Tuesday, 06 July 2010 11:01
You want it all.. You want to cover all the bases, be all to everyone and dominate broad markets - with one website.
Why? You don't know.. because that sounds like a good way to make ALL the money? And it sounds easier than having lots of sites?
Truth is - Not really.
At least not for most. If you have deep pockets, teams to help you in the endeavor and lots of time, then go for it.. but even then. Is it really the best way?
Search Marketing..
The quickest way to getting targeted traffic is NOT by trying to be all things to all people and target 9 zillion keyword combinations with one massive, authority website. The quickest way and the easiest way to find yourself with targeted traffic is to narrow your focus and build very niched websites focused on specific segments of markets.
Here's an example.
Let's say I want to sell shirts.
There are a lot of styles, colors, sizes, shapes, brands etc, etc.. you could build a site that tries and touch every base and provide an option for every desire your visitors have.
Or you could choose a small segment.
In this case, let's say we decide to focus just on a 'type' of shirt.
Here's where traffic becomes easier.
The keyword 'shirts' is VERY broad and VERY competitive. Go ahead, do a search in google on the keyword 'shirts'. You will find only a handful of sites on the first page that are under PR5 (PageRank). 3 Sites at the time I'm typing this to be exact. 5 Sites are over PR5.
Now search for 'hawaiian shirts' in Google. You'll notice that trend begins to flip. At the time I'm typing this there are only 3 PR5's on the first page; the rest under that.
Now search for 'vintage hawaiian shirts' in Google. Nothing over PR4.
See the trend?
The more niched you get, the softer the competition gets.
You can still get great traffic with 'vintage hawaiian shirts'.. these are todays traffic stats:
But it's MUCH easier to compete against those under PR4. In this case, it'll still take a little work.. looking at the whole picture the niche is still middle of the road competitive, but this is just to illustrate.
Still, you might think.. well, why can't I rank for that on my BIG site in a category somewhere?
Something you'll learn real quick as a Niche Marketer is keywords matter.. especially on the home page, title tags and in the domain's URL. It's a whole lot easier to rank for a phrase like the above when you are building links and have that phrase optimized on the top level of the site.
Not saying you couldn't get that interior page ranking well.. but it'll just be a lot more work.
The advantage of small and niched is competition gets lighter and you'll have an easier time with the SEO elements that count.
And I'll leave you with this. Is it really easier to run one giant site with lots and lots of categories rather than lots of smaller niched sites?
Truth is - Not really.
Whether it's all on one domain or multiple it's still the same content. Right? The same stuff.. just at a different URL. Why would you think having everything on one domain would be easier?
Also, how much time would it take you to develop one giant site? It's logical that it would be easier and quicker to build a category at time on smaller sites. Which means what? Results come quicker; you are spreading out your development efforts more and getting to profits a lot faster than you would if you spend the next year building one BIG site.
Lot's of benefits; to me it's a no brainer for the majority of us who like profits in the near term. :)
-Matt Levenhagen
P.S. Understand I'm not knocking big Authority Sites here.. It's an important model that plays a big roll online. The above is in my opinion though a better approach for many individuals looking to make a profit online from search.
Comments (4)
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Hi Cenay!
No reason for me to forgive you.. help yourself to my content and comment any time.
Points well taken!
Yes, don't take me wrong.. I didn't say it was impossible; and if your site already has authority and has been established that makes it easier.
But if all things are equal and you are launching a big site and small site starting today - no previous work on them, no previous link building, authority building etc..
..and you choose a phrase to rank for internally on the big site and optimize for that same phrase on the small domain's home page...
From my experience the small site's a no brainer.. especially taking into consideration one of the top SEO Factors - keywords in domain.
So for let's say a newbie starting out, the smaller domain is going to be easier.. not even taking into consideration the time factor (development time, maintenance etc..).
And you can build 'authority' for smaller niche sites.. small site does equal non-authority.
That's just what I was saying.
Thanks for stopping by! (do it more often
)-Matt Levenhagen
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Hi David,
Sorry to see you're having trouble.. one thing I've learned online though through the years; most troubles find a way to dissolve by seeking help, asking a lot of questions, learning from failures and successes.
So there's hope!
What specifically are you having trouble with? What type of marketing or traffic generation are you doing? What platform are you using?
For starters. If you don't mind me asking.
-Matt Levenhagen
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Search Engine Optimization - Niche Websites
Perhaps that's overstating it a little. What I mean is, there IS another reason for building one site with a lots of categories that you didn't cover.
Domain authority.
Alexa rank, Compete rank. The more you build, the more you increase traffic on a single site, the better for all pages on that site.
It's possible to get a new post ranked on the first page of Google 5 minutes after you post it if:
a) The new post is within the "genre" of the site
b) The domain itself has recognized authority for the keyword (phrase) or is in a related group
c) The blog content has been correctly optimized with an SEO plugin like Headspace2 and all 9 areas that the search engines look for the keyword (validation) have been targeted correctly.
Forgive me speaking up... just couldn't help myself.