Creating an authority site in a competitive niche

lemon

lemon

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Jul 19, 2009
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I've decided to take on a very large project. While researching something, I realized that there are a lot of garbage sites out there for one particular competitive niche. We're talking mid $xx.xx cpc across hundreds of keywords with adsense. The current sites ranking provide very little content of actual value. Since this also happens to be a topic I know a lot about, so I figured I would attempt to create an authority site around this topic.

According to market samurai, my two primary keywords have about 2000 exact match searches per day. I also have about 10 "secondary" keywords, which show 5000 exact searches per day combined. On top of this, I have also created a list of close to 500 long tail keywords which I will focus on later. Since these also include one of the primary keywords, i'm mostly using these for topic ideas I can write about.

Looking at current serps, ranking sites are between 17-5 years old, PR 5-7, 2k - 10k referring domains. So this is definitely going to be tricky to get ranked. The top domain has nearly 100k links from .edu and .gov sites, and I can't even fathom how this is possible unless it's some kind of spam.

My primary goal here is just going to be to create a professional looking website with extremely valuable content. I've prepared a little under 40,000 words worth of content so far. I want to have at least 150,000 words by the time I launch the site. Most of my articles are between 1500-4000 words, with the larger ones split up so they can be either paginated, or posted as a series.

I've prepared 3 pieces of content which make good link bait, and I will promote them socially to get the ball rolling. Once i've got some traffic to test things out, i've got one idea to get 10-15 links from high PR sites that currently dominate this niche. I've seen this done before so I see no reason why it shouldn't work for this niche. The cost will be around $2000 for a contest sort of thing, can't really say much more than that without giving away the niche.

Really what is holding me back here, is i'm not sure how to approach the SEO. It seems that these days "less is more". I'd really like to build a long term business here, so i'm not interested in any questionable blackhat techniques. (on the first two tiers anyway). Because i'm trying to go fairly whitehat with this project, i'm not sure if it will be a major hindrance for me to try and create a brand around this project rather then going for a domain that includes the keyword. Obviously the exact match domain is taken and currently links to a spammy site on page 2.
 


If you are going to reg a new domain, don't. I HIGHLY recommend you drop 1k for a nice domain to give you a great backlink base. I am doing this now and am seeing things move MUCH faster.
 
thats good advice. Where do you look for existing domains? And when you say that things are moving along much more quickly, could you quantify that?
 
lemon said:
thats good advice. Where do you look for existing domains? And when you say that things are moving along much more quickly, could you quantify that?
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Their are many domain auction sites around.. think about it. And regarding moving faster, I already have a stronger base stronger than 90% of my competitors.. I get long-tail traffic hours after I post a new article. Some of the links these established domains have.. can be impossible for yourself to get.
 
well I spend a lot of time going through expired domain listings, checking the backlinks out, and i'm afraid that it seems like there is a lot of crap there! sketchy links everywhere, it seems like every site listed has been fucked with in one way or another.

I've decided that what i'm going to do is just reg a new domain. I know this is not ideal, but i'd rather wait the extra time and know that i've built my backlink profile correctly. Plus this way I managed to snag a catchy, brandable domain that has my primary keyword right in it.

I will, of course, certainly keep my eyes open for a niche relevant site with a good backlink profile so I can snag it and use it for one of my pumper sites.
 
lemon said:
well I spend a lot of time going through expired domain listings, checking the backlinks out, and i'm afraid that it seems like there is a lot of crap there! sketchy links everywhere, it seems like every site listed has been fucked with in one way or another.

I've decided that what i'm going to do is just reg a new domain. I know this is not ideal, but i'd rather wait the extra time and know that i've built my backlink profile correctly. Plus this way I managed to snag a catchy, brandable domain that has my primary keyword right in it.

I will, of course, certainly keep my eyes open for a niche relevant site with a good backlink profile so I can snag it and use it for one of my pumper sites.
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Got Skype? Pm me.
 
lemon said:
On top of this, I have also created a list of close to 500 long tail keywords which I will focus on later.
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This is a bad idea. You should focus on ltk first, as those get traction first. Then focus on secondary and then on primary kws. Create a 3 tier website structure:
1. Main
2. Secondary
3. Long tails
Start backlinking tier3, then T2 and T1. If you do it this way, you will get a MUCH better results (plus, ALL of pages will get a PR, and mian page should get a two points higher than T3s.

To get this done properly, you should have to do a VERY solid kw research, and then group kws into subject blocks, something like silo structure.
 
