Evaluating competition: Are these pages hard to outrank?

benedetti · 05-23-2011, 10:25 AM

Hello everyone. I've started researching long tail keyphrases with Market Samurai, and there is one type of competition that I don’t know how to gauge, so I am asking for your interpretation on this one.

It turns out that every so often PAGE 1 is taken up by internal pages in authority sites, but neither of them is SEO’d for the keyphrase. No keyphrase in the title, url or headers... Is it an opportunity for the small guy to optimize a page for that keyphrase and get a good ranking? Or on the contrary, Google have decided that since there are authority sites talking about the subject, no niche site will get a first page ranking, no matter how optimized? Thank you.

DeborahDera · 05-23-2011, 11:51 AM

Just because the page isn't properly optimized doesn't mean the person hasn't done a ton of off-site or off-page optimization for that keyword and specific deeper URL.

That said, if you had a properly optimized page and did both on-site and off-site work, you could theoretically earn a page 1 ranking.

If you are competing with authority sites, though, you may need to consider whether or not the keywords you are targeting are the best for your niche. Doesn't Market Samurai tell you how many links the page has, the PR of the links, etc?

BloggingPro · 05-23-2011, 11:55 AM

This is what I personally look at when evaluating page one competition.

Age
PageRank
Backlinks
Keyword in Title
Keyword in H1
Keyword in Description

If Age is high (more than two years), PR is high (5+), hundreds of backlinks, Keyword in Title, H1 and Description I run the other way.

I work down from that. There could be nine sites that look like that and one that is weak as hell and I'll go for it.

On the contrary there could be nine weak sites and one bad boy sitting at the top that is doing everything right. I'll still go for it. Even in cases where the page is filled with authority sites I've been able to rank due to my laser targeted content and backlinks.

Bottom line is that you just don't know until you try. This should also be in the SEO forum for future reference.

Neil M · 05-23-2011, 11:56 AM

I tend to avoid keywords where page one is saturated with authority sites, even if it's deeper pages. Not to say that you can't do it but there are a lot of keywords out there, why make life hard on yourself?

AlexsPablate · 05-23-2011, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil M

I tend to avoid keywords where page one is saturated with authority sites, even if it's deeper pages. Not to say that you can't do it but there are a lot of keywords out there, why make life hard on yourself?

Sir, this is not question of one keyword, you can see mejority of sities are authority sites on number one ranking with internal pages without back links, without proper SEO.

So the question is how we would overtake these authority site's internal pages..

strategic seo services · 05-23-2011, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benedetti

Hello everyone. I've started researching long tail keyphrases with Market Samurai, and there is one type of competition that I don’t know how to gauge, so I am asking for your interpretation on this one.

It turns out that every so often PAGE 1 is taken up by internal pages in authority sites, but neither of them is SEO’d for the keyphrase. No keyphrase in the title, url or headers... Is it an opportunity for the small guy to optimize a page for that keyphrase and get a good ranking? Or on the contrary, Google have decided that since there are authority sites talking about the subject, no niche site will get a first page ranking, no matter how optimized? Thank you.

You can outrank these pages: you just have to get high quality, dofollow backlinks using your keyword as anchor text. Those sites are ranking so highly for those keywords even though they're not present in the title, url, or headers because they have more of the aforementioned backlinks than your site.

TBInternetMarketing · 05-23-2011, 12:28 PM

Check out what backlinks the sites have. What kind of PR do these backlinks have? If they are not high, you can get a bunch of high PR backlinks yourself, and probably outrank them fairly easy. It's all about the power of your backlinks in my opinion.

Neil M · 05-23-2011, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexsPablate

Sir, this is not question of one keyword, you can see mejority of sities are authority sites on number one ranking with internal pages without back links, without proper SEO.

So the question is how we would overtake these authority site's internal pages..

