I'm a moving company trying to out rank a competing moving company on Google My Business

[Guest]

My competition has a website that looks like something from the '70s. They have a rotary phone picture on their website.

 They don't even have a SSL. They have less reviews than I and I'm sure my Google my business is better optimized. But they consistently outrank me on Google my business.

Has anyone seen this type of thing before and does anyone have suggestions on how to outrank them.

[Daniel]

That's because the real SEO Powerhouse is off site SEO. yes, domain age is one of 250 plus ranking factors but that is not what's doing it. guarantee you their off-site SEO web presence beats yours.

[Michele]

Yes, I was 4th and I beat the 3rd in every single factor. Finally moved into spot 3 last week! I think i had over optimized a bit.

[Kathy]

I agree with others. History has a lot to do with it, especially if they were the first to get a GMP (GBP) and have been racking up all clicks and engagement and building brand awareness for many years. I do not agree with those who think it's all their backlinks as if that's a magic bullet. It may have nothing to do with it. Most local businesses, especially those who've been around a lot, never engaged in link building and the links they have managed to acquire, aside from citation building, are mostly crap.

You ask if there is any way around that. Maybe if they start to look like they're asleep on the job or out of business. But wake them up and they can pop right back up. (I've seen this happen with my own client.)

Quick glance on your website and I see that you are national. Is the competitor you're talking about just local? That also may be it. In fact, that may be the biggest reason.

But please add clarification. Are you asking about Google Maps rank or organic? That will change the conversation here.

What can you do? Stop worrying about being #1. Just be the best you can be.

[Mike]

SSL is a minor ranking factor at best, although it could be costing them traffic if browsers are throwing up warnings to potential visitors.

The number of reviews really isn't a ranking factor. The content of reviews plays a bigger role.

The aesthetics of a website also doesn't really impact rankings, but again may impact conversions. Although some of the best converting sites I have ever worked with were ugly AF, in my opinion.

[Joe]

They’re established in the community. You’re going to have a hell of a time because they probably have shit tons of links.

[Brad]

I'm not SEO master but I've seen that before for local SEO. What I found was every website for the area name and niche that ranked high was hosted on a IP address that was registered to one of several of the local data centers. Not conclusive but that may be a ranking factor.

[Batman]

this too:

• Does anyone know of a simple tool to extract URLs from a page?
• Migration a .co.uk domain to .com
• Has anyone heard of barracuda?
• I have clients in 5 different states, but have one physical location in North Carolina
• What’s has more value a backlink from a website related to yours or a backlink from a random blog site?