My competitors have 2 backlinks, I can't beat them!

Add more content.ranking depends on many factors.So build high quality backlinks.That will do.

How old is your competitors site? Domain age and trust rank has a lot to do with SERP placement.

Keep content fresh on page, continue with your off site link building as well.

Time. You are impatient, Young Master Luke, 3 weeks is very short! Think: 2-3 months. If you can't wait, then go and start another project while this one is working its way up .

I agree with previous post, you need to be patient. The Big G has a lot to digest and digests it slowly. In a month and a half, you should be up there!

Bernard St-Pierre

BIG MISTAKE! Never use the link operator in Google! It only ever returns a very small random sample of the links that Google actually knows about and uses in the rankings and never close to them all. Sometime that random sample contains nothing.

You are jumping to a conclusion about your site and your competitors based on very bad data.

You need more time and high quality back links. Sometimes it doesn't happen as quickly as we would logically think. Just keep moving forward and you will beat them.

There's a few things going on here to keep in mind. First, as others have said, checking link:URL in google is NOT an accurate way to find backlinks. Backlinks Checker Tool - Backlink Watch is far more effective, or yahoo site explorer.

Second, if I'm reading that correctly, your site is only a few weeks old. You can't expect your site to rank in less than, say, 2 months if it's a low-competition niche. And even then, you should be in it for at least 6 months of consistent work before you should really expect to see top rankings.

Hope that helps, if you have any other questions about it feel free to ask!

Hi 4webmaster,

cbpayne nailed it!

Google will only show about 1% of known backlinks using their link: operator. Use a different data source (siteexplorer, majestic, etc.) to get a better ideal of the strength of you competitors' backlinks.

Also, you should be aware that the "number" of backlinks isn't how your anchortext value is weighted. It is the total relative value of those backlinks (((PR x Trust)/ OBL count) x Relevancy ).

Add more content, and quality backlinks. It will work, and give google time to update the ranks.

Thanks for sharing your great seo knowledges, I like the tool given by members Andrew O (thanks) above about backlink check and when test it; Oh Surprise!!!! tool display huge 600+ (total of 1000) backlinks on my 1st competitor (ranked #1), most from blogs, .edu... and also were related to same topic. They did a great job, looking at I don't know if they hired an SEO or it's from natural backlinks because it looks so natural just like someone like your site and create a full page about with link to main homepage. First I though they have an affiliate program (it's a online store) and that was the reasons people writes articles but don't so I'm curious! Now I'm not surprise they are leader on the market.
My 2nd competitor (ranked 2nd) only have like 150 dofollow but really related to the topic, less impressive than first competitor. Also over 70% coming from paid Directory humm they ve got a high budget for dir submission because yearly price were $$$ maybe they spend at least $1000 per year for these.

My site beign on page 3 on 724000 search results is then great in term of time like someone said above about months to rank well.


So here comes my conclusion assuming that all your replies were true and what must be the solution:
1- link:url in Google is not accurate and must use an advanced tool to check it.
2- blog commenting, article post and directory submission in the exact same topic (min of 100+ different site backlinks, .edu is a must)
3- Time will tell

Now, what's interesting with what SEO experts are debating on Forum profile and other SEO techs I've used is that it can boost your ranking, that is true and proven here (from 13 to page 3), now how long will it stay high, don't know. Also doing 1-2-3 I describe will certainly get better ranking.
My domain age is 1 year+ and parked before launch with no rankings (reg aug 2010)

Like many here I don't have time to play with SEO and not an expert but I need more focus on my main business. I tried to find on WSO and Hire thread for a custom SEO service, even on Google search it is hard to find one, what I mean is someone that can check competitors backlinks, find where and how they got listed on and do the same for me. Most were selling backlinks from random sites not always on same topic that yours witch is good for boost or link juice (maybe for a short time) but not as ranking domination (page 1 for years). If someone knows where to find one great to share it here. I know it won't cost less than $100 but could be interesting. My goal and everyone here is to get on page 1 not rank #1 but at least on page 1 of goog.

To reply to @paulgl sorry but yes backlink is the key to rank (don't check in google but with tools) and yes I think from experiences that Facebook likes is also weighting for ranking.

In reading your post, nowhere do I see you mention your users (visitors). Think about it.
After Panda, you may want to reconsider article spinning. Not many are talking loud about it, but things are changing radically when it comes to rankings and Google.

Wow wow wow, Today got my site ranked 3 on page 1.
Too happy but I still retain my joy because this can be ranked here for a few days only and then shoot to the stars again. Let see how long it satays that way, I almost was going to pay $50 for a directory sublission, lucky I check my site first just for an update.
I'm not sure but looks like I've only done 1 change to go from page 3 to 1 on top.
Add a News topic!

FAIL!

It's impossible to get a link count from Google SERPs.

Chances are your competition has hundreds (If not thousands) of backlinks.

Besides, your site is only 3 weeks old, did you really expect to be ranking first page coming out of the gates based on your Google link:site research (that doesn't work).

I'm planning to add a newsletter or subscriber form. I heard rumors that it gives your site a positive same as quality contents and images with Alt tag.
Maybe Goog will see your site as active because of subscriber form and newsletter you provide rather than static web pages. It gives a +1 authority to your site.

If you check for main top 10 ranking site for any generic keywords, most have a subscriber form for special offers, newsletter, updates....

Anybody heard of this? Is this effective for SEO?

Be patient and persistent with posting Backlinks. A guy that does my back link work has it down to a science on Google friendly backlinking.. Especially with the Google Panda Algorithm update

Build some quality backlinks it will help you to come up