Beating authority sites having NO on-page SEO

[xhawkx]

During keyword research you often come across some pretty good keywords, having sufficient search volume. But for that specific keyword, you only find big authority sites sitting on the front page.

Is it easy to outrank them if those sites have no good on-page SEO, like keyword in title, description, H1 tag etc. For example, webmd, mayoclinic, NHS etc in health niche. Also, they have pretty good PR (PR3-5) and huge number of backlinks to the MAIN DOMAIN.. and "at times" to that specific page as well.. but no good on-page SEO in this case either..

Should they be taken as "HARD" competition? Or no competition since no one else is targeting that keyword for primarily commercial intents and having good on/off page SEO? How easy was it for you to beat such sites, if you have any experiences?

[36burrows]

Those authority sites have 1000's of articles ranked on page 1 for a reason. Google loves and trusts them.

Now it really depends on each keyword, but with work and dedication you can easily outrank them.

I have one authority site ranked #1 for my main keyword, and it took quite a bit of effort to pass Webmd and alternativehealth, but I have other micro niche sites which passed Webmd no problem.

So it's really a toss up, you just need to give it a go and see what happens.

[Clyde]

They can easily be beaten by building more backlinks IF you have an EMD.

You basically have to treat each keyword on a case by case basis and do your URL analysis properly.

[dp40oz]

If they are not optimized for the keyword its a piece of cake to beat those big sites. Example I just beat out Geico who was #2 for a 3 word insurance term because they weren't totally optimized for that keyword. Oh and a ton of backlinking.

[JSProjects]

If they're optimized for the keyword / phrase you're targeting they'll be pretty tough to beat. Otherwise, not so much. If you've got an EMD + flawless on-page SEO + high quality backlinks with anchor text, you should be able to outrank them.