Why would a site with virtually no external links and low authority rank very high?

[splatdude]

Hey there:

I'm not sure anyone's going to be game to answer this but...

I have designed, done on-page optimization for and done ongoing content marketing and linkbuilding for a local fitness site. The site is about nine months old and I am attempting to achieve rank for the keyword "personal trainers in philadelphia." We've made progress; having taken a new site from +100 to 19 in about four or five months worth of content creation and linkbuilding on a very modest budget. I'm not complaining.

What has me confused though is that there are one or two sites that are ranking very high for this keyword string with considerably shoddier metrics than our site and I'm wondering how a stock WP theme site with very few inbound links can rank top five for a reasonably competitive keyword?

Our site is http://vtrainersinc.com. The site I've noticed that ranks top five and seems to have an inferior SEOMoz profile is bodycrafters.net. Anybody got any ideas as to why these things seem to occur? I have this feeling this site has stumbled upon a magic SEO elixir which I'd like to get my hands on!

[splatdude]

Thanks, Matt and William, for taking a look and offering input. I'm going to give William's tweak a go and see if I get a bump. I'm suspicious that any of 1 -3 apply here, Matt, as the domain is not that old and it's pretty content-deprived and static. (Even though it is built on WP, it's not being updated or blogged to...)

Thanks again,

dave

[MattAntonino]

There are many "possible" reasons - hard to know which one is causing it.

1. Could be that they've done well in places that aren't showing up.

2. Could be that they 301'd an old domain with a lot of juice you aren't seeing to the new site.

3. Could be that you are connected to them in some way so you're more likely to see them on personalized results.

4. Could be that they're just doing something exceptionally right.

5. Could be temporary - a lot of sites like this come and go on page 1 these days.  I track "seo melbourne" almost every day and the top 10 changes ridiculously often.

I could probably think of more "possible" reasons but I don't see a way to determine which it is.  If they owned the former #1 site and rebranded, a simple 301 with almost no links would still outrank almost everyone else.  If they update frequently, they could be getting some sort of freshness bonus.

[veezer]

I just did a quick review and would note the following.

Google search is now VERY precise.  A search for "personal trainers in Philadelphia" (without quotes) returns the results you quoted.

But a search for  "personal trainers in Philadelphia AND SOUTH JERSEY)" - which is the 1st text encountered in your main content containing your keyword phrase) - puts you in #1 position in SERP.

It is possible you are diluting your effectiveness by adding the south Jersey part.

I would try removing that and putting this phrase  "personal trainers in Philadelphia" - period - in the 1st sentence of your main content and see if the results change.

Your competitor seems to have done that, and even without a strong link profile it is easy for Google to see clearly and unambiguously what their site is about.