Getting to the top

[bzprod]

Hello everyone,

I hope nobody gets offended by this post. It is a very personal one, so if anyone can help, please do.

I am racking my brain trying to figure out why my competitors rank higher than I do. Everything seems to be in my favor, however, I continually rank between 6-11 and they rank between 1 and 2. Here are the details:

My site:
- .us about 4 months old
- Main keyword in title (separated by dash)
- About 185 backlinks (alltheweb)
- About 22 backlinks (google)
- PR5

Competitor #1: (Ranks #1)
- .com about 2.5 years old
- no main keyword in title
- about 50 backlinks (alltheweb)
- about 16 backlinks (google)
- PR4

Competitor #2: (Ranks #2)
- .info about 2 years old
- Main keyword in title (sep. by dash)
- about 105 backlinks (alltheweb)
- about 10 backlinks (google)
- PR4

So I have higher PR than both other sites, as well as great anchor text (95% of links use main keyword/site name). I have more backlinks than both yet they still rank higher than me.

Is there something that I missed? My page is very clean, and I use external css. Headings, bold, etc. are all in place.

I would like to know if someone can post a basic SEO type of thing. Maybe a top 10-15 items that are most important.

Does age of site play into rankings? How important is theme? How is theme calculated? Sorry if this post is to long...it is late and I am frustrated.

Thank you!

-bzprod

p.s. Ask me in private for my site and main keywords.

[Chicago]

>>us about 4 months old

my professional experience would suggest that all else equal that the age of your site is the issue.

sticky me your url and target keywords and I will take a look.

[killroy]

I know some who'd say that a .com beats out a .us easily. Also, form my own experience I've still got trouble beating out a 6 year old domain with my 4 year old one despite the fact that it's been offline for 2 years now.

SN

[nippi]

In a recent post I was advised age makes no difference.... though I still suspect it does.

Can gg clarify?

[vnsampat]

I think age is a factor. Several of my websites have moved up over time. But its taken time. Around a year in some cases.

Just my thoughts
Vishal.

[plasma]

Maybe a top 10-15 items that are most important.

Brett did that already.
Best tutorial on the net:

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm [webmasterworld.com]

How fresh is your content?
Home many pages does G grab / day?

[Gus_R]

Age is a factor for stability into google index, in time pages consolidates pagerank and position in serps therefore.
Although this is cuestion of few months, not years.

[ogletree]

Where are you when you type in allinanchor:keyword

[bzprod]

Hello again,

Thanks for all the responses. Thank you Justin for the private responses.

plasma: The site in question is very fresh. Content is updated 3-4 times weekly and fresh dates have been very constant at a day behind.

ogletree: I appear number four when I do an allinanchor. I will hit the link development quite hard this weekend.

Thanks all!
-Julian

[ogletree]

Do the sites you mention show above you with the allinanchor.

[bzprod]

Yes, both sites appear above me in allinanchor. This leads me to believe that they have more links that are not being reported by google or alltheweb. I know that the numbers have been constantly in flux.

-Julian

[Yidaki]

>I think age is a factor.

Sure, but it's more a natural factor than part of a algorithm. It seems logical to me that the longer a site is online, the more people will find it and the more people will link to it. And the more links a site gets the higher it will climb in the results.

No magic - pure nature. ;)

[nippi]

WHenever I add new pages to my site, that are set up ina simialr fashion(I eman set up, not content) to other pages that have been on the site for some time, they come in at a lower OR.

Eg

widgets.com/holidays/nsw.php has been on the site for 3 years - pr5

widgets.com/holidays/nt.php has been on the site for 3 monnths - pr 3

Same number of clicks from home page- and all other things equal.

Only factor is age. I figure this must then have an impact on overall home page PR.