competiton continually beating us - but...

[BUSHhtr]

Our site - content rich and way better aesthetically than our competition - is always on page two for a certain keyword phrase(s) when our competition is always #2 on page one for the same keyword phrases. I am so frustrated! How is this lame site beating us all the time! I have done everything SEO wise that I know what to do - we are not a new site - no sandbox- we are well established and I have made a lot of progress getting this site where it is but what is their secret? I cannot see it!!
Thanks for letting me vent
If anyone is interested in see my site and thiers to compare and give me an idea - let me know
Thanks
R

 

[Foamcow]

Without seeing either site or knowing the terms used the best guess would be backlinks.

They have better incoming links than you do.

<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Earl & Thompson Marketing - Marketing Agency Services in Gloucestershire

 

[BUSHhtr]

ours:

http://www.rockwellinstitute.com

theirs:

http://www.mykut.com

back links would be the only reason I can think of

thanks foam

 

[johnwm]

They only have 20 validation errors to your 101 validation errors!

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[BUSHhtr]

Ive heard validation has nothing to do with SEO - those validations ( I know of) arent a real concern - unless they are a concern?

 

[ChrisHunt]

On Firefox the top and bottom of the home page is peppered with the words "Rockwell Spacer". I guess this is because the image at [tt]images/site/clrspacer.gif[/tt] is missing. Leaving aside that there are much better ways of doing things than using spacer gifs these days, you really shouldn't have any [tt]alt[/tt] text for them. Just put (for example)

<img src="images/site/clrspacer.gif" [red]alt=""[/red] width="470" height="1">

You're missing the chance to gain some SEO juice, as well as make your document more semantic, by not using proper heading elements - you have stuff like

<span class="rightNavHomeSubtitle"><strong>California Real Estate School</strong></span>

when you could have

<h2>California Real Estate School</h2>

and use CSS to style the text to your requirements.

I don't think any of your validation errors are going to affect your SEO ranking, but why take the risk?

I can't comment more specifically on your ranking without knowing what phrase you're talking about.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[BUSHhtr]

Thank you - thats very helpful

 

[hotfusion]

What are these certain keyword/phrases you mentioned in your first post?

Regards, Andy.
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