High yahoo ranking, but low google?

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Traffic sources: Yahoo 47%, Google 11%, Altavista 9%...

For some reason my site just does not rank well in google. Looking at the stats amazes me and is somewhat depressive as I know I could be getting major traffic with a fix.

I´m pretty sure i´m not getting the 950 penalty from google as I have few anchors, not spamming words etc. Another thing, my competitors sites are very similar to mine (similar keyword densities, keyword target for specific pages etc) and are not doing anything i´m not, however, they are ranking high.

Any one know how I can change this present situation to get better google ranking/traffic? Thank you all in advance.

[tedster]

I'd say you need to make a painstaking, detailed study keyword by keyword for the queries that rank well on Yahoo and not on Google. First find out WHERE they rank on Google. Also ddon't settle for pretty sure when it comes to the over-optimization penalty. We called it -950, but it really can be some other lowered position, not neccesarily the last pages. Learning where your keywords do rank is a first step.

When you locate some solid information, then study the urls from other sites that are ranking well on Google. See what they are doing differently from you, or what you are doing that they are not.

Today's Google requires a detailed analysis when things go wrong - there are very few simple rules that can be universally applied any more.

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I´ve been thinking that maybe it is due to my link pop. My competitors have many articles written, are active in blogs and also buy links. This is the only thing I seem to be doing different.

Do you think writing articles, blogging and getting some good relevant quality backlinks will increase my ranking (in google) due to it giving my site more authority?

[Shaddows]

getting some good relevant quality backlinks will increase my ranking

Er, yes. This is what made Google different from other search engines in the beginning- the ability to rank based on peer review. Google is all about high relevancy links and content. You seem to have the content (assuming its unique and not highly similar to your competitors), now start Building Links [webmasterworld.com]

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So Shaddows, you are saying this is the only thing that is different between google and yahoo then? I find that hard to believe.

[Shaddows]

nope, the recipe is clearly different. Yahoo still uses signals that Google finds to noisy for example, and common signals have different priorities. A glance at SERPS for a generic product will show more info sites on G, and more ecom on Y! as another example.

However, Yahoo et al ranked mostly (wholey?) on on-page factors. Larry Page's thesis that became Googles engine was all about calculating a Rank.
'Larry Page' + Rank = PageRank.

So, Yahoo cares mostly about content. Google also cares about content, but rates that content in a diffent way. However, Google needs links to point at the content for serious ranking to occur.

Don't believe me if you don't want to- in which case, please let me know when you find out what REALLY makes Google tick ;)

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I do believe you and it is a common fact that google loves quality links. Back to link building then which seems to be a never ending job!

As a Pro what do you think would be the best links to go for? Would it be best to get a blogger or someone to write articles, even both?

[Shaddows]

Depends on what you do, and opinions split. I would have a thorough read of this
[webmasterworld.com...]

Which is the distilled wisdom (reachable from the library link at the top) of this:
[webmasterworld.com...]

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Cheers for the advice Shaddows