Analyzing your competiton. Which factors are most important?

by jan roos

Posted: 15 years ago 12 replies

If I am analyzing the top 10 websites on google's first page to see how well they are optimized and if I have a chance to make it to page in which order of importance would you rate the folowing factors.?

1. domain age
2. PR of site
3. backlinks to page
4. backlinks to domain
5. keyword in title
6.keyword in description
7keyword in url
8 keyword in head tag

What I am trying to figure out is this. What if a competing website doesn't hve the keyword in it's title, descr or head tag. Only have around 20 back links to the page but it has a PR of 3 and a domain age of 10 years. Would you try and beat that or not?

Cheers

#analyzing #competiton #factors #important

JMartin 15 years ago

Personally, I don't rank domain age that high at all just because I've seen plenty of 5-6 year old sites get smoked by newbie sites. It might be important to a point, but it's nothing to be scared of.

I think the age is more about a site having all that time to build up a foundation (like cnn.com or something). However, if the site has just been "hanging around" then it won't have much of anything.

Might be me, but I don't see a site with 20 incoming and a PR3 as a threat unless all 20 of those links are from the White House, CNN and similar power houses.

I was looking up a product tonight (larger company) and saw their product page was a handful of years old, but it had a small PR and like 4 links to the page. Hmmm

To me the most important thing I look at is incoming links (quality, quantity, can I replicate some/all, etc). If they've got a lot of solid ones, that's enough to make me think twice (if I'm looking for fast results).

I kind of do something like:

1. Links to page
2. On-page SEO (order: title, h1, url, desc)
3. PR/Age
4. Everything else

I'm no expert, but that's how I see it. Would love to see more discussion on this.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1161735].message }}
Jeff Hollyhand 15 years ago

If several of the sites in the top ten are like that.

-Keyword phrase not in the title, description or H1 tag
-Less than 30 backlinks to the page
-PR of 3 or less
*And the "phrase match" search results are less than 150,000 or so

I would probably go for it.

I have a domain in the real estate niche that I registered this year ranked in the #2 spot for my keyword phrase, ahead of several PR 3 and 4, 10 year+ domains/website similar to the ones you describe above.

I did my on-page correctly and then just averaged 3 new backlinks a day until this week. Doing a link wheel now.

Hope that helps.
Good Luck
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1161834].message }}
Myheavens 15 years ago

Some solid information shared here..well I will also check all in title : keyword...
- Thanks
- 1 reply
Signature
I have launched New WordPress theme's Themelocation
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1161854].message }}
- jan roos 15 years ago
  
  Ok so far it seems like backlinks to page is the most important and then on page optimization.
  
  What about backlinks to domain?
  
  Cheers
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
  Signature
  
  I'll teach you how to make money like a Mamba.
  
  Sign up for the free money mambas newsletter!
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1161992].message }}
  
  JMartin 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by jan roos
  
  What about backlinks to domain?
  
  I tend not to care too much about that (prefer seeing low numbers for sure though) only because I've outranked pages where the site's homepage had a ga-gillion links to it (yeah, that's not a word).
  
  This would also explain why it's very important to get those links coming to your inner money pages.
  
  A quick way to test this (possibly), if you have a number of sites, is to go look at where you're ranking for stuff and look at the guys under you on the page.
  
  We have a tendency to always look upward, but looking downward can hold keys to success too.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1163306].message }}
Jeff Hollyhand 15 years ago

Originally Posted by jan roos

Ok so far it seems like backlinks to page is the most important and then on page optimization.

What about backlinks to domain?

Cheers

I am sure there are lots of different results from other Warriors on this one.

With some of my niche sites I have not had any trouble showing up higher in the search results than pages with 100 or less backlinks, where their domain has several million backlinks, if their on-page (for that specific page) is off.

I am guessing, in many cases, their page is ranking for that keyword phrase, by accident. I have not checked the anchor text in all of their backlinks to the page. I know there are tools that can do that but I have only used them once or twice.

Some of the keyword phrases I have the hardest times with are the ones that have over 500,000 "phrase match" search results, regardless of how easy the top 10 looked.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1162643].message }}

ashishthakkar

15 years ago

What I am trying to figure out is this. What if a competing website doesn't hve the keyword in it's title, descr or head tag. Only have around 20 back links to the page but it has a PR of 3 and a domain age of 10 years. Would you try and beat that or not?

Absolutely. And i guess easily.

