Negative Search Result Suddenly on Top of Google

[Justin Philipps]

I can't understand how a negative search result from a not-so authority website can quickly and suddenly appear on top of search results from nowhere (or maybe page 5 or lower) of search results. I've been monitoring the search results for the brand name + "reviews" for a few months now, and just a few days ago, this suddenly appeared on top of the search results, outranking even our own website and some positive search results. I can't really understand how it happened, the page was not even given enough backlinks or promotion to reach the first page.

 

[Salmonjames]

Well, there could be the number of reasons. All it depends on what's the domain authority of that site. For example, if you're negative review is coming from renowned sites like Reddit and Quora, then it will surely take no time to outrank itself from others. This is what I know.

 

[Justin Philipps]

Justin Philipps

That makes sense. However, the positive results that are on the first page have higher domain authority than the negative results. I don't understand how those negative results suddenly outranked the positive results that are well-promoted and have higher domain and page authorities.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

Domain and Page Authority are not ranking factors. They are numbers Moz made up based on their data. Their data is much, much more limited than Google's.

 

[Justin Philipps]

Justin Philipps

I understand. Do you know which factors should I be watching and keep on improving to retain first page rankings? I'm currently working on review sites (websites I do not own) and I need them to stay on the first page.

 

[paul1129]

Are you sure that the site hasn't got any new backlinks?

 

[SEOPub]

Quality links are still the #1 ranking factor.

 

[paul1129]

DA & PA are third party metrics.

I don't even care about them. As long as your links are strong you will rank at first.

And I think that your competitor is getting link juice out of a site which you are not aware of.

 

[Justin Philipps]

Justin Philipps

How will I be able to figure it out?





I tried to check it on majestic but the website doesn't have any backlinks or at least none that majestic can show.

 

[paul1129]

paul1129

Are you using any paid backlink checker tool? Such as SEMrush.

 

[Justin Philipps]

Justin Philipps

I am using the premium version of Majestic. Is SEMRush any better?

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

For finding backlinks, no. It's just different. Ahrefs, OpenSiteExplorer, and SEMRush will likely all have different data.

When I looked at it, the site definitely had links. You removed the URL now, and I don't remember what it was.

Also, it could have recently acquired more links, which probably won't show up in most backlink checkers for awhile.

 

[paul1129]

paul1129

I agree. Backlink checker tools takes a time time out even paid ones. So, just wait.

And yeah, personally I think that SEMrush is the best.