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

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.

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

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.