Why do you think this site is number one?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by mopacfan, Nov 18, 2008.

  1. #1
    I have held the number one position in Google for more than five years for the term "police lights" with my site, Project Responder. However, a small competitor (speed tech lights) has taken number one for more than three months. This site even somehow garnered Site Links from Google. My site dropped as far as number six and is now back up to number two. I think part of this has to do with changing my entire storefront at the end of August from one shopping cart program to another, including changing the main sub-directory from /public-safety-equipment to /pse. I do have 301 redirects in place so that should not be an issue, but I'm not entirely sure.

    I have been looking at this every which way and I don't get it. The site has very few back links, no page rank, and it just came out of nowhere. It seems that something fishy is going on, but I just can't put my finger on it. So I'd like to know if you see something I don't as to why this site rates a number one listing with site links.

    Thanks,
    MoPacFan
     
    mopacfan, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  2. jitendraag

    jitendraag Notable Member

    Messages:
    3,982
    Likes Received:
    324
    Best Answers:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    270
    #2
    Continue getting backlinks to your site and you may be able to regain your position. I don't really see a whole lot of quality links for the website. The only positive factor is presence of 'light' in domain name.

    I would just say that it proves that google is not accurate :)
     
    jitendraag, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  3. debunked

    debunked Prominent Member

    Messages:
    7,298
    Likes Received:
    416
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    310
    #3
    Do you use Google sitemaps? And does that competitor?
     
    debunked, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  4. SEOSUCKS

    SEOSUCKS Peon

    Messages:
    117
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #4
    1) Is ASP sitemap supported by google??
    If not make a google supported sitemap

    2) Create some backlinks for projectresponder.com/police-lights.htm

    3) The domain speed tech lights has light in its domain.. It is a plus point for them. You can't do anything for that..

    Just make your page more popular by getting more traffic.. Get some direct visiters to this page using adwords...It will hep a lot
     
    SEOSUCKS, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  5. needforumposters

    needforumposters Member

    Messages:
    63
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    #5
    Yea backlinks > all SEO skills...
    anchor the link with the keyword you desire.
     
    needforumposters, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  6. debunked

    debunked Prominent Member

    Messages:
    7,298
    Likes Received:
    416
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    310
    #6
    Mopacfan has been around long enough to know the value of backlinks, but that isn't always the answer.
     
    debunked, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  7. keiths

    keiths Peon

    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #7
    Wow that is crazy. I can't imagine they will stay at number 1 for too long. All of their titles are the same on pretty much every page too. Let us know if you find anything out, it's really interesting.
     
    keiths, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  8. keiths

    keiths Peon

    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #8
    Wow that is crazy. I can't imagine they will stay at number 1 for too long. All of their titles are the same on pretty much every page too. Let us know if you find anything out, it's really interesting.
     
    keiths, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  9. keiths

    keiths Peon

    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #9
    Wow that is crazy. I can't imagine they will stay at number 1 for too long. All of their titles are the same on pretty much every page too. Let us know if you find anything out, it's really interesting.
     
    keiths, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  10. keiths

    keiths Peon

    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #10
    Wow that is crazy. I can't imagine they will stay at number 1 for too long. All of their titles are the same on pretty much every page too. Let us know if you find anything out, it's really interesting.
     
    keiths, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  11. Dirky47

    Dirky47 Active Member

    Messages:
    799
    Likes Received:
    3
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    58
    #11
    Continue getting more quality backlinks... ;)
     
    Dirky47, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  12. saleelm03

    saleelm03 Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    408
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    101
    #12
    building backlinks will make your site come at 1 position.
     
    saleelm03, Nov 18, 2008 IP
  13. mopacfan

    mopacfan Peon

    Messages:
    3,273
    Likes Received:
    164
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #13
    I do, I don't know know about my competitor.
     
    mopacfan, Nov 19, 2008 IP
  14. mopacfan

    mopacfan Peon

    Messages:
    3,273
    Likes Received:
    164
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #14
    If that were all that's required, seo would not be such an "art". :D
     
    mopacfan, Nov 19, 2008 IP
  15. mopacfan

    mopacfan Peon

    Messages:
    3,273
    Likes Received:
    164
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #15
    Thank you debunked. This is why this one has me scratching my head. Especially that they ended up with sitelinks. I think there is dark seo going on with this one.
     
    mopacfan, Nov 19, 2008 IP
  16. Reseg

    Reseg Peon

    Messages:
    423
    Likes Received:
    21
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #16
    They're not just #1 for the term, they have an authority listing for it so Google really feels their site is the place to go for police lights in comparison to the other options. Getting your position back after another site took an authority position will take a lil more work than just a position change.