My advice is to take your niche, and niche down....and then niche down again. Unless you have the resources and a plan for 5-10 years down the road, you're going to have a pretty difficult time competing in an established and potentially saturated niche.

Do yourself a favor and pick a niche within a niche within a niche and start with that. If you dominate that, do it again with another sub-sub niche. Prove your concept a few times, and then use these sites as pumpers to build out a broader website in a more competitive space.
 
knownerror said:
If you are going to reg a new domain, don't. I HIGHLY recommend you drop 1k for a nice domain to give you a great backlink base. I am doing this now and am seeing things move MUCH faster.
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Does this really help? I understand that domain age and backlinks are important, but won't consumers come to your site because of the content/products you offer, rather than simply concentrating on ranking in G?

andrewkar said:
This is a bad idea. You should focus on ltk first, as those get traction first. Then focus on secondary and then on primary kws. Create a 3 tier website structure:
1. Main
2. Secondary
3. Long tails
Start backlinking tier3, then T2 and T1. If you do it this way, you will get a MUCH better results (plus, ALL of pages will get a PR, and mian page should get a two points higher than T3s.
Click to expand...

Can you explain the concept of tiers to me? Your main site would have LTK and you would try to rank for those - evetually you would automatically rank for short tails too, right? What do the tiers have to do with anything? You talking about pumper sites?

StackCash said:
Do yourself a favor and pick a niche within a niche within a niche and start with that. If you dominate that, do it again with another sub-sub niche. Prove your concept a few times, and then use these sites as pumpers to build out a broader website in a more competitive space.
Click to expand...
Why? If you use social media to promote your stuff, you are depending on readers (not google) to get visitors to your site. Im sure that big sites would have larger number of competitors, but doesn't mean you cant try to give them a run for their money
 
Have a look below
ts_zps9bf07542.jpg


In this example your main KW is T1. It's a highly competitive term if you go after big fish. But you can use it to attack smaller niches.

T2s are secondary KWs that are usually moderately competitive.
T3s are LTK that are the easiest to rank.

If you link it up as shown on the image, and start ranking LTKs first, T2 second and the T1, you will get much better results (in my experience).

The key to success here is PLANING ahead. So, KW research has to be done for at least 30 pages ahead, before starting anything else.

Then it's all about simply adding T2 and two T3s for example. Backlinking T3s. Adding another T2, backlinking previous T2, adding new T3s etc.

So, you get the website out there. Add a two T2s each representing a separate niche in the main niche (main KW). Then add T3s to each T2, that are related to those T2s and on and on...

KW research is the key to success here. And then placing that KWs properly in the content.

I have done a "few" websites like this, and got same effect all the time. I bought a fresh domain, done it like above, and usually after 4 months main page is PR3, and all the T2s are PR1 (all of them, even contact page and other bolox...).

Best thing is, I'm just using maybe 15-30 proper niche related links, and some forum links from related sites. I don't pay any attention to KW density. Also, don't target any particular KW using anchors before w page reach the TOP20.

This system is a better way to go for you, in my opinion, than what Stackcash have advised. Because you will start building and investing into one website only, rather creating a few small "niche in niche" sites (that you can use later as a T1 sites for main site).

Still, you are able to go after tiny niches but all under one domain that will become a big authority site one day. The only thing to do, proper KW research before anything else.
 
jasonlife said:
Why? If you use social media to promote your stuff, you are depending on readers (not google) to get visitors to your site. Im sure that big sites would have larger number of competitors, but doesn't mean you cant try to give them a run for their money
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1) Social media traffic is notoriously bad for converting users.
2) Not every niche is meant for social media.
3) FB has announced that they're throttling organic reach to 10% of your follower base. This means you'll need to get 1000 page likes in order to get 100 sets of eyes on your post. Then you have to get those 100 people to click. Then you have to get the percentage that click to convert.
4) The way you give big sites a "run for their money" is not compete directly with their top level product. You need to build a base of resources that can eventually support a top level product of your own.
 
andrewkar said:
Have a look below
I have done a "few" websites like this, and got same effect all the time. I bought a fresh domain, done it like above, and usually after 4 months main page is PR3, and all the T2s are PR1 (all of them, even contact page and other bolox...).

Best thing is, I'm just using maybe 15-30 proper niche related links, and some forum links from related sites. I don't pay any attention to KW density. Also, don't target any particular KW using anchors before w page reach the TOP20.

