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Is SEO the right choice for my website niche?

by olimits7
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

I'm at a point now where I'm not holding SEO as high of a priority as I use to. My website niche doesn't have a high search volume when it comes to my best primary keywords; so I feel SEO for my website is just not worth the time and money.

For example, on Adwords for an exact match on my primary keywords I'm only getting 500 average monthly searches. I then compare this to a more well known niche "inbound marketing" and this primary keyword is receiving 27,000+ average monthly searches. I know Adwords isn't 100% accurate in telling me what the exact search volume is but it's a good gauge .

Recently, after the Google "Penguin/Panda" algorithm updates my primary keywords dropped from being ranked around page 1 or 2 on Google to page 7+ now. However, even when I was at page 1 or 2; I wasn't really receiving much organic traffic from Google because of the low search volume of my niche.

I'm changing gears now and focusing on other verticals of traffic sources, and I'm seeing my website grow more through these channels than trying to rely on Google's organic searches to bring in good traffic.

I know SEO is important especially if you are targeting high volume keywords, but I just lost faith in SEO for my specific website niche. I just don't believe SEO is the best option for my website in bringing good traffic leads.

Thoughts? Am I right in thinking SEO isn't for every website? Or have I not found the right SEO agency to work with; which is a whole other topic because it is so hard to weed out the good from all the crappy SEO agencies out there?

Thank you!
#choice #niche #seo #website
  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    In my opinion SEO is not going to work very well for every website, company, and niche out there. Too much competition, too little resources to put into it, people don't know that the product exist so they can't search for it, industry that doesn't work with content marketing, etc.

    You can often get around any of these with some creative thinking and experience, but it just might be easier to use PPC or other advertising methods to get traffic.
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    Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
    Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

    What's your excuse?
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    • Profile picture of the author patco
      Originally Posted by nettiapina View Post

      In my opinion SEO is not going to work very well for every website, company, and niche out there. Too much competition, too little resources to put into it, people don't know that the product exist so they can't search for it, industry that doesn't work with content marketing, etc.

      You can often get around any of these with some creative thinking and experience, but it just might be easier to use PPC or other advertising methods to get traffic.
      True... But if it's a blog SEO is definately the best way to boost your SERP... PPC will work if you need INSTANT traffic... SEO will not work for a site like Facebook, Twitter where it's IMPOSSIBLE to outrank Facebook for example! If you can rank any of the TOP 10 sites for your keyword, then SEO is your solution. Think about this!!!
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      • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
        Originally Posted by patco View Post

        True... But if it's a blog SEO is definately the best way to boost your SERP... PPC will work if you need INSTANT traffic... SEO will not work for a site like Facebook, Twitter where it's IMPOSSIBLE to outrank Facebook for example! If you can rank any of the TOP 10 sites for your keyword, then SEO is your solution. Think about this!!!
        Sorry, I don't understand why you're saying what you're saying. Of course SEO is the best way to boost your organic search engine results. If SEO works for you, you should use it - you don't say?!

        If you're running a social media site it's probably fairly easy to outrank Facebook for anything else than "facebook". If you're targeting the brand keyword of the most famous competitor in existence, there's something seriously wrong with your keyword research. And if you're just trying to outrank random Facebook pages it should be as easy or hard as it's for any other page out there.
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        Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
        Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

        What's your excuse?
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Hard to say without knowing the niche/keywords.

    If I was selling high end RVs I only need one or two sales a month to make a decent commission so 500 leads is a lot If that traffic is looking to buy a high end RV (example). If I was selling low cost bicycles I would need a lot more traffic than 500 leads to compensate for the low cost product.
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  • Profile picture of the author olimits7
    Thanks for the replies!

    I definitely agree that SEO is good for websites, but it's not going to have the same effect in terms of traffic depending on the niche you are in.

    I guess I will continue to optimize my website as best possible for on-site SEO and post good blog posts on my blog, but not worry as much on off-site SEO.

    The more I learn about my niche, I know that SEO (organic Google searches) is never going to be my # 1 traffic source. I will instead use my time to explore and target traffic sources where my "target customer" would hang out.

    I like the feeling of finding other traffic sources to rely on and making Google not be the one who can cripple my website with just 1 algorithm update!
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by olimits7 View Post

      Thanks for the replies!

      I definitely agree that SEO is good for websites, but it's not going to have the same effect in terms of traffic depending on the niche you are in.

      I guess I will continue to optimize my website as best possible for on-site SEO and post good blog posts on my blog, but not worry as much on off-site SEO.

      The more I learn about my niche, I know that SEO (organic Google searches) is never going to be my # 1 traffic source. I will instead use my time to explore and target traffic sources where my "target customer" would hang out.

      I like the feeling of finding other traffic sources to rely on and making Google not be the one who can cripple my website with just 1 algorithm update!
      That's all good but your not really telling us anything besides your not focusing on SEO.
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      • Profile picture of the author Joshua Uebergang
        You should always do SEO. The question is to what degree. As a marketer, I need to know the website and niche before answering that. Search data is useless.
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  • Profile picture of the author TMMR Michael
    As others have said it is hard to give a definitive answer without knowing your niche & keywords. As a SEO consultant I'm always going to say SEO is important.

    BUT.....In a low competition Niche, if I was your consultant I would be working hard at building your Social presense rather than doing the link building stuff that everyone is doing.

    Guess the benefit? You get a huge increase in traffic through your social signals and this takes care of the "more traditional" SEO strategies.

    An effective Social Media Campaign in a low keyword search can actually see you take over the whole 1st page on Google.
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