Better link metrics, but lower rank??

[vondoba]

Hello to all, new member here from Houston. I'm learning a lot!  I've brought my site up some but my chief competitor is still at #1 position. I ran a full SERP report for my top keyword. My site appears to rank better on:

Page Authority…Domain Authority…MozRank…MozTrust...DmT/DmR…

Additionally, his on-page grade is F, mine is B!

So, it appears sheer bulk incoming links are really where it's at. He beats me, somewhat, at URL Link Counts, also on Followed External Links. The real difference appears to be External Links to This Domain: I have 65, he has somehow managed to get 3500…I think his webmaster has a local directory where everybody links to each other…I can't imagine how a small biz like this, in a fairly non-competitive industry, could get that many.

Anyway, thought I'd bring this up for comments/clarifications, if anyone has any---Also, is there a resource to understand these various parameters.

Thanks---

John in Houston

[David-Kley]

I would do a competitive link analysis to see where he is actually getting the links to his site, and how they are positioned in the linking platform. Manual link building can be extremely tedious, but it is ultimately a very powerful tool in getting Google to notice your site. Linking out to relevant sources and topics can help, as Google does not like to see sites that do not provide a larger resource to a user. We wrote an article on how to do a competitive link analysis. Might help you getting started.

For the reporting of F vs B, what tools are you using to analyze the date? Moz? If you are using the MOZ page grader, pay attention to what page you are actually grading, and for what keywords. The reports are helpful in pointing out errors, but can give a false positive in the event they are analyzing multiple pages for the same keywords.

[vondoba]

Thank you--- I will read your article.

[vondoba]

David, that link seems to be inactive---any other avenues to get that article?

John