ok. You've got a client who wants to have his/her site optimized for keyword/phrase "green pyjama monkey".

When looking at the top 30 results on G you notice the following;

a. Site A is at no 1
b. Site B is at no 2,3,7
c. Site C is at no 4,5,13,14,24,25

Which site according to you represents a greater threat ? the one with only one placement at no 1 or the one with 6 placements on 3 different pages or the one with 3 placements on the first page and why? you are allowed to only one answer :D :D :D

Riley

First things first. Can you show me an example of a site that shows up the way you describe site B? Unless at least one of those pages is from a subdomain, I don't think you can get three pages from the same site onto a single SERP. That's assuming you're talking about Google, of course. It should be limited to two unless you're doing a site: search or changing some of the SE's defaults.

Really, your competition is every page in the top 10, as I see it. That being said, a site with multiple listings for a keyword phrase as specific as the one you give as an example (I know it's hypothetical -- but the important aspect is how general the term is) is really competing with itself.

In other words, I'd say site A.

Thanks for your advice and suggestions qwerty. I'm actually developing a Competition Analysis Tool that's why i would like to get the most appropriate way to rank sites according to their best positions and number of placement.

And luckily its seems that the new Competition Research Tool in Bruce Clay's new seo toolset here http://www.seotoolset.com/tools/free_tools.html can guide me to an appropriate way to rank competitors sites.

I was hesitating between taking the total number of placement first then the best position and i think i will finally stick to this option.

If anyone has any suggestions, they are most welcome.

Riley

In my opinion, the mistake is to concentrate on the phrase "green pyjama monkey" or a small set of phrases to the detriment of other key performance indicators.

The mantra for me is quality varied content, which means that concentrating on one phrase generally isn't that profitable, even when you are top 3 for it, except in "Killer phrases" which are generally extremely high risk mountains to climb.

But that aside, I would still call site A the best site in that list. It shows focus and is more likely to be a brand site with expertise.

Tough call though. I am sure you could measure SEO success in many ways.

You could consider a software system that spiders whole sites, using all keywords offered, and then doing some sort of larger SEO measurement based on a mass of phrases over just one... but I would hate to be the guy to start programming (or even marketing) that piece of software...

Dixon.

In my opinion, the mistake is to concentrate on the phrase "green pyjama monkey" or a small set of phrases to the detriment of other key performance indicators.

The mantra for me is quality varied content, which means that concentrating on one phrase generally isn't that profitable, even when you are top 3 for it, except in "Killer phrases" which are generally extremely high risk mountains to climb.

But that aside, I would still call site A the best site in that list. It shows focus and is more likely to be a brand site with expertise.

Tough call though. I am sure you could measure SEO success in many ways.

You could consider a software system that spiders whole sites, using all keywords offered, and then doing some sort of larger SEO measurement based on a mass of phrases over just one... but I would hate to be the guy to start programming (or even marketing) that piece of software...

Dixon.
I would say the later. Too many potential pages that can rise to bite you.
Also the single at the top does not have to be that "brand site" it could very likely be a "black-hat-optimized" page. Those single critters always paly that way for me lately.
The others are using the subdomains to gain multiple listings on the front and are egenerally the serious competition as they have a lot more thought going into the long term plan.
But I will still say the multiple listing multiple paged site is the one to keep an eye on... the pages can be tweaked and have a jump... the company could hire a full-time SEO and then he has so much to work with he leaves 2-3 pages on this term and uses the rest to capture other close terms.