7keyword in url

More than that keyword in domain name. I have a relatively new site with good content which is ranking bit higher than the biggies (good pr and good domain age).
Only because i have the keyword in the domain.

regards,
ASHISH THAKKAR

Thanks

Signature

Seo Packages Mumbai | Website Developer Mumbai

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1162822].message }}

Paul Hancox

15 years ago

Originally Posted by jan roos

1. domain age
2. PR of site
3. backlinks to page
4. backlinks to domain
5. keyword in title
6.keyword in description
7keyword in url
8 keyword in head tag

If we're talking about the Top 10 results in a search phrase...

I'd probably rate backlinks to the page first, because each one is a POPULARITY "vote" for the page (although not all votes are equal, so it helps to check the quality of those backlinks as well, including the anchor text used).

Then I'd rate the keywords in title, description, url etc second, because Google is attempting to offer up RELEVANT pages, and these elements can indicate relevancy.

The domain's PR is also very important, but I'd place it THIRD because relevancy and popularity can trump even a high PR domains... but all other things being equal, the higher PR site is probably going to dominate the lower PR site.

I don't think the age of the domain is quite as important, but that's probably reflected in the PR anyway.

Sounds doable. Keywords in title, description and head tag, 100 good quality backlinks may well do it.

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

PresellContent.com - How to sell without "selling"

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1163353].message }}

Stephen Crooks 15 years ago

It's a really good question and very difficult to answer as you see so many contradictions in the top 10.

I have an example in the screenshot where a brand new domain with absolutely zero backlinks to the page or domain is at number 4 in Google for a half decent keyword phrase. What it does have though is all the on page SEO stuff spot on. The domain is the exact keyword, the keyword is in the title, META description and keywords also.

As you can also see it is beating domains that are over 10 years old, domains that have over 5 million domain backlinks. Most of the pages don't have that many backlinks going to them but this partular page with zero backlinks to it is still beating others that have nearly 20 backlinks going to it.

Sorry I can't give you the actual keyword as it is a niche I am about to build a minisite for but if you are familiar with market samurai then you will know what all the columns in the screenshot mean.
- [ 1 ] Thanks
- 1 reply
Signature
Affiliate Marketing Profits 2020 - Step by Step Guides
How to Make $100 a day Online
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1180682].message }}
- Stephen Crooks 15 years ago
  
  I forgot to add what I think is important..
  
  For every example like the one in my post above though you will find one that contradicts it. "Generally" though here is what I think is important.
  
  1. Quality of backlinks and anchor text.
  1. On page SEO
  2. Quantity of backlinks
  3. Number of domain backlinks
  4. Domain age
  
  Notice I have 2 number 1's as I believe those two are as important as each other.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  Affiliate Marketing Profits 2020 - Step by Step Guides
  How to Make $100 a day Online
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1180706].message }}

sanambk Banned 15 years ago

[DELETED]

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1180716].message }}
- BrentHodgson 15 years ago
  
  Super posts Steve Crooks - I agree with you 100% when you say that there are a lot of contradictions when it comes to rankings. It would be nice if one factor was "the" factor.
  
  *wishes for the "old" days*
  
  I really like what the Commission Blueprint guys do when they're analyzing a niche...
  
  They first look at whether the top 10 sites listed in Google are listed in the Yahoo! Directory, and whether they have all the on-page factors right (Title, URL, Meta Description, H tags). If there are 2 or more sites with all of these factors, they skip onto the next niche.
  
  Next, they look at the PageRanks of the top 10 sites - and if there are too many tough ones, they bail and go to the next keyword...
  
  Then, they look at the Backlinks to the Pages ranked in the top 10... If there are too many with 50 or more backlinks, they bail.
  
  They published this recently for free in an eBook they gave away - as part of their Commission Blueprint 2.0 launch. The ebook was titled "Generating Affiliate Profits From Free Google Traffic"
  
  It's not my ebook to give away - so you'll have to wait until Steve Clayton and Tim Godfrey make it available again (if they do) - but if you want a quick extract and example from the book, I blogged about it recently:
  
  A Blueprint for SEO Competition Analysis | Noble Samurai
  
  Brent
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1181301].message }}
srandall 14 years ago

wow! Apologies for the lateness of this reply, but this thread represents almost a paradigm shift in my thinking.

My understanding has been that a tightly themed, SEO'd correctly page in many, if not most cases would "trump" or, at least, hold its own against pages with more backlinks. . Until now, have I been delusional?
- Thanks
Signature

Check out: http://InternetMarketingForumsSearch.com
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1463683].message }}

Analyzing your competiton. Which factors are most important?

Trending Topics

The X Factor that turns your affiliate marketing business into a solid business venture

Would You Go?

Are billboards still effective in driving customers?

My WordPress website was hacked and this is what happened

Rank and Rent Website Business - Anyone Doing This?