How do I ascertain how/why a site appears higher/lower in search results, based on different search terms?

[PeterConnor]

The site in question is www.bullethq.comHere are the search terms I used, and what position Bullethq.com appears in the SERP's:

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| Search-term | Position |  Page returned |
| irish payroll online | 5 |  Home Page |
| irish payroll online software | 20 |  Home Page |
| online irish payroll software | 20 |  Home Page |
| online payroll | 75 |  (Blog post) |

Could someone be so kind as to help me figure this out?

[Chris.Menke]

Hi John,

I'm wondering if you've set up your first campaign yet.  If you haven't done that. use this guide to get started you can enter you domain and keywords in the setup and once per week you'll get your report on the ranking results.

[KarlBantleman]

How your website ranks for different search terms is based on many things. First of all, I get you at number 2 for "irish payroll online" in Google UK. Google will look at a number of things to determine what your website is relevant for. It will look at the optimisation of the website, so if you want to rank for "irish payroll online software" then you will need to find the relevant page on your website (which I'm assuming would be the homepage looking at the site) and include that term in the key areas (title tag, meta description, H1, Content etc).

Then once you have optimised the website you need to start creating some unique pieces of content and then use them to get in touch with bloggers, key websites that will help drive traffic and sales to the business. As Chris said, setup up your campaign in Moz and look it will explain ways of optimising your website.

Good luck!

[Chris.Menke]

If everything's already set up and you're ready to start wrapping your arms around the optimization process, Moz's guide to SEO is a good place to start.

[PeterConnor]

Hi Chris

Thanks a lot for getting back to me.

I just got access to Moz recently. My profile is updated now so my name is now appearing correctly as Chris. I've set up a couple of campaign's so far, just to see how it works. Also, I'm just beginning to build my keyword database, so my Moz campaign's will take time to become really effective.

I've been teaching myself the basics of SEO for the last couple of weeks (using mostly MOZ guides and Blogs), so I'm fairly familiar with the process of optimizing the website etc. already.

I suppose what I was really asking was, can I trace backwards, why this same page is ranking so much higher for this 1 search term, at the present time? It seems to be a bit of an anomaly. I haven't effected an SEO strategy here as yet, so there might be a useful indicator in the answer to that question.

All the best

Chris Fitzpatrick

[PeterConnor]

Hi Karl

Thanks very much for your answer. I'm amazed at the quick response I got from yourself and Chris Menke.

I will be making an attempt at optimizing the website in the near future. I want to make sure I've got the right strategy before I do. Also, I will be looking at ways of producing new original content across a number of platforms, that is relevant to the business, and interesting to prospective clients.

Thanks to your advice, I can see that I'm on the right track.

Best

Chris Fitzpatrick

[Chris.Menke]

I don't think you'll be able to find what you're looking for as far as historical ranking data for your site but you can try over at semrush.com.  Having taken a very quick look at your site, I'd suggest you get acquainted with redirects--and take some weeks (or more) to read up on the SEO in general before you start making changes to your site. There are lots of things you can get wrong without even knowing if you just jump in without some fundamentals under your belt.

[PeterConnor]

Again, thanks a lot. Your answer is really usefull to me so I very much appreciate it. Rest assured I won't do anything until I have a well thought strategy, based on thorough research.