Stuck at #3 for three major keywords – any quick (easy) suggestions?

I'm sure the site can bag the #2 spot(s) ...

[JackR]

For the past few months my site has been stuck at number three – for all three of my major keywords!

eg:

Red Widget
Red Widgets
Red Widget Company

Can you wise folks give me any quick and easy tips for grabbing the #2 spot?

[lakr]

any quick and easy tips for grabbing the #2 spot?

As you read threads here, there will be no quick and easy schemes, just naturally and slowly build good inbound links to your site, and I am sure that you will grab the #1 soon.

If you join any quick scheme, I am sure that you will not be stuck at #3, but PAGE #3!

Hope it help.!

[tedster]

If it's a very competitive search, I'd suggest a thorough study of the competition that is currently in the top two spots. Look at everything you can think of, use he site: operator, study their backlink information, look at their mark-up, their menu terms, their anchor text, both internal and external, what content they publish, etc.

Studying the competition almost always stimulates the ideas. And of course, keep on growing your own content and links.

[JackR]

Thanks for the replies.

At the last major G update 2/3 months back, a new site appeared on the first page of Google – at #1. This #1 was for both the singular and plural versions of my primary keyword. No-one expected them to stay there for long. The site I’m talking about is still there ...

Based on the following, there is no reason they should be there:

1. My site is W3C-Compliant XHTML/CSS – every page. Their site is table based and riddled with errors.

2. My site has double the number of pages.

3. My site has five times more (relevant) backlinks.

4. My site has superior navigation, intra linkage and content.

etc, etc.

Therefore, should I just put the current state of the index down to a bad data push in my sector, or can you guys suggest anything else?