Does it matter if you can't rank main keyword?

[katied772]

I want to do a new site in a niche I have been thinking about for a while. It's a very large niche with hundreds of products relating to keywords I can monetize primarily through Amazon.
The site keyword, which I can get in a domain name would be very difficult to rank for but many of the other keywords should be easier.
Would it be wise to go for the bigger, authority type niche with lots of pages or stick with a bunch of smaller niches?
Should it really be any harder to rank since supposedly each page ranks on it's own? Does it even matter so much if the main keyword never ranks well?
Thanks.

[wgempire]

I would have a seed keyword and several longer tailed buyer keywords with good monthly searches, which I would try to rank for. Typically your seed keyword is way too competitive to rank for but you should be able to rank for the longer tailed keywords.

Personally I would build a site around the big niche and build a page for each keyword in the niche rather than building a bunch of different sites. Should be much easier to get your individual pages ranked.

[bretski]

There's no such thing as "can't rank for". There isn't a site out there in any niche that can't be beaten. It is all a matter of how much effort you wish to put into it and how skilled you are with SEO. Some keywords are just a little more challenging than others.

[NateRivers]

You're much better off in the long run to work on it as a large authority site. Sure, make the domain name something with a lot of searches, and then start building pages for long-tail phrases, and as you get 30-50 of those ranked, then start building pages for more and more competitive keywords.

And yes, all of your pages benefit SEO-wise from being part of a large site with a lot of pages.

I've been using Unique Article Wizard for building back links to my individual content pages and it is working very well so far.

[Ryan Marshall]

I build my sites around a main keyword with the goal of ranking for that keyword in the long term.

First I rank for the long tailed keywords and slowly over time I start ranking higher for the main keyword. The main keyword receives the most traffic and is therefore more competitive, so it's not going to be easy. Don't put it off altogether, because it certainly is possible.

[Domainate]

Pretty much as everyone has said, best to long-term target a primary keyword but initially have pages of the site geared towards long-tail keywords and get rankings for those in efforts to build up. The benefit of this is you get more traffic early on and depending on the quality of your content, you may get natural links to your site from it as well.

[Sabiha]

I have numerous authority sites which are not ranking for their main keyword but are ranking on the first page of Google for long tail keywords. So it's definitely doable but like 'bretski' said, "It is all a matter of how much effort you wish to put into it and how skilled you are with SEO. Some keywords are just a little more challenging than others."

[yukon]

Originally Posted by katied772

I want to do a new site in a niche I have been thinking about for a while. It's a very large niche with hundreds of products relating to keywords I can monetize primarily through Amazon.
The site keyword, which I can get in a domain name would be very difficult to rank for but many of the other keywords should be easier.
Would it be wise to go for the bigger, authority type niche with lots of pages or stick with a bunch of smaller niches?
Should it really be any harder to rank since supposedly each page ranks on it's own? Does it even matter so much if the main keyword never ranks well?
Thanks.

It depends how much time/energy you want to put into the keyword, If it ranks or not.

The way I do it is:

1) Index page = Main keyword.
2) Internal pages = Longtail & related keywords of the Main keyword.

You'll be surprised how much traffic some longtail keywords deliver.

I've found it's easier to work backwards to get your main keyword to rank. Setup the Index page & get the on-page seo right plus a few authority external backlinks to get the ball rolling.

Next, start on internal pages with long-tail keywords, put a lot of effort into the internal pages, with awesome internal linking & keyword anchor-text on each link.

Keep working on the internal pages & make the goal to keep every page related to your main keyword (Index page), build keyword authority from within your own site.

[warrich]

To rank better in Google, trying for a smaller keyword wouldn't be the best option. Try working for some long tailed keywords that would get the traffic flowing and then broaden your keyword options. The home page of the site should reflect the main niche and the relevant categories should be according to the sub categories in the niche. That would really work.