lets say there are two News websites that producte articles on the latest news, gossip, drama, stuff like that. They are both 1 year old. however one of them will consistently ranks much higher in google for the exact same article title. for example a article called "goverment shutdown 2011" will always rank much much higher in goolge for site A then site B. assume the article length and keywords density are the same. what would make site A rank so much better than site B? and what can site B do about it? I dont think keyword optimization is a issue here because it is on current events.
does site b has the same content on its pages as is on site a, then site b might be getting the duplicate content penalty and google is considering site a having the original content.
both produce original content. but Site A will still rank on page one for an article while Site B will rank on page 3 for the exact same article even if site B publishes the article first. Would it have to do with the quality of the back links?
So, Age: 1 Year Both Keywords: Completely The Same Article: Similar, but not copied Site A could have more backlinks from respected sites. Site A could have a higher Page Rank, which of course isn't important, but in tough ranking situations, it could play some role. I'm guessing it's only because of the amount of respected backlinks.
Yes, quantity and quality of backlinks matter a lot for high SERP listings. The way site is being promoted could be the other reason. Are you using same headers for content?? I suppose that is why site B could not get high ranking.