Do PR 5 and up sites scare you into not going after the niche?

14 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Just wondering if when you guys are doing your research and you come up with a site that has a PR of 5 or more do you scare away or do you just simply go after it at this point?

Do you focus more on backlinks when evaulating a niche?
#niche #scare #sites
  • Profile picture of the author HunterSnake
    If a person is just starting out, they should probably bottom feed, i.e. go after the terms everyone else has ignored that can still bring in good money, just not extravagant money.

    When a person is more financially capable, skilled, and knowledgeable, going after a PR5 site is not only a very fun experience but can potentially yield extremely good returns. People tend to become complacent at the top so dethroning them, while hard, isn't impossible. Just have to do what they do better - and more.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2279792].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi simpleonline1234,

      A page's PR has nothing to do with ranking in the SERP. My advice would be to pay no attention to it.

      Search engines rank pages based on relevance, that includes Google especially. PR is an important factor in weighting the value of backlinks, but have little to do with relevance and therefore little to do with where your page will rank.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2279964].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author HunterSnake
        Originally Posted by dburk View Post

        Hi simpleonline1234,

        A page's PR has nothing to do with ranking in the SERP. My advice would be to pay no attention to it.

        Search engines rank pages based on relevance, that includes Google especially. PR is an important factor in weighting the value of backlinks, but have little to do with relevance and therefore little to do with where your page will rank.
        Like Matt Cutts frequently says, PageRank matters but it's not the only thing that matters. Good post.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2280091].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author ~kev~
        Originally Posted by dburk View Post

        A page's PR has nothing to do with ranking in the SERP. My advice would be to pay no attention to it.
        Page Rank plays a factor in where sites rank in Google - all other search engines ignore it.

        ~~~~~~~

        To the OP - page rank is a measure of backlinks, it does not measure quality content. I have seen junk sites with a page rank of 8, and nothing but spam backlinks.

        If your interested in going into a niche, you should look at the quality of the sites already out there, and not worry about the site google page rank.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2293541].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author lukemeister
    I definitely steer clear of trying to go up against pr5 sites if I don't feel like putting in a lot of work

    However, if you notice that the page on the pr5 site that is ranking for the keyword you want to go after doesn't have a ton of backlinks to it's always worth a shot - if it's the site home page that is ranking that will be a tough battle
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2280195].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2280208].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
      There was techcrunch then there was Mashable then there was Boy Genius Report then there was Readwriteweb then there was Joystiq then there was Gigaom.

      Did that stop any of those guys from giving it a go? No it didn't.

      PS: All those might not be in the right order but they do highlight what I wanted to say.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2280491].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author liedson45
    dburk gets the right point. PR shows nothing nowadays. In order to assess a competition, you need to look on your competitor's backlinks quality and amount (e.g. via Yahoo).

    Check also the age of their domains. If its more than 10 years old - you may forget on competing if you have a young site.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2287692].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author jazbo
    PR is irrelevant - just look at any SERP - zero PR pages rank higher than higher PR pages due to having better RELEVANCE.
    Signature
    CONTENT WRITER. Reliable, UK-Based, 6 Years Experience - ANY NICHE
    Click Here For Writing Samples & Online Ordering
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2289067].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author hiroman
      Originally Posted by jazbo View Post

      PR is irrelevant - just look at any SERP - zero PR pages rank higher than higher PR pages due to having better RELEVANCE.
      waw thanks for info, so far I think only the high PR website is going to win in the SERP, thanks
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2292111].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author MarkAse
    I got into IM out of necessity, not out of choice for my own personal business so my story is a bit different.

    I think looking into a more complete picture of the competition is key, are there long tail keywords available? Can you build enough traffic from those to give yourself time (and resources!) to go after more significant terms? Whom is behind that PR 5 site? If its the New York Times (one of my competitors) it's kind of tough when they can put out a press release and get 10k links overnight.
    Signature

    My current project, the Uncorked Ventures Wine Club. More coming soon, here.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2293216].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author TheRetiredBuilder
    As usual, BS going around the warrior forum, you guys are so good at it

    PR is a very good indicator of how competetive a niche is

    Sure "PR alone" is nothing, you often get high PR pages ranking for terms they aren't targeting and in this case PR means nothing and should not "scare" you

    but if you have PR5 sites ranking for the terms you would potentially be targeting then PR is a very good indicator

    a very good example is go to google.co.uk and search "online poker"

    the sites or pages you find on the first page are pr5 and pr6 and they want to rank for online poker, they aren't there by accident

    therefore if you want to compete with them you're going to need a lot of links and the amount of links you would need to get would almost certainly result in you also acheiving a pr5 or pr6

    if you build a pr3 online poker site it will not get close to the pr5 and pr6 online poker sites

    So the conclusion, If you see high pr sites ranking for search terms they aren't targeting then yes, you can soon outrank them

    If you see high PR pages ranking for terms they are targeting then you will need to do the same SEO as they have
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2293706].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author rahulr
    I would check their backlinks first make a longterm plan and go for it if the niche is worth it.
    Signature
    {$5 ONLY}750 word article written on your keyword.
    GET IT NOW -http://goo.gl/gXH4m
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[2352924].message }}

Trending Topics