Ranking for Keyword Phrases in Specific Niches

[J.Knight]

Hey dudes...

I've been thinking about getting into niche blogging. I have a question though.

It seems in order to rank well, you should go for a keyword phrase in the domain. So for this example I'm going to use "cheap home insurance"

According to Google, it had 9,900 searches in November.

As far as competition goes, there are 180,000 for the quoted phrase.

However, CheapHomeInsurance.com is not available.

Now, here's my question...

Will there be a significant difference if you got the domain CheapHomeInsuranceGuru.com or CheapHomeInsuranceExpert.com ??

JK

[dburk]

Hi JK,

Yes, it makes a difference.

Having your keyword in the domain helps, it's much better if it's exact. As far as the Seach Engines are concerned, using hypens will not hurt you. You may want to check for Cheap-Home-Insurance.com to see if it's available. And then there are the .net and .org options which work equally as well in search engine results.

[debra]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi JK,

Yes, it makes a difference.

Having your keyword in the domain helps, it's much better if it's exact. As far as the Seach Engines are concerned, using hypens will not hurt you. You may want to check for Cheap-Home-Insurance.com to see if it's available. And then there are the .net and .org options which work equally as well in search engine results.

That is sssooooo correct! One avenue you maybe overlooking is is you have a domain name that is comparible in the LSI keyword phrase stand point. In other words real estate related.

If you do...

You can still work CheapHomeInsurence into the url as a subdomain. For example:

http://CheapHomeInsurence.yourrelate...innamehere.com

Google treats subdomains as seperate sites to a large degree. You can even still use hyphens in the url of the subdomain name to make it easy for your user to read at a glance.

[J.Knight]

Ok... I'm going to go with 'hyphenated' .com's

I've got one keyword phrase which got 2,900 searches last month, and there are 27,000 results for the quoted phrase.

Is that ok, or too competitive?

JK

[debra]

Originally Posted by J.Knight

Ok... I'm going to go with 'hyphenated' .com's

I've got one keyword phrase which got 2,900 searches last month, and there are 27,000 results for the quoted phrase.

Is that ok, or too competitive?

JK

Are you kiddin' me?

That's some major easy pickin there!

So....what's the key phrase?

[J.Knight]

Originally Posted by debra

Are you kiddin' me?

That's some major easy pickin there!

So....what's the key phrase?

I'm new to this side of IM. That's good news!

I just found another related one (where I could rework the same articles, except directed at a particular group of people).

It had 2,400 searches last month, and only 12,000 results for the quoted phrase.

I'm enjoying this...

JK

[happyguy]

Originally Posted by J.Knight

Ok... I'm going to go with 'hyphenated' .com's

I've got one keyword phrase which got 2,900 searches last month, and there are 27,000 results for the quoted phrase.

Is that ok, or too competitive?

JK

Hi JK, which keyword research tool are you using? will like to know how to get this type of phrases and low competition. thanks

[Demond Jackson]

I have a story of hope. I started a blog less than a month ago. I submitted it to directories and 2 articles to EA. That's it. In less than a month my newly created site is no.1 out of 378,000 for one keyword, 22 out of over a million for another keyword and isn't even in the top 100.

Take action and don't be afraid to make some mistakes. Good luck into the future.

[J.Knight]

Originally Posted by happyguy

Hi JK, which keyword research tool are you using? will like to know how to get this type of phrases and low competition. thanks

I use the Google keyword tool for Adwords. I know some people still prefer wordtracker or something like it, but I find the results to be rather...well lets just say 'odd'.

The research can take time, but it's really rewarding when you find what may be a little 'gem'.

Time will tell though.

Originally Posted by MassiveCash

I have a story of hope. I started a blog less than a month ago. I submitted it to directories and 2 articles to EA. That's it. In less than a month my newly created site is no.1 out of 378,000 for one keyword, 22 out of over a million for another keyword and isn't even in the top 100.

Take action and don't be afraid to make some mistakes. Good luck into the future.

Thank you for posting this dude. It's really encouraging.

What directories did you submit to? That would be really helpful.

JK

[Liquidgraph]

JK, just make sure you're looking at "exact match" in the Google Keyword tool. I was doing exactly what you are doing on "broad match", and everything seemed fine, until I realized the HUGE difference in traffic.

It's very hard to find an exact match keyword that yields more than 1000 searches per month and has less than 10,000 quoted competition.

[J.Knight]

Originally Posted by Liquidgraph

JK, just make sure you're looking at "exact match" in the Google Keyword tool. I was doing exactly what you are doing on "broad match", and everything seemed fine, until I realized the HUGE difference in traffic.

It's very hard to find an exact match keyword that yields more than 1000 searches per month and has less than 10,000 quoted competition.

Ah, poo!!

If I do that, one of them goes down to 590 searches instead of 2,900

The other one... well... it's nearly gone off the map!! It's only 73.

I've just went and checked the meanings of 'broad match' and 'exact match'... it probably WILL make quite a difference then!!

So is 590/month worth it?

JK

[KelvinLee]

Right

It should be exact search and not broad search.

For me, I am always looking for a minimum of 1,000 searches a month and less than 50,000 competitors for exact search.

[ukonline]

You should also check who is ranking in the top
spots. How well optimised are they? ie. how easy
will it be to knock them off the top spots..

I use Yahoo's Site Explorer to research a competitor's
inbound links.

Brian.

[J.Knight]

Originally Posted by KelvinLee

Right

It should be exact search and not broad search.

For me, I am always looking for a minimum of 1,000 searches a month and less than 50,000 competitors for exact search.

What if it's 2,000 searches, and 100,000 competitors?

JK

[J.Knight]

Originally Posted by dburk

And then there are the .net and .org options which work equally as well in search engine results.

Can anyone confirm this? Are .net domains ranked equally by Google?

JK

[Michelle Green]

I've heard that one hyphen is ok, but more than one may hurt just a little.

[TKO]

Only google can answer that question. The peking order suggests that .com followed by .net

[J.Knight]

Originally Posted by TKO

Only google can answer that question. The peking order suggests that .com followed by .net

Surely it has been tested by some people?

Like is it better to go for a higher search volume KeywordPhrase.net or a lower search volume KeywordPhrase.com ?

I know there are lots of variables, but basically... are there any times where it's worth going for the .net over an alternative .com, and if so, when?

JK

[Vijay M]

I have not noticed any order with regards to tld's. It totally depends on your content and the backlinks.

While doing research, do not get carried away by whatever the tools show.

[strauss]

When targeting keywords, you want to aim for keywords with little competition in search engines.And you want to have longer keywords (4-7 words) that have little competition.

[J.Knight]

Ok...I've spent most of the day researching.

I've found some keyword phrases (within some of the most competitive niches on the net ie, weight loss, ebay, driving traffic), but I've had to get hyphenated .net domains. Is that ok?

One example is 3,000 exact searches last month, with 30,000 results.

So will the hyphenated .net domains hurt me?

JK