My competitor pushed me down the SERP out of nowhere. How do I fix this?

[Taylorw]

Hi, my ecommerce site used to rank #2 (my homepage) for my primary keyword on Google for over a year. #1 has always been my competitor's homepage. Since Monday 10/10, my competitor's Shop page -- which uses this keyword only 6x within the content of that page and has NEVER been ranked -- is #2 bumping me down to #3

I feel this is a result of the last Penguin update. My best guess is their homepage popularity -- due to backlinks and being #1 SERP rank -- has transferred popularity to their Shop page. Is that normal for Google to do that?

Any advice or guidance would be much appreciated.

[eyepaq]

Can you share the query ?

[becole]

Taylorw, you mention the number of times the keyword is mentioned on the page, 6 times... which really has very little to do with search engine rankings anymore. Generally speaking, keyword density and how many times a keyword is mentioned on a page is not a major factor now.

You alluded to links, and you're right, there is a good chance that your search engine rankings have changed due to the Penguin update that recently occurred. It could still be other factors, though.

I wouldn't think necessarily that it's your competitor pushing you down--it could be, in fact, that your site's rankings went down because of certain links that you have that have been devalued, dropping your rankings. Without specific knowledge about your URL(s), there's not much anyone can do to give you more specific advice.

I would, though, take a careful look at all of the links pointing to your website, especially looking for low quality links that may need to be removed and/or disavowed.

[Taylorw]

Thank you, Bernadette. But if my links got devalued, why does that make my competitor's Shop page appear out of nowhere? It's never been ranked before.

And regarding keyword density, I've always read good content and backlinks are the 2 primary factors in SEO ranking. So how can content be good if it doesn't refer to the keyword? How does Google recognize good content relative to keyword usage? Is there a primary SEO factor I'm forgetting?

[PenaltyHammer]

This can be anything but I'm suggesting to do comparison: links, anchors, content on your website and his website. Then with data you should improve your website. Can content be better? Correct it. Can links be better/stronger? Add them. Etc etc... I know this looks like general advise but if you need help with comparing top10 websites with your website, can help you.

There're more possibilities than penguin.