What can an SEO see in a search results page that others wont?

I've found that, more and more, my time spent analyzing a competitive search results page can be both incredibly revealing and valuable. In most cases I'm looking at a SERP either to research what level of effort might be required to either increase or establish rankings on the results for one of our clients. I'm also finding that it is common that I find competitors obviously breaking webmaster guidelines simply by reviewing their positioning.

When I look at search results pages, I like to assign each site to one of four weight categories of domains that I've labeled below:

• Heavy Weights- labeled appropriately relational to 'Fat Head Keywords' where the highest search volume keywords on the web almost always have one of these high powered 'Fat Domains' ranking #1.
  Example domains: Facebook, Yelp, IMDB, Wiki, SEOMoz

• Middle Weights- Domains with age and authority. These may have previously been Fat Domains but lost their community or something new and interesting replaced them.
  Example domains: MySpace, Dex, Rotten Tomatoes, Search Engine Watch

• Light Weights- Domains with niche authority, ranking for a few chunky middle terms and some long-tail. These domains are often trying to climb in visibility and are doing it by selecting specific search queries to specialize and optimize for.
  Example Domains: Delicious.com, Viewpoints.com, EricWard.com

• Feather Weights- Brand new domains or domains that have never received any marketing support. These domains are unlikely to rank for anything that isn't an exact match of their domain name.

Categorizing each domain in the search result makes it easier to begin breaking down your site's ability to compete. This stage of research often reveals much more about a search term and industry than you might think.

An Example

In preparation for this article, I began looking for good, diverse search terms where players from all fields could provide an example of these concepts. While I don't think I found the perfect example search query, I did find a search result where using this categorization analysis and a deeper understanding of search revealed some interesting results that show the power of a quick SERP analysis.

I started with a local term, because local terms often fall into the chunky middle (More about Long-tail, chunky middle and fat head terms from SEOMoz) of a search vertical.

I landed on the real estate industry since it has plenty of Heavy Weights (Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com, Realtor.com), Middle Weights (Remax, Keller Williams, Century 21), Light Weights (Franchise offices), and Feather Weights (Agent Websites).

So, let's take a look at the SERP:

What Jumps Out?

In each section I’ve highlighted specific domains, from the perspective of trying to identify what it will take to rank in this space using the categorization of domain weight. In this case, with no further research, analysis, or tool use, a Feather Weight site seems to jump out. As I mentioned, these stand out cases regularly signal my BS alarm and it is generally right. These can come in any form where sites essentially rank in the SERP among competitors where there is an obvious and undeniable difference in the quality and reputation of the domains. In this case, the outlier is an exact match domain that I’d presume is using less than admirable link practices, but that’s a topic for another day.

Outside of that domain, I find it striking that this local search term really only has two Light Weight domains ranking. In fact, it is actually the same domain ranking twice. In the case of local searches, the Light Weight sites are often the leaders in their region, and in some search verticals these are typically the top spot holders on a locally identified query, even above the Heavy Weight domains.

The next stage of investigation involves comparison of link metrics using opensiteexplorer.org; you can quickly collect the DA, PA, and link metrics to line up the competition in the search results. The SEOmoz chrome extension will even output this data directly into the SERP for you.

Now that we’ve collected the domain authority and page authority it is becoming clearer why the Heavy Weight sites are ranking. Their PA’s are significantly higher than you might see with these types of sites. That’s because these sub-pages on their domains have good external links helping to support them. The outlier being Homes.com, which has a PA much more in line with what I’d expect to see from a Heavy Weight, where the vast majority of incoming links to the page are from internal pages. It is possible Homes.com has more inbound links that opensiteexplorer.org has collected that may explain the otherwise strangely high ranking for their page.

So, given the data, let’s walk through a few scenarios, as if we were working on this keyword for a client.

Scenario 1 – Heavy Weight

Should a Heavy Weight domain in the real estate space want to begin ranking for this keyword they’d need to start with a very well optimized site structure. This keyword, as well as the other local terms they’d likely be targeting, such as ‘Denver homes for sale’ should be at most three clicks from their homepage.

From a keyword optimization standpoint, they may have a leg up, as none of the titles and presumably on-page content takes maximum advantage of this keyword. I’d recommend the title tags be written with the exact keyword at the start of the title, “Denver homes for sale.” The H1 should also contain the exact phrase as well. The content of the page itself could also involve a variety of good content pieces supported by further optimization for the term by including media content highlighting “Denver homes for sale.” For example, a slideshow of 10 properties that are particularly interesting or great buys for the day.

From a promotion perspective, the page will also need some quality inbound links. Providing real unique value to the page that none of the other competitors have will be a great start to building some organic links as traffic to the page attracts new links naturally. In addition, a promotion campaign to raise awareness and bring in traffic to the page is also certainly required. While strictly looking at the number of links a page will need, I tend to presume that my competitors have the best quality links from high authority sites. Therefore, I assume I’ll need just as many to be on the same playing field. The wildcard then becomes the overall domain authority, where I’d consider half the difference of the domain authority between their sight and mine as the amount of page authority I’d need. For example, my domain has 80 DA, but Trulia has a 91 DA, I need 5.5 more PA than Trulia’s page at 75 to outrank them for the term. So I’d need to plan on 80 page authority; no easy task.

