need help, some optimisation questions

I have a few questions, im fairly new to web building and optimisation, i built my site 12 months ago and have done a fair bit of research about optimisation. My site currently ranks no.2 for my main 2 key phrases. I have done some link building including directory submissions, reciprocal links with other fishing related websites, forum sigs, and have submitted a few articles. I also submitted to Dmoz, but i havent heard anything from them.
I have also just bought 100 high PR links from another forum member.
When i use site explorer it says i have 745 links, my main competitor has only 340.
My questions are
Would it be that he has better quality inbound links, or is it more likely better on page optimization? I have keywords in title and description tags, i think i have good content as i rank high for many search terms, I really want the number 1 spot though. What i dont understand is code and script speak.
Im not sure weather i should link build hard, or weather i need on page work?
My site is truebluefishing.com.au
search terms i want to rank for are gold coast fishing charters, brisbane fishing charters, gold coast fishing

any advice would be appreciated

 

The likely cause is the age of your domain. Search engines give a premium to domain age as well. You rank on the first page of google (top 5 results) for the keywords you want out of hundreds of thousands others. To get to No. 1 will take time. You can try adding new content daily to the site and blogging and writing articles with links back to your site etc. It's a lot of work and will be worth it if being in the No. 1 position on page 1 means a lot to your business.

 

You should be really carefull when it comes to link building. Buying links and building your links fast can get you penalised. It seems like you done enough with buying links and exchanging links. I think you should consentrate more on writting articles and submitting them to article directories. Also, keep updating your site with fresh content.

 

I don't think it is so much a back linking issue as to the site's on-page design and code. Over half of the code used can be removed. This will give you a higher "code to text" ratio. I would also rethink (focus) the title, description and keywords. It is a little spammy.

The other might be that he has more traffic than you do. Or he might have a PayPerClick campaign giving his site a traffic advantage.

 

Does the ammount of taffic you get affect google rankings? and the code you refer to, is this the HTML code? i dont really understand code very well, maybe i need to pay someone for some help, is there a tool i can use to check code and repair it?

 

Traffic has no effect on google rankings.
The advantage that the other site has over yours seems to be age.
To counteract that, your best best bet is a high PR link, but I do agree with alpino, if you've been doing a lot of linkbuilding recently, it's best to wait and let thing settle.
Not strictly an SEO point but I did notice that your site and your rival's site look quite similar.
Is that deliberate? Wouldn't it be better to be a different so that you stick in the memory?

 

Not strictly true about the traffic. From experience i have found that traffic does have a minor influence on ranking almost along the same lines of having w3c valid code. Although there is so many conflicting views on seo and google rankings + the fact that only google employees know anything about its algorithm (which they have signed a declaration in blood not to discolse to anyone), you really should not rule anything out.

Every little piece plays its part and remember its not just getting a high ranking its also about sustaining it and attracting natural backlinks.

 

Agreed. Spread out your link building efforts to prevent footprints.

 

Daily content with great back links can help you achieve first ranking.

Dude, take my words, it takes as much work to get in first position as it took to get from 10th page to 1st page.

 

i think you should keep your good work on and one day you will be on number 1

 

problem im finding is that even when you get to number 1 in no way does it guarantee a large stream of traffic, despite the figures that the keyword tool might show you. I have a site at number 1 and am getting only a fraction of the estimated traffic and this is the same with some other sites ranking highly for large volume keywords. has anyone else experienced this as im finding it somewhat disheartening

 

you just need to build more related and quality backlinks to your site and also your keep on updating your content to make your visitors coming back.

 

Yeah, fair point.

 

when you say update content, should i be changing text, I change photos fairly regularly and ive added a couple of new pages recently, Im very nervous about changing text too much as im worried it might have a negative effect on serps. should i add more pages or does updated content need to be on the main page?
As for back links, im confused, there is so much conflicting info out there. most of the links ive built are reciprocal links with other fishing sites ive tried to only recip link with relevant sites, ive also built some one way links and i just paid for some high PR links. What confuses me is that a lot of what ive read while researching SEO says build links gradually (a few each day), yet all the so called SEO pros that are selling links claim it will help SERPs, theres one guy on here selling packages of 30,000 links that swears it will have no negative effect and your serps will increase.
I find link building extremely time consuming, im happy to pay to have links created for me, but i dont want to pay unless its going to be positive for my site. Should i just buy small lots of high PR links every now and then? if so how often and how many?
A few sites appear to have linked to me naturally and i hope that continues.

 

I new it wouldnt be easy, but im prepared to keep working at it.

 

You can add an Article page where you can post new contents to your site, or perhaps a Blog. That would be a good idea to attract more visitors.

 

Just build more and more back links through Directory, Article, Press Release Submission. it helps u getting desired
rank.

 

thanks for replies keep them coming, i might look into adding a blog

 

Updating the text on your site is the route you want to take. As for where the content is added, it doesn't matter, although I would recommend that the homepage change often, and you should look to add new pages of articles that are relevant to your site.

The backlink issue is going to be the subject of much debate, a lot of people say that if you get too many links it looks "spammy" This is ignorance talking, anyone that tells you that does not know what they're talking about, as there is absolutely no evidence to suggest it's true. They will tell you that "Google says..." and try to validate the incorrect information that they were told. The fact of the matter is simple, what Google says is that excessive reciprocal linking is not acceptable, they want you to create content that people want to link to, they don't want you going out and obtain links in an attempt to game the search results.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356

You are free to get as many links as you want, as fast as you want, and anyone that says otherwise does not know what they're talking about. I know that my views are controversial, but I can tell you from experience, I have obtained 10,000 links over the course of 3 months for one of my customers with no ill effect on ranking. If that isn't enough in a short time frame to be considered "spammy", then I don't know what is.

 

reciprical links are fine but keep them to about 10% of your overall links in my opinion. one way links from high pr, relevant sites are good, which you can get through exchanging good quality content. try to comment on do-follow blogs but don't spam, constructive informative comments. any article sites may get you some traffic but the links are often no follow and even if not they now hold very little weight with google as its been done to death. this is just my opinion though and i may be totally wrong, trial and error