How did less link overtake my site from nowhere?

[Pam Danny]

Are links more important than visitors?

My site is about 3 months old and I was doing all sorts of good seo (white hat and good black hat).
I got to 7th position for my preferred Long Tail Key Phrase.
I have over 300 backlinks from related keyphrases and related niche sites/ related intitle sites.
I receive about 200-300 visitors per day (Jetpack says about 40-70 via search)
But from nowhere, this website has come to kick me down to 9th (and one of those I beat is now in 8th).
The thing is that these sites have very few backlinks (11 and 53 each).
But I know they are old and seem to have much more visitors.

So I am wondering how they are able to beat me off the 7th position?
Is it the visitor count?

 

[mhtro]

Google results manipulation. People don't talk about this but it works

 

[nSnoopy]

Old domain+PBN links+Good content maybe?

 

[Pam Danny]

Google results manipulation. People don't talk about this but it works

Hi,
Can you explain further? How is this done, and is there a penalty to it?

 

[Pam Danny]

Old domain+PBN links+Good content maybe?

Old domain, maybe yes, but PBN, I doubt. I have checked their backlinks, they are mostly irrelevant and unrelated to the niche.
Their content is normal content that is available in millions of sites in same niche (sports betting)

 

[Geasy]

It can be CTR (Click Through Rate). People have clicked on your site, didn't like the content and turned back, clicked another article.

 

[mhtro]

Hi,
Can you explain further? How is this done, and is there a penalty to it?

There is obviously a penalty to this, Google it. We don't discuss this on public forums because you know, google

 

[seocrab]

a 3 month old domain is always going to be unstable with rankings. Don't get too hung up on position number for a single keyword, work on adding more topical content so your site gets established as an authority in your niche.

 

[ahriyu]

It's probably hidden PBN, you cannot check it with ahrefs, majestic, semrush or popular tools because they are blocking it

 

[Webbers UX]

In addition to the hundreds of other factors...just keep working on the site and growing it.
Time tells all

 

[LGNDFRVR23]

It might be the content. People just hit back and spend their time reading somewhere else. What’s your Bounce rate and sessions time?

 

[jamie3000]

It's probably hidden PBN, you cannot check it with ahrefs, majestic, semrush or popular tools because they are blocking it

There are other ways of finding these links ;-)

 

[Pam Danny]

Thanks to all of you for your tit bits. Its obvious I cant do much more than work on my own site - mostly articles