Competitor significantly jumped in SERP rankings

[Dions]

We opened a new location in a new market in early February and eventually tapered off improving SERP rankings when we reached an average rank of #3. As we began increasing in ranking, the competitions' average rankings we're declining.

Suddenly, in April, one of our competitors spiked to an average SERP ranking of #1. The site that jumped to the top of SERP was a location page and there was no content changes, or changes to their website. Our competitor's links also decreased during the time of this spike.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what caused our competitor to spike so high, so suddenly?

Thanks,

[LoganRay]

Hi,

It's nearly impossible to tell you what happened without a lot more information. But strictly based on the information we do have, links decreasing isn't always a bad thing. It's possible they previously had some spammy links that they got rid of, which would decrease the quantity, but could've greatly increased the aggregate _quality _of their link profile.

[Dions]

Quality of their link profile makes a lot of sense and was something I considered. What caught me off guard is how sudden and high the spike was. Thanks for the response.

[NickW816]

Since it as such a fast increase in rankings, I would assume it was an on-site update to the metadata or location page that you indicated. For example, without adding more content or making major changes to their existing content, they could have updated their Meta Title, and added a few inbound and outbound links to the page, which could cause a quick jump in rankings. I would look at what their meta title and description are, and what outbound and inbound links they have on the location page.

[Dions]

Thanks for the thoughts. Meta updates was my first instinct, as I have had instant success when making those changes, but there were no meta changes found. Inbound and outbound links is a definite possibility. Unfortunately, I haven't tracked their inbound/outbound links, so I wouldn't be able to compare differences.