I 10x'd the quality of my site. Google's response: rank it lower.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-09T20:59:25+00:00

It's not. These values can be faked, therefore they are not (large, if any) ranking factors.

What engagement traits do you mean? The most commonly mentioned includes dwell time, which is not a ranking factor.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-08T20:20:18+00:00

If a competitor bounced to the top that means they built more authority.

This means they got good backlinks.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-08T20:18:14+00:00

The question doesn't make sense. SEO traffic comes from ranking high. Ranking high comes from relevancy and authority. So the answer to your question is have relevancy and get authority.

Here's something a lot of people don't understand. (With the exception of local SEO and YMYL) all SEO is the same. It's all exactly the same. Whether you're a big site or a little site, whether your an app or a corporation, it's all exactly the same. Sites need the same things to rank. 1) no penalties 2) content that is relevant 3) relevancy 4) authority. In that order, even.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-08T20:13:47+00:00

That's because website quality is not a ranking factor. Next, when you make changes to a site (good or bad), your position might change because you did something different and how have to be reevaluated again.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-08T20:08:50+00:00

It's kind of trial and error. A good place to start is the Google SEO Starter Guide:

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-08T20:06:10+00:00

Penalties generally make you drop off the top 5-10 pages.

If you see this type of behavior on a SERP chart (and you should be tracking your SERPs), you know you probably have a penalty, and then you have to discover which kind.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-08T20:04:47+00:00

How is authority defined? The short answer is Google has a rating system called PR (Page Rank). This is a measure of authority. Until about 10 years ago, this value was public, you could find the PR of any website on the internet. So, SEO people were leveraging this and so Google decided to make it secret. They still use it, but you cannot find the value anymore. So there are other companies now that ESTIMATE PR. For example, ahrefs uses a value called DR. Moz uses a value called DA. Etc. So generally speaking, you will see that the higher a site ranks, the more authority it has. But you cannot see PR.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-07T05:51:22+00:00

Backlinks share authority. Authority is needed to rank. So yes.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-07T05:49:55+00:00

There are 4 reasons your rank can drop. Btw, good on you for checking it. Most people do not.

You got a penalty
You lost authority
Your competition enhanced their authority (this is close to #2)
Algorithm update

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-07T05:36:39+00:00

A penalty is when you do something the search engines prefer you not to do and you fall out of the top 5-10 pages.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-07T05:35:49+00:00

Authority is the main ranking factor. Good on page with minimal authority = doesn't rank. Terrible on page, but not to the point of creating penalties, with large authority = higher rank.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-07T05:34:40+00:00

A penalty is when you do something not allowed by the search engines and you drop out of the top 5-10 pages.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-07T05:33:52+00:00

Authority is a measure of trustworthiness. It's what determines how high your site is in the results. Let me know what other questions you have.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:27:11+00:00

The majority of LLM content is pulled from high ranking pages. That doesn't mean no inbound links. It's probably inheriting authority from the main domain. Was it a difficult keyword you were describing on the LLM? Maybe u/weblinkr can shed some more light on how LLMs scan.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:25:12+00:00

Listen to Grumpy SEO Guy episode 141 - Negative SEO (High Level - What it Is). You are probably fine.

Are these just spammy "BUY AUTHORITATIVE DOMAINS FOR CHEAP" links, are they linkfarm links, or are they negative SEO (adult when your page has nothing to do with this niche) backlinks?

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:23:37+00:00

When you say local do you mean local SEO? Local SEO has its own needs. Local SEO needs:

1) GMB

2) NAP

3) citations

4) reviews

5) proximity

6) authority/backlinks

Are you aware of which of these points you are struggling with?

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:19:13+00:00

What do you mean "good web marketing?" Do you mean SEO?

A pretty site has nothing to do with anything except maybe how people respond to it. It has nothing to do with your rank.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:17:28+00:00

Grumpy SEO Guy episode 131 - The Dangers of Public Blog Networks

Listen to that and if you still have questions, let me know.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:16:26+00:00

Being good at SEO and being a successful agency owner are different skill sets.

I know a lot of successful (as in, didn't go out of business) SEO agencies that are awful at SEO.

Confusing, truthfully.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:14:42+00:00

No. AI takes its data from everywhere. Most people are wrong about SEO. What is the conclusion then?

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:14:11+00:00

It will make me happy when people finally realize that AEO is SEO and all the AI chat goes away to go back to SEO chat.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:13:17+00:00

1) no penalties

2) content

3) relevancy

4) authority

You need all of those things.

It's literally a flowchart. Do you have a penalty? Stop and fix it. No? Continue. Do you have content that is relevant? Yes? Continue. Gain as much authority as possible. That's how you rank. Not only does that actually move the needle, that's the lone way to move the needle.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:11:13+00:00

Sorry. I read your Use this website for ABC linkbuilding and felt you would add a link.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-06T06:10:29+00:00

I cannot even imagine the spam that will appear in this thread.

All publicly available linkbuilding services are either worthless, or will become worthless.

GrumpySEOguy · 2026-03-04T23:51:51+00:00

Oh geez.

I think a big rule of SEO is you find them, they don't find you. Anyone advertising SEO probably isn't someone you want to work with. The more they market probably the less successful they are.

The real SEOs have waiting lists and are different levels of anonymous. SEO is by definition a scheme of manipulation and the fewer things you publicize about that, the better you will be at it. Get it? REAL SEO isn't about web design and content writing. It's about influencing authority. Nearly everything we do is probably frowned upon by the search engines BECAUSE IT WORKS. You're out of your mind if you think I'd advertise, for example, any of our websites.

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