    Your site needs a lot of work, good thing there isn't much competition on the phrase and the competition there is doesn't appear to have a clue in regards to SEO.

    -Stop keyword stuffing your title and meta description

    -Focus you metas and page content around the phrase without spam and adding in general terms in meta KW... you have "dash lights" that covers a lot more than police lights, all cars have dash lights.

    -Reduce the # of outbound links on the page, looks like a link farm

    -No follow unimportant links

    -Use H tags properly, H1, H2, and H3 tags are being attempted to be used, but mostly in poor locations and content.

    -Work on your internal linking, for example, when I'm on your index page, I don't see a category or link anywhere I can click clearly labled "police lights" to take me to the page.

    and of course backlinks... there's more, but that's just a quick look. There doesn't seem to be much competition optimizing well for the phrase so work hard and you'll get it back. Good luck.
     
    Reseg, Nov 19, 2008 IP
  17. mopacfan

    mopacfan Peon

    Messages:
    3,273
    Likes Received:
    164
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #17
    Reseg,
    Thanks for the comments, but some of them just don't make sense. Such as the "link farm" comment. I don't know if you noticed that the sponsor listings are not outbound. They are all internal redirects. I have a large number of #1 rankings for my target market, however, this one is perplexing, especially why they ended up as an "authority site". Now, if you have any comments about my competitor that are useful, I'd love to hear them.
    Regards
     
    mopacfan, Nov 19, 2008 IP
  18. Artifexus

    Artifexus Active Member

    Messages:
    257
    Likes Received:
    5
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    58
    #18
    Wow, took a quick look and that's a real surprise. The backlink profiles aren't even in the same league...

    I noticed that you have several H1 tags on the same page. That's probably not doing you any favors. You could also try getting 'police lights' anchor on backlinks to the page you want to rank. Dunno if you already have that, didn't check. You could also try a sitewide 'police lights' link to that page and see what it does.

    That's all I have in the 3 minutes I looked at it...
     
    Artifexus, Nov 19, 2008 IP
  19. Reseg

    Reseg Peon

    Messages:
    423
    Likes Received:
    21
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #19

    Sorry, I didn't take the time to see if they were outgoing or not on my quick look at it but even the nav bar has too much. I see over 80 links on that page, way over kill. It's clutter and confusion in the eys of the guy who found the site and wants to buy police lights but wants to be reassured which to get. If you carried many thousands of types of products and that page was the landing pages for many of those thousands I could understand all the links to get people where they want to go. This isn't the case though or so it seems, the page is targeted to be a landing page for "police lights", there are many links that just aren't needed there. Many studies show at a certain point (which no doubt you've reached) the more choices you give, the less chance a choice is even made. Fear of not making the best choice overtakes the impulse to buy.

    Do they really need "hire the truck" as an option when they may be there to buy police lights? Do they need to see the link on how to get their car sponsored which could stop the sale and make them think they should try for sponsorship instead? Also, the more clicks to buy something the more times you open up for derailment, consider that, and remove any un needed pages between your landing page and final purchase as there appears to be a lot from a quick look.

    Follow what I wrote in the above post and I guarantee you'll see results. Also, work your landing page and funnel and you'll see conversion results. At least AB slit test it to see if I'm full of crap. There's a lot of untapped potential there, I could go on for days with things I see, but I have other sites I get paid to work on to get to lol.

    Another thing, watch out what you read on here as I'm sure you know. While many talk as if they have built many multi-million dollar ecommerce sites and had top SEO rankings for dozens of terms that had 1/2 mil searches a month or more, they haven't. Their hearts are in it, but they speak from theory, not proven experience.
     
    Reseg, Nov 20, 2008 IP
  20. costa580

    costa580 Peon

    Messages:
    104
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #20
    One of the keywords is in their domain name, so their links will all have targeted anchor text... they could also have aggressively pursued targeted anchor text which will come back to bite them if they don't even it out with some links with anchor text that more closely align with their domain name and/or site title.
     
    costa580, Nov 20, 2008 IP