Hi, so there's a keyword phrase I'd like to rank for, (for practice) so I used Moz's Link Explorer in order to investigate my competitors' backlink situations and instead of having them answered I just gained even more questions than I had before and now I'm confused. I was hoping someone would be willing to explain. So here are the number 1's stats: DA 8, PA 16 and only ONE inbound link - he ranks number 1. Weird. But it gets even more bizarre when you contrast it with the number 2's stats: Higher DA, PA and a ton of backlinks, yet they rank number 2, under the website from the first screenshot. Same business, same keywords. Why? Also a bonus question - What are those shady websites they're getting backlinks from? "webrankdirectory.com", how does Google even allow crap like that? It's not fair.
DA and PA are not used by Google as metrics to rank sites.... Rankings are based on a lot more than just the number of backlinks.
Domain name is also a factor .... So check domain name if compare with your own website. For example if we have limited backlinks but domain name is nearby phrase which are searching by people then may be google show our website first than other. Website must contain related, unique and informative contents.
There are hundreds of ranking factors and weighed differently, along with filters. These metrics (weighting) can also change with updates. The site in 1st could be including more ranking factors or checking off more filters on their site/page than site #2. Site #2 could have poor on-page seo, using less ranking factors and just using a bunch of links to compensate. Would need more info to see why.