Keyword Confusion

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Hey ladies and gents..

I'm brand spankin new here. Sick and tired of the daily riff raff and it's time to start trying to earn some income online. I'm in the keyword research/niche selection phase.

Quick question regarding selection..

I've started my research using Long Tail Pro. In the process I have found several niches that look attractive to me. But without ANY experience at all, I'm not sure whether I could rank or not.

Out of the top 10 results for the given keyword, the bottom 6 or so results have no page authority, no page links, and no juice links.. however the domain authority is all 90+. :confused:

How hard is it to rank against some of these big box stores such as ebay, amazon, etc?

Thoughts, suggestions? Should I tuck my tail and run?

Thanks!
#search engine optimization #confusion #keyword
  • If you are trying to outrank authority site like ehow, wiki how or similar, will be very hard but not impossible.
    Everything is possible but it takes time with not 100% guarantee success.
    My suggestion is to find another long tail related to your niche with less authority site on first page of google to rank easier.
    If you are fighter and love temptation and do not care of rank fast go for it, try it and than come here with results...
    • [1] reply
    • Yups same with you, i will find another keyword.. Long time ago when i learn IM i will fight for this keyword, i feel i can win this.. But now i will think twice before choose this keyword, i will calculate how much effort i will spend.. then i think if i use this much effort for another easier keyword maybe i can rank 3-4 keyword and that means more traffic But it's just idea
      But if you want to try it, just try it.. trial and error are good you will have experience
  • I am not saying you can not do it but when I do my keyword research then look for all the urls with my keywords in them, if I find most of the first page is .edu .gov ebay amazon wiki ect, I move on.

    I just don't want to work that hard. If it was something I was passionate about and it was a personal site I might fight them for rank but if its for money then not wasting my time with it.
  • Tip: Don't try to compete with the top authority sites OR on brand names / specific product models. You can often reach the same markets using long tail keyword phrases and/or information keyword phrases instead.

    What is it about those niches that looked attractive to you? Was it specific numbers, or was it personal interest in the topic/niche? I recommend going with the latter - otherwise you'll get bored or burned out working on the site. AND it's MUCH easier to see success in a niche where you have obvious interest, experience and passion - even if you're just an interested enthusiast, or just getting into the hobby or whatever.

    Happy to help you brainstorm to find a niche that's a good match for you, that also has profit potential.
    • [1] reply

    • Thanks everyone for the warm welcome to the forum. Lots of great advice here!

      I guess with absolutely zero working knowledge in SEO, it's nice to be steered in the right direction here.. away from the big box names. Especially for a new entrepreneur, defeat is hard to over come straight out of the gate after months of hard diligent work.

      At this point, I have zero interest in the product/service being sold. My main objective is to find success in my methods to ultimately fulfill a need with a customer. This is why I hate the position I am in now. Same road, same office, same boring routine everyday. I want to reign in my own levels of success. I want to prove to myself that I can do it.. so the niche is irrelevant. Having said that, I understand that it is much easier to write about a topic that I am much more passionate about.

      So, just for frame of reference, my niche was based solely on numbers that I was seeing in my research. I didn't see anyone trying to fill the need other than a few big box stores. There were no exact match domains or even near match domains in the top 10 google results. However, I do suppose it's possible that there were near match domains lower in the results which would have told me right off it was a bad idea. Otherwise, everything looked ok.

      So, how long tail is "long tail"? Three words deep? Four? Five? Most of my research has shown that after about 3 words, the traffic takes a deep dive. I have found several interesting niches that would seem to fit all of my criteria only to find another "obvious" niche website with an exact or near exact domain ranking very high. This made me feel good at first because I knew I was looking in the right places. But after quite a few, it got frustrating because I know I have to be more creative.

      I guess my biggest issue at this point is being creative enough to find the seeds to aid in my search. Perhaps with enough time, I will get there!

      Thanks again to everyone!
  • Just look whether the top 90+ authority sites are actually ranking for the specific keyword or Google is throwing them just for the keyword relevancy. There are many metrics in long tail pro such as ranking competition. If it is below 40, then you can go for it. In addition, also check 2 or 3 pages of google to determine whether any other marketer is trying to go for the keyword. If yes, see how long he is working on the keyword and other such things......
  • Definitely run.
    But then, I am sure that there are other keywords with weaker competition you can take advantage of. Look for keywords with forums/thin affiliate sites ranking in the first place. Check their backlink profile and see if you can outdo them in a few months time. You have a good chance to do so as long as you are consistent with SEO.
  • Banned
    Not sure why people are suggesting you run from those sites. The majority of the time sites like Ebay are ranking Ebay internal search pages only because nobody else cares about the keyword. Large sites like Ebay tend to blast a bazillion internal search pages (longtail keywords) to get whatever they can get to stick in the SERPs.

    It's not a one size fits all with SEO, do the keyword competition research based on the pages ranked, then dig into those ranked pages/sites & see If they're serious about the keyword or just throwing crap pages at the SERPs trying to pick up any traffic they can get without actually doing any work to rank their pages.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Regarding long tail keywords, it's all in the intent of the search. A five word phrase may have much lower search volume, but if it's super specific with obvious commercial intent, it will convert at a MUCH higher rate than a more general phrase with higher search volume. And conversions are a better metric than traffic if you're selling product - vs selling ad space.
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    Keyword Confusion

    Hey ladies and gents.. I'm brand spankin new here. Sick and tired of the daily riff raff and it's time to start trying to earn some income online. I'm in the keyword research/niche selection phase.