ton of links, many of which are spammy and irrelevant. It looks like a link package was bought at some point. The other two have a similar number of links but www.cornhole-game.org/cornhole-bags.html has more anchor text themed links. None of which seem to be overly optimized. http://www.samscornholebags.com/ seems to have a lot of company branded anchor text links compared to keyword links. http://www.ajjcornhole.com/cornhole-bags.php as I said obviously bought links and has a ton of stuffed keyword links on poor sites http://www.ajjcornhole.com/cornhole-bags.php has minimal social shares http://www.cornhole-game.org/cornhole-bags.html has about 30 shares http://www.samscornholebags.com/ has about 30 shares but a good number of likes and some other social signals. All 3 sites have an A grade using the on page grade tool here on this site. All 3 got dinged for keyword stuffing. http://www.samscornholebags.com/ ranks the highest with the least amount of links and PA http://www.ajjcornhole.com/cornhole-bags.php ranks next with a really poor link profile and the least amount of social activity http://www.cornhole-game.org/cornhole-bags.html ranks the lowest with anchor text links that are not spammed and some social activity So with all of this in mind, would anybody care to weigh in on why they think any of these sites are ranking where they are in comparison to one another.
Competitive Research | | Atomicx0 -
Competitor Traffic
Is there any way to know what a competitors traffic is? My website seems to be continuously falling despite attempts to fix and just curious if it's us or an industry issue? Thanks in advance
Competitive Research | | Professor0 -
My average visit duration is UP by 110% from 2 minutes to 4 minutes... and my visits (rankings) are down by 6 %.... I would have thought to see more positive ranking affects from that..
Latttteee last night I asked this question Just like the question says, I would have thought that Google would reward a site with more traffic that clearly has a growing level of user engagement. I can't imagine that there are other sites in my niche that are having a longer rate of user engagement... Well, since I can't guarentee that, let's not debate what we don't know.. But shouldn't SOME benefits be seen for a 110% increase? I mean shit, if I could replicate those results with sales, I would really be able to afford higher rankings... Maybe that's how they feel? If I get longer duration, I should get more sales, which means I should be able to afford to pay a professional more to get me to rank higher....? A nice guy Marcus Miller(http://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/78416) answered by saying Hey Tyler Google analytics data is not used in anyway in the search ranking algorithm. It's a great thing that your user engagement is up, but it will not benefit you with a better rank on the back of that. That said, if people are enjoying your site more, it should be easier to generate more links and sharing to get more traffic and hopefully boost your standing in search. This is worth a watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg... Hope this helps. Marcus I was still a little unsure though, so I said Solid answer man, I really appriciate the youtube link too, gotta love when an answer is chizzled in stone. I was thinking though.. Google does track data for bouncing back to search for similar queries, and some types of time on site, etc, right? Do you, or does anyone else know the specifics about the data that Google tracks, in relation to how a user interacts with your site?
Competitive Research | | TylerAbernethy0 -
Looking for a recommendation for a site ranking comparison tool.
Hi, It seems that SEOMOZ provides only link ranking comparison with competators. I'm not conviced that this is valuable for my purposes as the comeption often has few links tool, probably the nature of the business.. First, is it worth trying to compare keyword ranking with competators? I think it is, but I'm not that experienced with SEO, especially with Wordpress/Buddpress sites. Second, any recommenations for a tool that will make this easier? Larry
Competitive Research | | tishimself0 -
How does this domain / page rank for this particular term?
Hi everyone, I'm wondering whether someone can enlighten me as to how a particular page / domain is ranking for a term that the page appears to be in no way optimised to receive traffic to. The search engine is Google Australia and the Search Term (albiet low volume) is "Bunbury Builders" the top organic result is the homepage for "Content Living" www.contentliving.com.au/ There is one single mention of Bunbury on the page (as a phone number in the footer of the page). I've disabled javascript, css, and spoofed my user agent as Googlebot and I can't see anything suspect going on here at all. I also ran the domain through open site explorer and I couldn't find a single anchor text reference to bunbury directing visitors back to this domain. We haven't yet begun targeting this term, but I was curious to see (for my own education as much as anything else) how they were achieving this ranking position. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Competitive Research | | NaomiC0