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
-
What To Focus On SEO / Link Building for this campaign to rank again..
Hi All; I recently joined Moz and I am really starting to learn a lot here. I am still finding it difficult to figure out what to focus on the most to improve my rankings (although I do have some page 1 ranks) I have one strong competitor who has a SOLID spot in the top 5 of google for the past few years for the keyword I would like to be ranked for again. (as they have always been a competitor of mine either 1 spot above or 1 spot below). then i fell off google in January and finally made it back to page 1. But their links are thousands higher than mine. What parts of my SEO Link Building should I focus on the MOST to improve my ranking to move up a few spots? Followed links vs No Followed Links Followed Linking Root Domains vs NoFollowed Linking Root Domain Any help would so greatly be appreciated; also please explain why you would focus on that part of my campaign so I can better understand as well. Thanks again
Competitive Research | | Circa
(there are 3 images total) t4klvWZ,I9R9BsC,fbDoF3L#20 -
Finding competitors best keywords?
How do I learn my competitor's best keywords? I realize I can add more keywords to my campaign but the problem is - I am not sure I am thinking of the right keywords. I don't want to compare with the keywords I am targeting - I want to know what THEY are targeting.
Competitive Research | | dealblogger1 -
Why is this site ranking higher?!
I'm trying to figure out why www.lvimmigrationattorney.com would be ranking higher on several keywords than www.immigrationlawnv.com. It doesn't make sense to me because the latter site has a higher page authority and mozrank, as well as more followed links. The domain authority from the linking sites to each site are pretty close. I'm sure I'm missing something, but I can't put my finger on it. Any idea?
Competitive Research | | atstickel120 -
How to find a neutral rank for a webpage a keyword term?
Hi!
Competitive Research | | lilactree
I'm sure this has been answered here already - I'm just not searching for the right words. I'm trying to find the ranking for a website for specific terms. Being that the search engine remembers what I search (I try to log out, privately browse, etc), everything matters and impacts my search. I'm trying to see what a website ranks for a person who has never visited that website before, or doesn't have other factors influencing the result. I tried the keyword research tool, and while that seems to deliver what I'm after, it only gives 1-10. Even though these are the coveted positions 😉 I'd like to know if a website isn't ranking there, and is further down. We track the progress made after work is done to a page, to see if it moves up, and what other tweaks we need to make to improve the rankings and attract clicks. Thanks!0 -
Is it possible to see how many visitors a competitor has received for any given keyword over a set time period?
Is it possible to see how many visitors a competitor has received for any given keyword over a set time period via either Organic / Paid means? Thanks
Competitive Research | | jaycfc1230070 -
How can a site rank higher when you beat them by A LOT on virtually every SEOMOZ factor?
Any insight into what's driving these results would be appreciated. Another site ranks #6 and we rank #22 on a keyword that scores 67% for "Keyword Difficulty", but we score significantly higher than them on almost every ranking factor including having nearly 10 times more backlinks along with higher PA and DA scores,etc. Here is a comparison from the Keyword Difficulty Tool report. Question: What could be going on? Factor and ranking comparison (us v. them) with our higher rankings are listed first. PA: 61 v. 39, mozRank 5,85 v. 4,54, mozTrust 6.00 v. 5.49, mT/mR = 1.0 v. 1.2, total links = 4,198 v. 90, internal links = 4198 v 90, external links = 275 v. 57, followed links = 4171 v 85, no follow links = 27 v 5, linking root domains = 46 v 30 on-page grade = A v B broad keyword usage in title: yes v yes broad keyword usage in document: yes v yes keyword used in url = no v no keyword used in domain = partial v no KW exact match - no v no exact anchor text links = 2373 v 13 %links w/ exact anchor text = 56% v 14% linking root domains w/ exact anchor text = 7 v 8 % linking root domains w/ exact anchor text = 15% v 26% partial anchor text links = 0 v 0 Domain Authority = 54 v 27 Domain mozRank = 5.4 v 3.2 Domain mozTrust = 5.8 v 3.7 DmT/DmR = 1.1 v 1.2 External links to domain 9261 v 63 Linking root domains to this domain = 355 v 33 linking c- blocks domains to domain = 267 v 30 tweets = 4 v 3 FB shares = 13 v 11 Google Plus one shares = 1 v 0
Competitive Research | | rickt0070 -
Questiton about new ranking factors
Hi, I am new to seomoz and i was very much impressed with the stuff here in seomoz. The tools here in seomoz are very helpful to me . And i was doing good with the help of seomoz. But due to recent google's algo panda 2.0 update. I was bit confused about new ranking factors that google has released. I can see here in seomoz also that page level link metrics has good importance than backlinks now. Earlier google algo gives main importance to backlinks now i can see in the list it went to bottom. Can you help in explaining these things, on which things i need to concentrate on and does backlinks really count now?? Many people stopped concentrating on backlinks now and are going for facebook likes and tweets. Here is the good example that i can see: www.hotfilesearch.com which is a flle search engine. He was one of the competitor for me . He ranked very good in a short span of time, all he did was he bought some really good paid links and within 6 moths he was on top. Now i can see he was dropping out every link he has. But though he was ranking pretty good on the web. I really in need of your suggestions to optimize my site. Awaiitng for your reply.. Regards Dheeraj
Competitive Research | | achillies0000 -
Competitor with over 100,000 links to duplicate copy ranks well, anyone know why?
One of our competitors has over 100,000 links on Yahoo site explorer, most of them are from pages on their site with duplicate content and they don't seem to have a focus on gaining backlinks, but the site still ranks really well. Can anyone think of a reason why this duplicate content hasn't been penalised by Google?
Competitive Research | | RobertHill0