You can outrank these pages by using normal, solid SEO practices. Complete on page with all of the proper things needed. Then build quality, high PR, do follow backlinks to the page. There is no special trick or magic bullet to SEO.

benedetti · 05-23-2011, 03:10 PM

Thank you for your responses. They have a mix of PR’s, from 0 to 4, sometimes I see a 5. And they do have backlinks with the anchor texts of the keyphrase, but because these pages are not titled with the keyphrase and they don't have h1 with the keyphrase, they don't get much of these anchors.

So I understand that with onpage optimization and a good number of backlinks with proper anchor, I can get PAGE 1 rankings.

05-23-2011, 10:25 AM	#1
benedetti Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 13 Thanks: 18 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Evaluating competition: Are these pages hard to outrank? Hello everyone. I've started researching long tail keyphrases with Market Samurai, and there is one type of competition that I don’t know how to gauge, so I am asking for your interpretation on this one. It turns out that every so often PAGE 1 is taken up by internal pages in authority sites, but neither of them is SEO’d for the keyphrase. No keyphrase in the title, url or headers... Is it an opportunity for the small guy to optimize a page for that keyphrase and get a good ranking? Or on the contrary, Google have decided that since there are authority sites talking about the subject, no niche site will get a first page ranking, no matter how optimized? Thank you.

05-23-2011, 11:51 AM	#2
DeborahDera HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: South Jersey/Philadelphia Area Posts: 398 Thanks: 77 Thanked 48 Times in 44 Posts Social Networking	Re: Evaluating competition: Are these pages hard to outrank? Just because the page isn't properly optimized doesn't mean the person hasn't done a ton of off-site or off-page optimization for that keyword and specific deeper URL. That said, if you had a properly optimized page and did both on-site and off-site work, you could theoretically earn a page 1 ranking. If you are competing with authority sites, though, you may need to consider whether or not the keywords you are targeting are the best for your niche. Doesn't Market Samurai tell you how many links the page has, the PR of the links, etc?
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05-23-2011, 11:55 AM	#3
BloggingPro Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 1,699 Thanks: 4 Thanked 423 Times in 293 Posts	Re: Evaluating competition: Are these pages hard to outrank? This is what I personally look at when evaluating page one competition. Age PageRank Backlinks Keyword in Title Keyword in H1 Keyword in Description If Age is high (more than two years), PR is high (5+), hundreds of backlinks, Keyword in Title, H1 and Description I run the other way. I work down from that. There could be nine sites that look like that and one that is weak as hell and I'll go for it. On the contrary there could be nine weak sites and one bad boy sitting at the top that is doing everything right. I'll still go for it. Even in cases where the page is filled with authority sites I've been able to rank due to my laser targeted content and backlinks. Bottom line is that you just don't know until you try. This should also be in the SEO forum for future reference.
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05-23-2011, 11:56 AM	#4
Neil M HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 242 Thanks: 41 Thanked 54 Times in 45 Posts	Re: Evaluating competition: Are these pages hard to outrank? I tend to avoid keywords where page one is saturated with authority sites, even if it's deeper pages. Not to say that you can't do it but there are a lot of keywords out there, why make life hard on yourself?
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05-23-2011, 12:28 PM	#7
TBInternetMarketing Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: In your PC Posts: 2,075 Thanks: 83 Thanked 789 Times in 234 Posts	Re: Evaluating competition: Are these pages hard to outrank? Check out what backlinks the sites have. What kind of PR do these backlinks have? If they are not high, you can get a bunch of high PR backlinks yourself, and probably outrank them fairly easy. It's all about the power of your backlinks in my opinion.

05-23-2011, 03:10 PM	#9
benedetti Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 13 Thanks: 18 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Evaluating competition: Are these pages hard to outrank? Thank you for your responses. They have a mix of PR’s, from 0 to 4, sometimes I see a 5. And they do have backlinks with the anchor texts of the keyphrase, but because these pages are not titled with the keyphrase and they don't have h1 with the keyphrase, they don't get much of these anchors. So I understand that with onpage optimization and a good number of backlinks with proper anchor, I can get PAGE 1 rankings.