A Heavy Weight would find it quite difficult to compete in this SERP, and I’m very surprised at the significant competitiveness of this term.

Scenario 2 – Middle Weight

As a Middle Weight site, probably with 60-70ish Domain Authority, the gap between your pages inherit Page Authority and that of the pages ranking at the top of this SERP represents a very significant problem. If we reuse the previous method of comparing DA of our Middle Weight site and the PA of the Trulia page, we’d need between 10-15 more PA than the Trulia’s page at 75. That’s not really a reasonable goal. Instead, a preferable option would be to optimize the homepage of our Middle Weight site for this term. This provides us with the highest PA page on the site as the target page we’re trying to rank for this term. This also provides us with an opportunity to provide a unique and useful site that’s entirely dedicated to serving this search query.

Matt Cutts always harps on providing unique and interesting content; well from Trulia’s perspective “Denver homes for sale” is just one of thousands of pages like it on their site. This provides a Middle Weight site the advantage of providing a domain entirely focused on the topic, and potentially serving up much more useful content than the content available on Trulia, but it won’t be easy.

All said, a Middle Weight domain trying to move to this space is likely facing some tough decisions, and they may involve reworking the entire site to focus its content on serving the needs of these searchers. As there are really no great Middle Weight examples in this search, it is even more difficult to judge exactly what it will take for a Middle Weight to fit in here. This is yet another reason why taking top ranking for this term would be absolutely daunting for a Middle Weight.

Scenario 3 – Light Weight

If you thought Heavy Weight and Middle Weight sites would have a difficult time ranking for this search, then by now you’re thinking that Light Weight sites are helpless to compete. In actuality there’s a lot of truth to that, but not all is lost. One section I’ve almost entirely ignored up until now has been the addition of seven local results being injected into this SERP. If you’re a Light Weight in this space, you can thank your lucky stars that Google sees a lot of value in presenting seven local listings on this page.

A direct result of this is that you, as a Light Weight, have two advantages that work in your favor.

#1: You’re likely located, physically, near Denver, and your first steps should be to optimize your Google+ local page and really stick with it. This is your doorway into a SERP where organically you’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell.

#2: Your next advantage is much like the Middle Weight site; you have the ability to take your entire domain and make it something incredibly awesome that Trulia just can’t replicate. You’re local and can provide the local insight Trulia doesn’t have. You have to be creative but a few great ideas could give you the links and recognition to make you a more viable player over time for this SERP, even outside of the local placements. Meanwhile, milking your Google + page for all it is worth will insure you have some traffic and help along the way if you’ve really set your goals high for competing here.

As a Light Weight, you could also start by targeting longer term queries, such as “Denver townhomes for Sale” or some other more specific search where competition may be lower but reasonable search volumes can be found to help you continue to see traffic. If you’re successful on these lower volume terms you’ll take off smaller bites on your way up to compete for something more challenging.

Scenario 4 – Feather Weight

As a Feather Weight, it is time to face facts. You’re going to rely on your Google + local presence to get you some visibility on this page. You’ll also be best suited to go after small niche keywords and really conquer those well. If you have to start by working up to the number one position for “Southern Denver townhomes near shopping centers,” then embrace those keywords and do them better than anyone else ever could. Then make sure you’re getting the word out there, because you need to be a realist, if no one sees your content no one will link to it.

As I wrote this article I found myself surprised by just how much can be learned by taking a few minutes to look at what pages are ranking for a specific query. I hope you have also made the mental note that I have: don’t start a Denver real estate website if you’re not ready for a long hard fight.

The categorization creates a naming association that is very helpful at simplifying the results page and thereby making easier to know more about the competition while spending less time becoming familiar with the space. Taking this approach with your next SERP analysis for a client or a friend, you should find that with a little practice, you can identify weight classes of individual sites without your typical browser plugins or the use of Open Site Explorer to gather deeper site link data.

As you identify sites by weight class you'll be able to more quickly and accurately project the competition level in the SERP and do so with significantly less time. If you can more quickly identify This type of SERP analysis strategy is like a parlor trick, show it off at the next happy hour.

Use SERP Weighting to Help Your Clients Understand Their Site's Competitive Position:

SERP Weighting like I've described above can help you sell your services to a client. It's an easy way avoid explaining the complex metrics like Domain Authority and Page Authority to clients who really don't know anything about SEO and probably don't want to.

Let's say you're speaking with a Lightweight client, and they're wanting to hire you to perform SEO but they think they could compete for the toughest Fat Head terms within a few months. You could give them examples of competitors that are in each weight category then explain where their site ranks. With the understanding of where they stand competitively, you then propose services around offering to focus their SEO efforts on chunky middle terms that can offer relatively quick returns on their investment instead of those fat head terms they initially had in mind. The long term strategy could be to improve their position and weighting to a middle weight site making it easier to start to target the fat head terms.

When you are explaining the strategy, use existing middle weight competitors to give as examples. Set short term goals around the chunky middle terms they can compete for then set long term goals to achieve link metrics comparable to the existing middle weight competitors.

This goal based approach to building your next SEO strategy can help to establish good expectations for the client as well as give them long term SEO performance goals that can be celebrated later in the relationship. This avoids a situation where many clients can become lulled into ever increasing SEO performance without recognition of the achievement of major milestones along the way. A goal based SEO strategy is a happy SEO strategy.