8 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
8 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Authority Sites & SEO

by That Guy
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
If I find an authority site like Amazon, Nextag, Yahoo Answers, ect with a page that has a page rank of n/a - 3 with minimal quality backlinks if any at all, would this still be considered a hard competition keyword because of the authority of the site? I'm asking because I see some candidates for some keywords but I always see these sites at the top, followed by some low authority sites with poor backlinking and page rank. My gut tells me that these keywords can be attainable but something else makes me feel that this might not be the case.
#authority #seo #sites
  • Profile picture of the author corycrabb
    are you looking to gain higher PR with you're efforts?
    Signature

    (Ask to join our marketing mastermind group in facebook)
    ~ Enter Here ~
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4100829].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author RevSEO
    He's looking to gain rankings, not backlinks.

    I'd say go for it, you can beat out those domains but it will obviously take a well thought out SEO campaign. If those are the only things ranking at the top and not niche specific domains with good backlinks/PR than I'd say that your expectations of rankings are spot on.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4100838].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    Originally Posted by That Guy View Post

    If I find an authority site like Amazon, Nextag, Yahoo Answers, ect with a page that has a page rank of n/a - 3 with minimal quality backlinks if any at all, would this still be considered a hard competition keyword because of the authority of the site? I'm asking because I see some candidates for some keywords but I always see these sites at the top, followed by some low authority sites with poor backlinking and page rank. My gut tells me that these keywords can be attainable but something else makes me feel that this might not be the case.
    Not necessarily, there are many factors that come into play here.

    A page from an authority site will naturally rank highly with minimal SEO effort because of the sheer authority of the site as a whole.

    The first thing you should check should be "is this page actively targeting this keyword??", with a bit of luck the authority page won't appear as though it wants to be ranked for this keyword anyway. The page may contain this keyword a couple of times in the body by just and thus it appears near the top for the keyword. This would be an easy win.

    You can usually find this out by looking at the title and meta details of the page (sometimes even the backlinks if you have some time).

    The fact is, authority pages are not as hard to beat as many people think. If they aren't actively targeting your KW you should be able to glide past them without much problem.

    Cheers,
    Dave
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4100850].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Conrad Stuart
    You can easily beat authority sites with more direct page links, better anchor text, and higher relevance.

    Google will always see a site that is completely focused on a single keyword as more relevant than a a sub-page of another site, even if it is a subpage of an authority site.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4103640].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author jguy1
      Originally Posted by Conrad Stuart View Post

      You can easily beat authority sites with more direct page links, better anchor text, and higher relevance.

      Google will always see a site that is completely focused on a single keyword as more relevant than a a sub-page of another site, even if it is a subpage of an authority site.
      I agree with you. This is what my experience tells me.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4103687].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Banks
        If you see yahoo answers on the first page then you DEFINITELY can get there fairly easily. Think about it, what does google favor more, a page or a domain? Google will favor pages on authority sites like amazon, nextag and yahoo answers, but they are just there because google could not find anything better. If you make an entire domain around the keyword then google almost HAS TO put you on the first page.

        Questions to ask
        • can you do better on page SEO then the competition (for yahoo answers the answer is almost ALWAYS yes)
        • Can you get more backlinks
        • Can you get more backlinks with the right anchor text
        • Can you get a keyword rich domain
        If you answer yes to these you can outrank the competition
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4103875].message }}

Trending Topics