Hi guys. Here is the scenario. There is a particular keyword i am trying to rank for. I have that keyword in my title,meta tag and have more backlinks than my competitor has, with that keyword as an anchor text. Still i rank lower than him. Also i have some 300 backlinks in all (in google i.e) and he has total of 1800 backlinks (in google again). Majority of my backlinks with the particular keyowrd i am talking about, are from related sites. Why am I then still ranked lower than him ?? I thought ranking for a particular word just depends upon number of backlinks with that work as anchor text, right ??
Backlinks, as such, are...not much. Related backlinks...(if they haven't change the politics lately) are no better than non-related links. The single most important ranking factor in the backlink is its PR, and anchor text of course. Few PR6 links make a better job than thousands of PR1-2 links. Beside that, links from the "link lists" on the home page of a linking site are said to be devaluated lately, and contextual links (directly from the article text) are supposed to have higher value. Also, title is not enough. You need a content. I've written 3000+ long article, and used the main keyword naturally 100+ times in it. I used several keyword phrases in subtitles and tagged them with H2-3 tags. Many keyword phrases rank from 10-20 in Google, and I have only few backlinks, PR of the blog is only 3.
Did you check how you and your competitor rank with the allinanchor: operator? boron had it right about the quality of the backlinks. If your competitor has backlinks from higher PR pages then you do, he likely will rank higher. Good luck.
I have the same going with one of my sites. My inner page that sells a particular product is #3 while the 2 sites ahead of me have less links and PR , but on those sites they only sell that product. I think since I have pages which are kind of related but not really where they are totally related gives them the lead. I am not sure, its just a theory.
the answer is relativity and quality of backlinks you have gather against your competitor even if your competitor has a lower backlink that site must be link to other related and stable site.
And it's an overall rank based on stable pages that is the basis of the rank, one keyword doesn't make a site.
It's not jst about the number of links. Onpage optimization, link quality, domain age, etc. are important factors as well.
Quality not Quantity is key to ranking higher for back links, you also want your content to be keyword rich as well, not just the title.
There is alot to say about domain age. Is your domain older or newer. Also the quility of the backlinks outweigh the quantity.
Try doing a deeper analysis of your competitor and find out the PR of the links. Target the top PR links and see if you can get them too, then look at your other competitor's strong links and grab those too! Matt
Use a back link tool Yahoo Site Explorer works, and check out where your competitor is getting his links. Chances are if your in the same vertical you can get a link from those sources as well. Make sure to mix up your anchor text.