Niche search is an under-appreciated area of Web marketing. If you look for advice on how to manage niche search in today’s SEO blogosphere you will find plenty of articles that tell you have to explore niche topics for keywords and links but no one seems to be thinking about niche search.
“Be the resource” is the most important fundamental principle of search marketing. When you are the resource everyone comes to you.
In other words, to optimize for niche search you need to create the tools to search niches. That doesn’t mean investing a quarter million dollars in crawling the Web. It means creating a resource that people will use and talk about.
You have three options in niche search:
A Links Page – These are the easiest tools to create, although if you want to be thorough and exhaustive you will invest a lot of time in finding really good resources. But where this form of niche search fails is in presentation. It cannot simply be a page filled with links — it must be something that people come back to. It has to be a Bible of resources for the niche.
A (small) Custom Directory – Web directories can still provide a lot of value for users. When search engines fail to identify a community of people with shared interests the first person to build a custom Web Directory becomes very popular. I’ve done this more than once. People want to connect with like-minded people and if the search engines are failing them (which happens more often than not) then there is an opportunity for a Web directory to take charge.
A Custom Search Engine – Whether you do your own crawling or just set up a Google CSE, a custom search engine may provide value that a Web directory cannot. The problem with custom search engines is that they are less likely to accrue brand value and recognition among users. Why? Probably because people assume that if you have a search tool (especially a Google-powered one) then Google most likely can do a better job. Users are not aware that custom search tools have separate indexes that include (or prioritize) content Google chooses to ignore.
All three of these methods require the right presentation. More importantly, they require some promotion. If you want to leverage niche marketing in your SEO strategies then you need to make sure that your visitors know about these search tools. People will visit them; it’s up to you to make them memorable and useful enough for people to return to them and recommend them.
Once you have the tools in place you can favor your own Websites but remember that it’s not all about you. The users expect fair and honest value, so you need to point them to good, reliable resources in addition to your own sites. There will come a time when you don’t want to do that. Learning to restrain your greed and contain your anxiety about “linking to a competitor” is one of the most important lessons you need to master in niche search optimization.
You are playing two roles out of three: You are both the Publisher and the Indexer, but you have to think like a Searcher and make sure you create the tool that other Searchers will want to use.
You’re not going to attract millions of monthly visitors with your niche search service — but you may be able to grow the traffic month-over-month, year-over-year. As you build visibility for the niche you create opportunities for your own content. You must seize those opportunities by making sure that your content matches the niche searcher’s expectations. You are helping to set those expectations with your search tools but you can also set them with your visibility campaigns.
Optimizing niche search for Web marketing is a reflective strategy. You’re creating a resource that will drive traffic to other sites. You can only ever expect to receive a fraction of that traffic if you want to be truly successful (unless you’re the only Publisher in the niche — but that’s extremely rare and usually does not last long).
And there is one more thing you should know:
You Can Redefine A Niche – If your body of content is strong enough, or if you can find enough alternatives to interest your visitors, you can cut your competitors out of the niche. How much the Searchers will tolerate this kind of exclusivity depends on two factors: first, you have to provide them with enough useful resources that they are satisfied with the results you provide them; second, your competitors have to be lackluster or mediocre at best. You must support truly useful, creative, high-value sites or you will have no credibility.
To redefine a niche you simply emphasize non-competitive resources that complement your own content. These resources have to exist (they do not exist in all niches/verticals). These resources may actually recognize and support your competitors, in which case you face and uphill battle for credibility. But instead of linking to your competitors you’re at least linking to non-competitive resources.
Over time your emphasis on non-competitive content may help to shape user expectations such that they don’t recognize and support the competition. This is not a short-term strategy. You’ll need to devote at least a year, maybe longer, to redefining a niche (unless your primary niche sites attract so much traffic and have such credibility that they can directly influence public opinion).
By Michael Martinez
http://www.seo-theory.com/
“Be the resource” is the most important fundamental principle of search marketing. When you are the resource everyone comes to you.
In other words, to optimize for niche search you need to create the tools to search niches. That doesn’t mean investing a quarter million dollars in crawling the Web. It means creating a resource that people will use and talk about.
You have three options in niche search:
A Links Page – These are the easiest tools to create, although if you want to be thorough and exhaustive you will invest a lot of time in finding really good resources. But where this form of niche search fails is in presentation. It cannot simply be a page filled with links — it must be something that people come back to. It has to be a Bible of resources for the niche.
A (small) Custom Directory – Web directories can still provide a lot of value for users. When search engines fail to identify a community of people with shared interests the first person to build a custom Web Directory becomes very popular. I’ve done this more than once. People want to connect with like-minded people and if the search engines are failing them (which happens more often than not) then there is an opportunity for a Web directory to take charge.
A Custom Search Engine – Whether you do your own crawling or just set up a Google CSE, a custom search engine may provide value that a Web directory cannot. The problem with custom search engines is that they are less likely to accrue brand value and recognition among users. Why? Probably because people assume that if you have a search tool (especially a Google-powered one) then Google most likely can do a better job. Users are not aware that custom search tools have separate indexes that include (or prioritize) content Google chooses to ignore.
All three of these methods require the right presentation. More importantly, they require some promotion. If you want to leverage niche marketing in your SEO strategies then you need to make sure that your visitors know about these search tools. People will visit them; it’s up to you to make them memorable and useful enough for people to return to them and recommend them.
Once you have the tools in place you can favor your own Websites but remember that it’s not all about you. The users expect fair and honest value, so you need to point them to good, reliable resources in addition to your own sites. There will come a time when you don’t want to do that. Learning to restrain your greed and contain your anxiety about “linking to a competitor” is one of the most important lessons you need to master in niche search optimization.
You are playing two roles out of three: You are both the Publisher and the Indexer, but you have to think like a Searcher and make sure you create the tool that other Searchers will want to use.
You’re not going to attract millions of monthly visitors with your niche search service — but you may be able to grow the traffic month-over-month, year-over-year. As you build visibility for the niche you create opportunities for your own content. You must seize those opportunities by making sure that your content matches the niche searcher’s expectations. You are helping to set those expectations with your search tools but you can also set them with your visibility campaigns.
Optimizing niche search for Web marketing is a reflective strategy. You’re creating a resource that will drive traffic to other sites. You can only ever expect to receive a fraction of that traffic if you want to be truly successful (unless you’re the only Publisher in the niche — but that’s extremely rare and usually does not last long).
And there is one more thing you should know:
You Can Redefine A Niche – If your body of content is strong enough, or if you can find enough alternatives to interest your visitors, you can cut your competitors out of the niche. How much the Searchers will tolerate this kind of exclusivity depends on two factors: first, you have to provide them with enough useful resources that they are satisfied with the results you provide them; second, your competitors have to be lackluster or mediocre at best. You must support truly useful, creative, high-value sites or you will have no credibility.
To redefine a niche you simply emphasize non-competitive resources that complement your own content. These resources have to exist (they do not exist in all niches/verticals). These resources may actually recognize and support your competitors, in which case you face and uphill battle for credibility. But instead of linking to your competitors you’re at least linking to non-competitive resources.
Over time your emphasis on non-competitive content may help to shape user expectations such that they don’t recognize and support the competition. This is not a short-term strategy. You’ll need to devote at least a year, maybe longer, to redefining a niche (unless your primary niche sites attract so much traffic and have such credibility that they can directly influence public opinion).
By Michael Martinez
http://www.seo-theory.com/
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