Backlinks

I have a few questions about SEO

I read that backlinks are the most important for ranking high.

So basically in my niche there is one site that have around 6k backlinks from 303 unique domains and 53% of backlinks are ********, DR is 5. This site has around 4-5 million visitors monthly.

Second site has DR of 34 and 1.1 million backlinks 96% are ******** from around 630 unique domains. This site has around 1.5 million visitors monthly.

Is this happening because of on page seo or some other factors there is some more sites that have better DR and much more backlinks and still less visitors than first site that is leading and every keyword in this niche this site is in top 3.

Yes, Also compare the total number of targeted keywords, total targetting pages, site age and even the quality of backlinks. Also, the second site had 1.1 million backlinks from just 630 domains, so it might have a lot of sitewide backlinks compared to the first domain, that can be a reason as well.

with so many backlinks... well, RDs actually, I'd assume that that's why they're ranking there. But it could also be the content. If the content addresses the problems of the visitors in depth then content could be the reason, too. But most likely it's the number and quality of the RDs (and indirectly the site's authority, obviously since authority is tied to backlinks).

Oh, it could also be the traffic. Some sites are popular outside of google (on social media for example), and google rewards those too because if they get traffic it means that they're popular.

Ok thanks for the answers its more clear to me now. Just to note content is same on all sites in this niche.

Based on the information you shared, much of the reason why there is such a big disparity between the two websites you mentioned has to do with accumulated brand value.

If a website generates a lot of buzz but doesn't get much links from other websites, it can still rank really high on Googe because people seek it out. It's developed a natural community around its brand.

The second site that you mentioned looks like it's relying more on traditional SEO factors for its traffic. But never underestimate the ability of a well-engineered and well-conceptualized website to draw traffic naturally.

People do talk and when word gets around on social media as well as email and other forms of online communication, things have a way of taking a life of their own.

So don't just automatically assume that Google ranks websites strictly based on backlinks and other SEO signals.

Please understand that the over 200 signals that Google uses for ranking purposes have different weights, and these weights shift depending on the specific nature of the site involved.

The first site that you mentioned looks like it has some more natural traction. Maybe it's because it's related to an existing offline brand. Another possibility is that he had a lot of pre-launch buzz.

There's just so many variables that we don't know about. But this should not be surprising.

Backlinks, although important are not the only factors Google uses for ranking.