My site is gaining ground since Penguin - is there anything to be garnered here?

[succor]

One of my sites was showing up in the google search results in the number four position for a particular keyword string. It has been showing up in that position for over a year now. It recently moved into the number two position. I'm assuming it is because of the Penguin update... maybe not, but nothing on the site has been changed since September of last year.

History:

• The site was create in February of last year.
• Nothing on the site has change since September of last year.
• There is a robots.txt file; it has not been manually modified.
• It is a wordpress blog that has both articles and videos.
• There are two installed plugins; All in One SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps.
• Added content in a sporadic manner.
  • Created new entries using the html versus the wysiwyg.
  • Followed the suggestions from the All in One SEO Pack and filled out all of the fields for each entry.
  • Followed suggestions gathered from here and there, including google, about using keywords in the title and actual article.
• No real social media.
  • A facebook page. Also not updated since September of last year; although other people have been commenting on the group page. Mostly some guy trying to get people to check out his page... go figure.
    • Likes = 9
    • Shares = 6
    • Comments = 0
  • Twitter backlinks is 0
  • Digg entries is 1
  • Stumble Upon is 1
  • Google+ is 2
• Very few external links.
  • One scrapbox run; the results didn't last. No links from this initial run have existed for a while now.
  • There was a twiki entry that linked back.
  • There are apparently 75 backlinks. That's news to me.
• In-page links breakdown as follows
  • 16.3% external links
  • 83.7% internal links
  • 100% passing juice

Irrelevant information:

• Site makes roughly 10 to 15 dollars a month via google adsense.
• Rank on woorank was a 50.2... not good. Rank is now 54.4... still not good.
• I don't know about bing or yahoo stats so don't ask because I can't answer.

So, what's different from this site compared to the other sites that are loosing ground, so to speak?

[Mikl]

When doing this type of analysis, you also need to take your competitors into account.

You say that you were previously at number 4, and are now at number 2. So two of your competitors have gone down. So the question is as much to do with why those sites went down as why your own site went up. It's possible that the competitors' sites were indeed hit by Penguin (or some other algorighm change), but without more information about those sites, you can't know for sure.

Keep in mind too that sites move up and down by a place or two all the time, often for reasons beyond the control of the site operator. Quality backlinks come and go; competing sites get redesigned or rewritten; minor algorithm changes come into play. In fact, it's slightly surprising that you maintained exactly the same position for over a year.

Mike

[succor]

When doing this type of analysis, you also need to take your competitors into account.

You say that you were previously at number 4, and are now at number 2. So two of your competitors have gone down. So the question is as much to do with why those sites went down as why your own site went up. It's possible that the competitors' sites were indeed hit by Penguin (or some other algorighm change), but without more information about those sites, you can't know for sure.

I figured that was what happened; that my competitors moved down rather than I moved up. Apparently I'm doing something different though or else my site would have gone down too. I have noticed a lot of threads about penguin taking peoples sites down a few pegs, or more. What I'm interested in is there some sort of pattern between what I either did or didn't do compared to what they did or didn't do. Since I don't have access to my competitors information readily available, I thought I would put the question to the community to see if they could possible see any patterns.

No, I am not being lazy. I have my own ideas but I don't want to taint anyone else's opinions or observations. They will hopefully be revealed in due course by the community along with other things I don't see. If they don't come up I will mention them; but if no one else mentions them then I am probably off the mark.

Keep in mind too that sites move up and down by a place or two all the time, often for reasons beyond the control of the site operator. Quality backlinks come and go; competing sites get redesigned or rewritten; minor algorithm changes come into play. In fact, it's slightly surprising that you maintained exactly the same position for over a year.

Same position for almost a year now. Position 5 before that. No real movement after the initial stabilization.

[Nidec]

my competitors moved down rather than I moved up. Apparently I'm doing something different though or else my site would have gone down too.

You are probably only doing something different to them, not something different to what you did before. Their sites may have been stuffed with backlinks that Penguin now discounts, or some other feature that used to help them in the SERPS but now penalises them. You may see over time that they come back above you, perhaps as they react to the changes or perhaps as Google reassess the situation and adjust the algorithm yet again.
Like Mikl says, you cant be sure why they went down, they may not even know themselves especially if they outsource their seo