5 replies to this topic

[digitalrain]

Good afternoon,

I launched a client's site (removed) on 6/2 and have already
been indexed by both Google and Bing.

The good news is that initial rankings are good to VERY good (e.g. mostly page 1 and
page 2, a couple of page 4 rankings).

What is confusing is that the site that is beating out my client's site in their primary
search terms .

It is a one page site that has no optimization to speak of, no backlinks, no h1, h2 or
h3 tags, no meta tags, not even an optimized title tag and yet it comes up as #1 for

[keywords removed]

I am baffled. The only edge that I can think of that it *might* have over my client's
site is that their domain name was registered two years earlier and appears to have
been online longer as a result.

My client isn't doing any PPC yet, but even so, the only search term their competition
is paying for using AdWords is [removed.]

Any insight here would be most appreciated!

Best,

Cynthia T.

[Michael Martinez]

Well, I got a chance to look at the query. There is a LOT going on with the number one site that contributes to its placement in the search results. Although it's unusual for a 1-page site to do so well it's not impossible. That site is tied to a real business that is referenced all over the place (and it has what looks to me like a verified local/maps business listing).

They are using a professional SEO whose name I have come across before.

[digitalrain]

Well, I got a chance to look at the query. There is a LOT going on with the number one site that contributes to its placement in the search results. Although it's unusual for a 1-page site to do so well it's not impossible. That site is tied to a real business that is referenced all over the place (and it has what looks to me like a verified local/maps business listing).

They are using a professional SEO whose name I have come across before.

Michael,

What is going on w/ the site that I am not seeing? I checked it's link popularity and could not find
any backlinks to the site. Does having the local listing and maps listing give it that much of an
edge?

Best,

Cynthia

[Jill]

Sorry, but this isn't the place to discuss what other sites may or may not be doing. I already removed the name of the sites for that reason. Removing the keywords too now.

[digitalrain]

Sorry, but this isn't the place to discuss what other sites may or may not be doing. I already removed the name of the sites for that reason. Removing the keywords too now.

My apologies, Jill. I wasn't trying to violate any TOS or anything. Is there a more
appropriate venue for this type of discussion?

Best,

Cynthia

[torka]

Don't necessarily trust what you see when you check any site's links. There's not one link checker out there that accurately identifies all the links pointing to a page. Not one. Just because you didn't see any when you checked doesn't mean none exist.

And depending on who's doing the linking, it doesn't take that many to make a difference.

(Disclaimer: I haven't looked at any of the sites in question, and I'm sure there's a lot more going on beyond simply links... just saying that it's sometimes harder than you might think to figure out what's going on with a site you don't control. Beyond that, often times other pages succeed more "in spite of" what you can see they're doing than "because of" it. It's sometimes better to focus mostly on making your own site the best it can be and not worry much about the details of what the "other guy" is up to. My )

--Torka