Analyzing the Top 10 Google Results in Your Niche

One skill that many that are new to SEO lack, is being able to actively analyze the top 10 results for Google in their niche. They typically just look at whatever

number their favorite program spits out in regards to competition, and do not do any further analysis. Sometimes, niches will show up as not competitive, just because

you would have an easy time getting to number three, when number one and number two are authority sites that are impossible to outrank for that keyword. The truth of

the matter is that you can easily figure out what types of positions you have a real chance of capturing, if you are willing to put in the work and analyze each result

thoroughly. If you’re going to spend a ton of time link building, and generally trying to outrun other websites, it is important that you have a realistic idea of what

sites you can out rank easily. There are risk factors that you can use to judge these websites in Google, although there are a few things that you need to take into

account specifically;

Domain Age

The age of the domain plays a huge role in today’s SEO landscape. If the domain has many years behind it, you can bet that it is going to be very hard to outrank. The

age of the website is one of the most important factors that Google looks at when they are evaluating a website. If the domain is years old, it will be very hard for

you to outrank. Typically, anything up to two years old is considered to be a newer site in the eyes of Google. Anything older than two years is considered fairly aged

and you could still outrank them, but you may not be able to outdo sites that have been around for half a decade or more.

Incoming Backlinks

The incoming backlinks are another thing that you need to take a look at. Although the site may not be the best all around, do they have a high number of backlinks

directly coming in? Perhaps the latest is a link from an authority site like CNN or other large news site, which can make it very tough for you to get ahead of them in

the search results. One high-powered backlink can go a long way, and also analyzing their incoming backlinks can show you some excellent sources that might be able to

link to you. Since backlinks still play a huge role in the ratings of websites, it is important that you are constantly analyzing them and figuring out where they are

doing better than you.

Content

Now more than ever, the content of your website is one thing that you have to look at to be able to analyze the strength of a website. If they have hundreds and

hundreds of pages of content, do not expect to be able to outrank them with your little 10 page website. Although this is a good rule of thumb, it does not always have

to be the case. Sometimes, if your content is really high quality, fewer pages can still be valued quite highly in Google.