SEO - 5 Reasons Your Competitors Websites Rank Higher

As a Phoenix SEO Company, we often get asked, "Why are my competitors ranked higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)?" Here are the top 5 reasons...

#1 - Age:

Your competitors have had their domain & website longer. As in many things in life, experience matters. From Google's perspective, a website that's been around for years has established some credibility or trust, just because they've been around longer. Google doesn't rank brand-new websites (and by brand new, I'm talking under a year) well, as that trust hasn't been established yet.

#2 - Link Quantity:

Your competitors have more inbound links to their websites. Often going hand in hand with age, a site that's been around for years has probably, though not always, gotten links from other sites during that time, and Google is using these links as a factor in ranking the site. While the whole backlink and link-building practice have changed over the last couple of years, links still count.

#3 - Link Quality:

Links to your competitor's sites have more value. All links don't have the same value in SEO. Links from high authority sites carry more weight when Google sees them linking to you. Links from sites that have relevancy, meaning they are discussing the same topic and use the same keyword phrases as your site, also have more value. While it used to be the more links from anywhere, the better, now Google only wants to see links from relevant sites, so no more buying 3,000 backlinks from spammy link farms.

#4 - On-page SEO:

The navigational structure, the number of pages, and per-page optimization of title tags, H1's, and body copy, along with a hundred plus other items, heavily factor into how you rank. If an SEO Professional hasn't gone through your website with a fine tooth comb suggesting improvements, odds are there is a lot of low-hanging fruit for on-page SEO optimization ripe for the picking. Do-it-yourself SEO has one major downside. To quote a favorite business coach... You don't know... what you don't know. Attempting to do your own SEO can actually hurt your results if you don't know what NOT to do. You are also probably missing lots of tactics that you simply aren't aware of. Hiring the right SEO expert, is money well spent. Unfortunately, it's difficult for the uneducated to tell the experts from the charlatans. Insist on proof of past success and transparency into what they are doing. Here's another blog post about how to hire the right SEO Company.

#5 - Update Frequency:

One other big factor in SEO results is how often the website has new content added. Very few business owners have the time to add compelling and fresh content to their website weekly, yet doing so yields results. The solution is to hire an SEO firm or content developer to produce quality content on a frequent basis. Weekly is about the minimum I'd suggest. More often is only going to improve your rankings faster.

With the NASCAR season just getting started, a race metaphor comes to mind. In order to win at racing or search rankings, several things need to happen...

#1 - You can't win if you don't show up. You've got to bring the car and the team to the track every week. In the SEO race, you've got to have your website and your Internet Marketing team working to help you win.

#2 - The fastest car has the best chance of a win. In SEO, speed matters. Google has publicly said site speed is a ranking factor. Great hosting with a low number of sites-to-server ratio makes a difference in how fast your site is. Choose wisely. Hint, cheap hosting often means slow site load times and regular outages. Both will kill your SEO results.

#3 - Spend appropriately. The winning NASCAR teams spend considerable amounts of money every year on their program. Winning races doesn't come cheap. The SEO Race isn't any different. Budget appropriately or you are going to get lapped by the competition.

#4 - Work together. The pit crew works in harmony to make sure the car is serviced quickly and correctly. They get penalized when they forget that last lug nut. Google is going to penalize your site when you forget to do things too. That's one reason we feel strongly the company that builds your website is also the best SEO firm to hire. They are intimately familiar with your site and the platform it runs on. They know what has been done and what needs to be done next for you to start winning. 

Ready to put our winning team to work for you? Contact Us today by filling out our Contact Us page or by calling us at 602-427-5626 ext 1 for Sales. We'll help you win the SEO Race.