This system is a better way to go for you, in my opinion, than what Stackcash have advised. Because you will start building and investing into one website only, rather creating a few small "niche in niche" sites (that you can use later as a T1 sites for main site).

Still, you are able to go after tiny niches but all under one domain that will become a big authority site one day. The only thing to do, proper KW research before anything else.
Click to expand...


Hi,

I have some questions regarding this. I'm used to the usage of Tier 1/2/3 refer to backlinks to your pages, but I think you're using it in a different way here. If I'm understanding you are using them to refer to your site? Can I use an example illustration here and you tell me if I got it?

Tier 1 KW: Car parts
Tier 2 KW: Lamborghini car parts
Tier 3 KW: lamborghini car parts available in the states

So you would *start* your website building a whole bunch of Tier 3 related type pages. Then you would build a Tier 2 KW targeted page - and link all the Tier 3's to that Tier 2 kw? Then you would backlink the Tier 3's but not the Tier 2. Then you build more Tier 3's for a different category and repeat. Then once you have afew Tier 2 pages done, you'll make the Tier 1 and link the Tier 2/3's to the Tier 1 page?

Sorry if this is confusing... the use of Tiers on non-linkbuilding but site structure is throwing me off... do I have this down pat?

Thanks

XH
 
Antics said:
Bumping because I'm interested in the answer to the above question as well.
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Don't over think it.

Make high quality category pages with content, or nice large articles for these high-volume terms that you want to capture (that you might find out aren't all that worthwhile). Make sure your website itself is designed well so users will won't straight up bounce from that page once you rank it. Most often these big volume terms drive users that don't have any real intent other than "hrmm, i'm going to type this very broad idea into google and see what happens." It's up to you to convert them or push an advertisement in their face and hope they click.

Anyways, build those pages out. Get your basic site completed including these pages.

Then start building pages and content relating to more specific, peculiar, and in-depth topics. If you did your job right before, these pages will in some fashion relate to those broader topic'd pages you already created. Link back to them internally. Yes, you are doing the big no-no of page rank sculpting. But if you do it the way I'm telling you, it won't be super obvious to the Gorg-Mind.

Create more and more of these pages. Continue to link back to the main hub page, but also link horizontally to other pages in this "tier". Eventually you're going to have a huge web of shit that passes juice around randomly but leaks most of it up to your more competitive pages.

Some of your easier, lower competition, and more valuable pages will begin to rank on the merit of the cross-linking alone. Find some easy pages to take and start finding some high quality links for those. They will rank, and the other pages will increase in rankings as well since you're moving juice around. Repeat as much as you like, forever and ever.

Eventually you're going to see your main hub pages begin to rank better and better. Your homepage will as well, even if you don't focus on it. This is the magic of focusing on your entire domain instead of hanging a sign on your neck saying "Hey Google, I'm trying to snipe my homepage for one term! That's why none of my other pages have any backlinks!"

Build a big ass site. Interlink it properly, flowing juice back to your hard pages. Flow it out of your homepage to those pages as well. Get links for as many of your pages as you can. Watch long-tail magic happen that will convert waaaaay better than those big terms you're concerned with ranking. Those will make up for their shittiness by pure volume of traffic, but there's a lot of effort involved. Minimize that effort by following this guide.

Thank me by sending me your first born child. I will sacrifice it to R'hllor to ensure a good SEO harvest for my sites.
 
thehobbster said:
Continue to link back to the main hub page, but also link horizontally to other pages in this "tier". Eventually you're going to have a huge web of shit that passes juice around randomly but leaks most of it up to your more competitive pages.
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Thank you hobbster for sharing some enlightenment. I have another question if it pleases you. Is using something like breadcrumbs enough to link back to the main hub? Or does it have to be more specific - keyword anchor in context sort of linking? Or does it even matter?
 
xha44a said:
Thank you hobbster for sharing some enlightenment. I have another question if it pleases you. Is using something like breadcrumbs enough to link back to the main hub? Or does it have to be more specific - keyword anchor in context sort of linking? Or does it even matter?
Click to expand...

Da Gorg has an understanding of what is main content (the post), supplemental content (the sidebar widgets, footer widgets), and inconsequential content (breadcrumbs).

Which is to say, they throttle juice depending on where the link exists. Your best move is to link within the main content with a relevant anchor (not the same one over and over again though, do it just like off-page).

You can still move massive juice around with sitewide widgets and non-main content links. Think about how you might take advantage of that too.

HOLLA
 
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