Larger Authority sites vs smaller niche specific sites after Penguin Update

by cweber
12 replies
  • SEO
  • |
So I'm wondering what a good plan of attack will be after the recent penguin updates.

I have 15 Amazon niche sites I would like to develop and am wondering if I should go with a large authority review site or build 15 individual niche sites.

For a single large authority site I have found a good domain that is 6 years old so it has a good age to start with.

My biggest draw to a single large authority review site is the fact that after the penguin updates I have seen more authority review sites ranking in the top 10 compared to the niche specific sites.

However I also like the niche site way still because once the sites are developed and earning I an sell each of them as well.

Anyway I'd just like to get some feedback on it. Thanks
#authority #larger #niche #penguin #sites #smaller #specific #update
  • Profile picture of the author FraserC
    An authority site with a real established and vibrant community is one of the most powerful and sustainable resources you could create online.
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    • Profile picture of the author cweber
      Originally Posted by FraserC View Post

      An authority site with a real established and vibrant community is one of the most powerful and sustainable resources you could create online.
      Very true and one of the reasons I am possibly leaning towards an authority site
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  • Profile picture of the author J3thro M
    Before the penguine update, review sites [w/15 product reviews, 5 info articles] were really awesome eyyyy, really producing good money. But all got slapped hard.

    My plan would be, building 1 authority review site and 2-3 individual niche sites. I would build backlinks to those specific niche sites first as a test, and what kind of links that works then I am going to build it on the authority site. There should be a winner, hopefully.
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  • Profile picture of the author dp40oz
    Both have their benefits and I would try to do a mix of both. Authority sites sound great but if you get hit even slightly by Panda the entire site will be affected. Its better to diversify then put all of your eggs in one basket especially when Google is your main traffic source.
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  • Profile picture of the author jacksonlin
    Actually, after the update, my ****ty small review sites are making more money as opposed to my better sites...
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  • Profile picture of the author cweber
    Bump...I'd love to hear some more feedback and thanks to everyone who has left their feedback so far.
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    • Profile picture of the author John F Kennedy
      Whilst small niche review sites may still make money for some marketers, authority is definitely a better long term strategy.

      Authority doesn't necessary mean large though. When your site is in a broad niche like dog training this may be so but in a smaller niche like stop a dog barking then it can hardly be large but can still be an authority.

      Authority meaning that it covers the topic thoroughly, where nothing is left out. It does not mean large.

      The days of building a site a day are long gone, it is far better and more worthwhile to build an authority in your niche where your content is written for the user and not the search engines necessarily.
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  • Profile picture of the author sandra98
    I would suggest to develop an authority site and have a number of smaller niche specific sites as well. If you put all your effort behind one large site and it gets hit unfortunately, that will be disappointing. Google seem to favor larger authority sites, but smaller niche sites still continue to perform.

    Think about risk diversification. Another thing to pay attention to is ROI - return on investment for your time/money spent. Authority sites can pay off big time for the investment you put in, probably more than smaller sites. But it's risky to depend just on one site. So as long as the smaller niche sites can provide a good ROI, I think you still want to include them to balance out the risk.
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  • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
    I personally would prefer sites with 15-20 pages of real content vs sites with 5 pages. So maybe a mixture between authority & micro niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author nik0
      Banned
      Its wise to start small, see how it works out with a couple of pages, if they rank well and bring in money with little effort then you can build them out and with solid internal linking and a few more links the new pages will also start to rank easily.

      Just flip the losers at Flippa or use them to create your own private blog network.

      In many of the (smaller) niches it makes no sense to build a 100 page site, you would only start to repeat yourself. 20 pages like JSProjects says is nice though.
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  • Profile picture of the author mcatt
    More and more creating back links within your niche market seems to be the better and more powerful way to rank a keyword or website your after.
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    • Profile picture of the author Drazz
      I started a small niche website on a longtail keyword (5 words) in nutrition in my language Dutch. My passion is nutrition, fitness and health in general. I like to read about it and know a lot about good nutrition and diet and stuff.

      But given I target a longtail keyword (3600 exact searches a month) which don't really sound nice to be an autorithy site. What are logic steps to follow if I see my website is getting enough visitors. I just started and have about 9 articles on it right now.

      Buy another domain and move all my articles and start rebuilding or? Is it better to get a name that can get branded? Not sure what to do

      Its online only 2/3 weeks now.
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