I have been busy working on backlinks for my site. I have been checking the search engines contastantly, but it seems that a competing site is always two steps ahead of me. How do I check to see what I am doing wrong and they are doing right? I have WAY more back links. It becomes frustrating at times, but I can see that my submissions have been working. Is there directories that are a must to submit to? I did the link search and found that I'm listed almost everywhere they are. Funny thing was, I did a search yesterday for a major keyword which they are on the thrid page, and saw me pop up on the fourth page briefly and then my site was gone completely about a half hour later. Thanks in advance.
If you have more backlinks than your competitors you could assume that they are ahead for other reasons. here is a tool that finds the top ten sites for any given keyword: http://www.webuildpages.com/cool-seo-tool/ Examine the competition--say all the top ten--and see what they are doing better than you. Don't fixate on one site since there are at least 5 good "top" positions. If it's your signature site you're talking about, then forums usually rise to the top given the number of users and dynamism of the site. That's a fine forum and I believe it will get there. Good luck, anyway.