Tried to find correlation between SEOMOZ statistic and google ranking.

[ctam]

I've made Google US search and than tried to compare SEOMOZ data for first few result. I've used Open Site Explorer and On-Page Report Card. On attached picture you can find this statistic. Pages are sorted in order as they appear in Google search.

For me is big question why position 2 and 4 is so hight and 6 is only 6. And what position 6 should do to go up.

Thank you.

2s9zlu8.jpg

[mrdavidingram]

Hi William,

The issue here is that these metrics only take into account a sites authority, they do not look at how relevent the page is to the users query.

So for example; if the user searches 'where is the best place to eat in Seattle?', the results in 2 and 4 might not be particularly powerful domains, but they may have pages containing great articles on the best restaurants in Seattle. On the other hand, site 6 might be a page on a powerful and well known domain, however the page may only have a loose reference to dining in Seattle.

Google wants to answer the users query in the best way possible, and sometimes the best answers come from pages and sites that haven't been around long or haven't done any active link building.

Building up trust and authority through links is only half of the battle, if your page isn't relevant for the search query it will struggle to break the top spots.

Thanks,

DAvid

[ctam]

Thanks

At the and of my picture there are statistics from On-Page Report Card

http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/on-page-keyword-optimization

For the same keyword that was used for search.

2 and 4 do not look perfect there too.

Can we discuss this part?

[mrdavidingram]

Sorry, I've not actively answered the question;

In theory, site 6 needs to become more relevant to the keyword. So start by looking at the usual on page factors (page title, H1 tags, alt image descriptions), and then move on to the page content itself. Ask yourself a few questions:

• What is the user looking for when they use the keyword, does my site provide the best answer?
• Can the content on the page be considered the definitive answer/guide/resource for that query?
• Would the grammar, style and format pass professional Editorial standards?

When site 6 could (honestly) answer yes to these three questions, they would see their ranking for this term improved.

Cheers

[mrdavidingram]

Hi William,

I've put some thoughts on the on-page issues below, however I should say that I don't think you're going to find the answer to your question by lining up metrics.

If it was that simple, we call all reverse-engineer Google's algorithym and retire to the Bahalmas

Looking at metrics is a good starting point, however to really see why a search result is sorted in a particular order, you've got to look a little deeper and delve into the content.

Thanks

David

[ctam]

Thanks.

Actually, I've just checked Google search again and site#3 disappear from top20 for the same key word.

I've tried to compare pages #1 and #6 by content, for me they have the same level of content - just category page from eCommerce site.

Any way thanks a lot. We will try to dig deeper.

[ctam]

One more question, Is this more question of on-page optimization, or amount and quality of link still can change rank position?

Thanks.