Confused with rankings for keywords that are not on the actual page?

[edward-may]

Hey Guys,

So I went to search a keyword, my competitor came up, when I looked for that keyword on their page i didn't see it at all, and the page is content thin, how is it they are ranking for the keyword at all? Bit confused at how this works.  So having the keyword in your content is not necessary a ranking factor?

Please advise and sorry if this question is really amateur, I'm sure based on this search there is more to it then that.... could you other ranking factors as to why they rank for a keyword that is not in their content?

Does the whole exact keyword have to be in the content to rank?

Thanks all

[ClaytonJ]

Are you familiar with Hummingbird?  It sounds like it is applicable. As they are a competitor they are likely using synonyms to rank for those keywords.

Below are some articles on them.

https://moz.com/blog/hummingbird-unleashed

http://searchengineland.com/google-hummingbird-172816

The balance to understand fully needs a competitive analysis. Likely backlinks and the anchor text. But it is hard to guess from this afar. That said to answer as best can, I will go hummingbird & backlinks.

[EGOL]

Google knows lots of synonyms.   As an example.  If you have a page optimized for "widget photos" it can also rank for widget images, pics, photographs, pictures and other related terms.

If someone links to your page with the words "cool widgets" as anchor text, you might rank for "cool widgets" even though those words do not appear on your page.  Anchor text transfers.

[edward-may]

Hey John,

I'm not an expert around hummingbird or anything, but thanks for pointing me in the right direction.  I thought as much, I'm looking into the backlinks at the moment.  That is something im working on as we speak.  Just wanted a point into the right direction a bit for this.

Thanks for your help!

[edward-may]

Awesome, thanks EGOL, both of you answered my question, I see the competitor has the backlink with anchor text as this keyword!

Thanks again!