SERPS & Link building - PROBLEMS!!!!!!

I have built over 200 links in the past 6 months to a webpage that now ranks 2nd and 3rd out of 119 million results, but I am normally number 1 and 2, a competitor who has only 65 links of similar PR keeps jumping from mid page 2 to #1 position on google.com for the keyword - why is this? The a few days later they drop back.

Checking their backlinks on site explorer they have not built any new links?

Please do not tell me they have a better quality links, as the links are similar, on similar related sites and of similar PR.

 

Definitely the problem lies in your content. How often do you update it? Does they're really unique? Well PR not only badly depends on backlinks but also hardly depends on the content.

 

He's right. unique, well written content is what you need, targeted around your keywords.

BTW, it's a bit hard to believe you can rank number 1 for such a competitive term with only 200 links (unless they;re from the yahoo home page, of course!). I'm presuming your keyword is a keyphrase, and at least one of the words will be a very common word ('free' . Try it in quotes to see what the actual number of competing phrases is.

 

I have ranked websites on 1st page with not a large number of links myself. Quality is a huge deal, and I am not just talking PR. It is important to look at things like domain age as well.

 

Its all about maintaining your work and keep working for staying there as now you are at the top position. And the main thing you need to do is to pay attention on gathering links which are good and from quality sites. If you are getting links more than your competitor than it doesn't mean you will be stay at there for the long time as there is heavy competition.

May be there are some good links your competitor has, that you don't. Keep working hard to stay there for a long time thats what I can suggest you as there is a heavy competition.

 

Your competitor must have high PR and relevant links. Analyse your link building strategy and do some press releases.

 

Our content is updates as often as their - the content is 100% unique I wrote it!

 

Hum, I don't know where you are going, but the 2 key words DO NOT include the word free...tried in quotes 3 million competing sites.

We have similar keyword density, etc onpage

 

1) yahoo site explorer doesn't give you all the backlinks details
2) Domain age is also a factor which need to consider
3) key word concentration is another one
4) Quality of backlinks , if you have 200 backlinks but the other guy have only 50 backlinks but from PR 6-8 that would be valued more
5) Some time it would be the part of google dance

Please let me how if it helps...

 

domain age would be the only factor, you see this competitor wanted to buy a previous business but could not afford, so i sold it to someone else! Then when they saw I had started another business within 4 weeks, they were trying to sell similar products by adding them to their existing website.

 

similar relevant links but i have more - this is why i cannot understand

 

the only difference is domain age and one link is 1PR higher than mine.

 

Thanks for that, I have addressed your points below.

 

1. Content
2. Your site google trust (site age, or some different coeffs in google)

Number and quality of backlinks are not the only factors.

 

u need good content with keyword research + backlink on the article from related sites

 

Are they quality backlinks? Also make sure you have quality and unique content with good on-page and off-page SEO.

 

actually nothing wrong with sites - they are back in 1 and 2 position - changed laptop and saw changes. So all the comment saying content, or improve backlink quality are talking utter rubbish.