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Am I misreading my potential?

Competition looks pretty lame...

         

lorax

7:18 pm on Mar 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I've got a client with a subject that covers a variety of keywords and keyword phrases. When these are entered on G they return results in the tens of thousands up to a few with 1 or 2 million. The top positions are currently held by websites with so so content (IMO) and as near as I can tell, an average of 20 to 60 backlinks. Now some of these competitors have backlinks from a few PR6 & 7 (from the toolbar point of view) websites but most of them are average PR3 - PR5.

I was originally just hoping to get a top page placement but now I'm beginning to get an ego and am wondering if I might just be able to dominate the SEs because the competition seems awfully weak. Am I missing something obvious that I should be considering?

EliteWeb

7:44 pm on Mar 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



lorax, its a wonderful feeling when you dominate a market and there are tons out there, if i had the time i'd build sites all day long to take advantage of them.

Go with it at full force and take domination of it, dont do it 1/2 way where someone could easily catch up :)

lorax

8:01 pm on Mar 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Give no quarter eh? ;)

As long as I don't underestimate the competition. Given what I've written, is there another aspect of their placement/strength that I should be looking at?

Craig_F

8:15 pm on Mar 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I'm in the same boat. I'm not an affiliate program guy, but I recently noticed 2 relatively untapped industries in the SERPs and was thinking of putting up a couple sites to feed a couple affiliate programs.

Best competitor is a PR6. A few have a good number of links, but most I could beat fairly quickly. Haven't done anthing yet because I feel like I must be missing something myself.

DrCool

8:21 pm on Mar 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



One of the main things I look for before entering a new market is the quality of competition. I usually focus on this more than any specific numbers. I try to find out who the big players are and look at the things they are doing that I could improve on.

The market you are describing sounds very similar numberswise to one I have worked on in the past. I have had very good success so far. Hopefully you aren't looking at the same market. I would hate to have to crush you :)

It sounds like you have done most of your homework. The next step is doing it. Good luck.

lorax

1:45 am on Mar 14, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



>> same market

I doubt it. I'd know if somebody worth their salt were involved in this particular market. They'd stand out like a sore thumb. ;)

aravindgp

7:05 pm on Mar 14, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



lorax and the community of Webmasterworld,
I am new to SEO( 1 month old).
When my friend Senior marketing manager mentioned about SEO for a particular keyword ,I thought I will try perhaps if it clicks I will be unique but then
I don't know so many players are there worldover and I get lot of confidence seeing the webmasterworld forum discussion.I just read randomly( any methods you suggest?) yet at the same time I am optimizing my clients website.I don't know how long I am going to take.

Now my question is I might be missing alot,after having done preliminary reading I felt like it's not that difficult but I felt perhaps am I missing something obvious to gain so much in terms of return of investment of time,
My basic question is if it's not that difficult why others are not doing world over?I don't know is it becoz the field is very new?

I have hardly met a person in flesh and blood in India, there are arround 11 players listed on google results from India.

Is it difficult or Easy if it's not so difficult y don't webmasters arround the world take it up.
Webmasterworld community has been a great source of inspiration and knowledge for me.Thanks for the Community.

lorax

1:51 pm on Mar 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



aravindgp,
There are two schools of thought on SEO as near as I can tell. Those that 'sit' on their websites and those that don't. By sitting I mean constantly watching their position in the SEs and monitoring traffic, backlinks, etc... This requires a lot of effort but in a market area with competitive keywords it may be the only way to get the exposure/sales you're looking for.

The rest of us are content to build websites that are optimized for the SEs (following the rules and best practices) and then watch what happens. We make adjustments as we need to but certainly aren't as aggressive as the 'sitters'.

Now, I am generalizing because there really isn't a clear cut delineation between the two groups. Is it hard? No. Does it require knowledge and time - you betcha. And if you're good, you can make some money at it.

HTH

martinibuster

2:56 pm on Mar 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



another aspect of their placement/strength that I should be looking at?

A lack of competition sometimes signals a lack of traffic for the keywords. Although I'm not saying that you didn't, it's a good idea to research the traffic on the keywords you are targetting.

A niche industry, especially a localized niche is prone to very low traffic keywords. Local niches can be very easy to optimize for. Unfortunately, the traffic for the local niche keywords (think: Langley, VA Widget Repair Facility), isn't there. No traffic, no competition.

Part of this problem may be the "generalized nature" of the keywords searchers often use. Thus, you have to move up the food chain and find more general and more trafficked keyword phrases.

Then, you might see more competition. This may or may not apply to you, but it certainly may apply to someone else.

tbear

5:55 pm on Mar 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Hi all,
Interesting topic......
It may well be that there are no dedicated SEOers working in the area you have discovered. I have been watching the increasing number getting involved in my areas of work over the past 3 to 4 years.
Some time ago (again 3 - 4 years ago) I read (on the web, I can't remember where) that only some 18% of web pages were optimised. Slowly but surely businesses are becoming aware that there is more to a successful web site than a few word/publisher/anyother documents strung together with the logo and price list. ;) So, I guess, we should get in there while the going is good, do good work and keep ahead of the opposition.

lorax

6:32 pm on Mar 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



>> it's a good idea to research the traffic on the keywords you are targetting.

Understood and I have. I recognize the keywords I'm after aren't all that competitive as compared with - for example - the cell phone market - but for their market sector - the majority of the on-line sales come from searches on these keywords. And that represents about $200M annually in this market. Now if I dominate the SEs - well the rest is obvious. ;)

<edited>wrong figures</edited>

gsx

10:19 am on Mar 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I thought the same in my market. With the exception of one site, no-one else was really optimised - they all had APPALLING sites, or used free shopping cart software, often with default set-ups.

So I optimised my site. Customers rolled in. Now, every month I see a competitor who is optimising their site, the SEO is getting harder - but I have got some established customers in the meantime :)

In fact, I noticed a newly launched site yesterday. Even my ex-employer has PAID someone (and that is something they do as little as possible) to launch a new site - and they went from bottom position (and I am not joking) to top 5 with this new domain and site.

So you may have an ego and domination now, but in 3 months some of your competitors will try to compete and in two years - your market will be like any other.

But remember - it pays to be first.

aravindgp

10:01 am on Mar 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi Lorax,Martinibuster,Tbear,Gsx ,

Wow! Nice to hear from you guys.The good news is that I optimized for three keyword phrase and came right on to position 2( jumped up by 36 positions) in google.Now the fact that others were already linking to my client using the keyword and good page rank helped me immensely all I did is just put a title.My only thing was to add few important things and the rest is like sit back and enjoy.

I am just 1.5 months old in SEO.This startles me and yet at the same time, confuses me what might be in store...but it's looks very exciting.

In his field my client is number 2 in the world and it's very competitive field but I just guess I got lucky with the keyword phrase, true the keyword phrase I used was perhaps not optimized specifically by other competetitors.Other forms of the keyword phrase have been optimized.

Then is the keyword commerically usefull?,I need to get this info than, is it more trafficed.

Let me eloborate:The point is it's not only the keyword, it's what is supposed to be used to buy ,since lot of people are using..let's say widgets is highly trafficed say 10000 hits, but the sales conversion is arround 20.

Now I have 3000 hits for red widgets shoe , the conversion are 100.Then I feel we should concentrate on this keyword pharse.But the problem here is getting this information is difficult.

By all this SEO looks easy job to start with, but to substatiate and consolidate your position as search engine optimization guy and then keep working on actuall results from client point of view is big task.But I still feel the ROI for Time is excellent in SEO then any other new field.

What do you all feel about this?

Yes to start early is blessing in disguise!
Aravind