Triple listing in rankings

[PlusPort]

We have a triple listing for the keyword vca cursus (Dutch keyword). But the page we optimized for that keyword ranks lower than our vca examen page. First we had the number one spot but now we rank 2 to 5. In opensite explorer i compared the competiton and we scored on almost all factors better.

Do you know the causes why the vca examen page ranks higher then the vca cursus  page. Is it possible to change that or reverse the triple listing somehow. And why does our competitor ranks higher?

[sesertin]

Hello.

First: your competitor's better ranking maybe has good reasions as google algorythm is pretty musch complicated and works with numerous data. However if all of your factors are better I think your competitor'd domain must be older, when all factors are better ususally this is the case, but without examining the page this is just a guess.

I don't think you really want to get rid of triple ranking this is a pretty good thing. To change order for vca cursus simply apply internal links that point to the page you want to be first for vca cursus. The anchor and the title of the links has to be vca cursus of course. Use that term in the heading tags of the disered page. To reinforce this and to beat your competitor obtain extarnal links to the page you want to be first with for that term. Again: link anchor alt and title has to be vca cursus.

[RyanKent]

I mostly agree with Zsolt and will add a bit more detail.

I checked Google.nl and see your /vca-examen ranked #2 and the vca-cursus page ranked #3. I do see how you are using internal anchor text to link to the proper page. I would suggest two changes to help clarify the internal issue on your site:

1. On your home page the content begins with "Met een **VCA **cursus bij VCAdirect...". Make the first use in content of VCA cursus anchor text to the proper page. I see the phrase is used in part 10 times on the home page and you do use anchor text link once, but use it the first time as it may be considered more important by Google.

2. You are using cufon for your header tag text. The way it is implemented on your site is such the cufon text is not recognized as text. When I used Google translate, the cufon text is not translated. The lack of translation indicates to me Google is not seeing it as text. Also when I do a "find" the cufon text matches are not highlighted. I would recommend replacing the cufon text with normal text.

3. You recently changed the anchor text on your pages. The new anchor text is correct, but Google has not crawled your pages since you have made the change. The cache of your VCA examen page is from Oct 29th and the anchor text is different. It is possible the page order issue will resolve on it's own during the next crawl.

With respect to your competitor's ranking, your stats are almost identical across the board with respect to PA, DA, mR, mT. Your backlink profile is very unnatural. Your top 40 links all use identical anchor text. That is a strong indicator the links are under your control and not independently offered. Your competitor has a similar issue but not as bad as yours.

Part of the problem is your competitor seems to have 1 strong page which is relevant, where your strength is divided among multiple pages. Because the page is in another language it is difficult for me to fully troubleshoot but that is a concern.

[PlusPort]

Thanks 4 the helpfull answer!

I checked the website in google translation and everything was translated. I don't see any problems in the cufon font.

What page of the competitor are you talking about in point 3? And what kind of anchor text would you suggest?

[RyanKent]

You are correct about the translation. It appears the page did not load properly for me the first time.

What page of the competitor are you talking about in point 3?

Point #3 referred to your site, not your competitor. "The cache of your VCA examen page is from Oct 29th..." You recently changed the link in the anchor text on that page, and it has not been updated yet.

what kind of anchor text would you suggest?

When users choose anchor text, there is a natural variation. On both your "vca examen" and "vca cursus" page almost every link is 100% identical. That simply does not happen naturally. This type of linking is a very strong indicator you created all those links.

Think about Google for example. There is nothing more basic then the Google.com page. If real people were going to link to it, you would see anchor text such as:

google

google.com

http://www.google.com

search engine

best search engine

and so forth. If you looked at the top 50 links and they are all "search engine" then those links are most likely manipulated. In fact, this topic made me curious so I went ahead and looked up Google's links. Take a look for yourself: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.google.com

That is how a natural link profile appears.

[PlusPort]

I checked a few sites myself and see your point. Good argument, Ryan! This is something  I can improve.