Does SEO help if the niche has 140 million web pages?

[Tom Sheltraw]

After I wrote the subject line I immediately thought, some niche.

1st thing is I'm not an SEO specialist and I'm not here to start a debate or dis the merits of SEO. What I really want to know is if your not on the first 3 or 4 pages of a search engine does SEO mean much.

It seems like a lot of hard work might get you higher in the ratings but what kind of effort will it take to get on the first page if your niche returns 140 million web pages? I use to thing 200,000 was a big number.

Honest guys, we can't be everything and wear every hat. SEO has never been my specialty. In my town there are companies charging $2000 a month to guarantee you will stay on page one of Yahoo and Google.

I guess I'm really thinking that if I play at it I might break the 1 million mark. With millions of competitors is it worth trying?

Thanks for the help,

Tom

[James Schramko]

It takes longer.


You can nibble at segments of a large niche - it sounds like it may indeed be a mass market rather than a niche.

[Dave_Kelly]

Originally Posted by Tom Sheltraw

After I wrote the subject line I immediately thought, some niche.

1st thing is I'm not an SEO specialist and I'm not here to start a debate or dis the merits of SEO. What I really want to know is if your not on the first 3 or 4 pages of a search engine does SEO mean much.

It seems like a lot of hard work might get you higher in the ratings but what kind of effort will it take to get on the first page if your niche returns 140 million web pages? I use to thing 200,000 was a big number.

Honest guys, we can't be everything and wear every hat. SEO has never been my specialty. In my town there are companies charging $2000 a month to guarantee you will stay on page one of Yahoo and Google.

I guess I'm really thinking that if I play at it I might break the 1 million mark. With millions of competitors is it worth trying?

Thanks for the help,

Tom

Here's how most SEO guarantees work..

They guarantee you a certain number of top (pick a number) listings.. They create a list of X number of keywords they are going to promote for you.. They make VERY certain that a certain % of these words are obscure enough that even someone with a modest degree of SEO knowledge can usually get ranked for those words.. but those words most often are not going to result in any traffic.. those guarantees are pretty easy for any company to achieve.. but they usually mean next to nothing for the client as far as revenue..

Here's what you ask them.. give them your top 3 primary keywords.. no matter how competitive they are, and see if they'll make the same guarantee, for THOSE 3 words.. assuming you've done your home work and these are good targeted words.. that can deliver a lot of qualified traffic.. and they can keep you on the first page, odds are you'll make a lot more than what you spend on SEO per month.. On the other hand, once you counter with that offer most SEO companies will back off wanting your job..

I did SEO professionally for 8 years, from 96-04 and would never offer a guarantee as I think they are all B.S. I always told potential clients the reality, if they wanted a guarantee there were plenty of companies that offered them., and would gladly even offer them their names and numbers..

As to whether SEO can help you, certainly, even in a competitive market, it's about keyword research #1, and promotion #2.. If you're going to go after the most competitive keywords in your niche, no, you're likely to fail, but if you go after very specific targeted words that can deliver decent qualified traffic, albeit at a lower rate, you'll have achance of doing OK.. and making money..

Dave

[scene4u]

If you have a relatively new site then you have basically no chance of consistently appearing in the top 5 pages on the site. It might be a better idea to choose less competitive keywords and then attack the more competitive niche once your site is better established.