As of 2008, Google had indexed over a trillion sites. Since then they have continued indexing more and more websites each day. There’s not an exact number right now but it’s safe to say that the Internet is enormous. When considering the vast number of pages, how are you going to stand out? It’s no longer a viable option to always go after generic search terms in order to get the most traffic. Unless you have large capital reserves that you’re going to pour into a very expensive ongoing internet marketing and SEO campaign for years, you need to find your Online Niche.
Your goal is to be a big fish in a small smaller pond, which usually equates to being on the first page of Google for some relevant search terms. Most people don’t look past the first page of Google with some estimates putting it at 90%. If you’re not on the first page of Google, you’re missing out on traffic. It’s much better to get 50% of 500 searches a month as opposed to getting 1% of 1,000 searches a month. Also, as you’re building your niche for your site, you’re also optimizing it for the general search terms in the long run. An optimized page for the term “Detroit Michigan Mortgage Lender” also includes the more general search terms “Michigan Mortgage Lender” and “Mortgage Lender”. My favorite online niches to build for clients are: Geographic, product/service specific, and marketing specific.
Build a Geographic Niche
While not for every business, a geographic niche is always a good way to weed out the competition. For most locations, there are strong local search numbers and optimizing your site for these local niches will give you a significant amount of traffic and leads. Some easy ways to build your local niche are to include geographic search terms on your website, build a Google Places profile (as well as Bing and Yahoo), and add your website to local search directories.
Build a Product or Service Niche
This is a great way to make your company stand out for your specialties. While you may product widgets, maybe you can brand yourself as being the best provider of widgets for small businesses or identifying a difference in your widget compared to others. In essence you’re marketing your product as more unique than just being a widget. I like branding products for small business or for solving a certain problem.
Build a Marketing Specific Niche
Your market may be saturated on Google, which leaves your website out for awhile but what about other avenues? Can you brand yourself socially through other online avenues? If you have a LinkedIn account and search for your name on Google, what comes up in the top 10? Unless you’re a online social guru, LinkedIn always comes up in the top 10. It’s the same with other social sites like Facebook or twitter. These sites also give you the ability to connect more with your potential clients, which is an extra added bonus. Ranking for keywords through secondary sites and connecting through a different method than other companies will help your company stand out, effectively creating your marketing niche.
While you can pick just one of these and run with it, I prefer to utilize all 3 or at least 2 of these methods. As you build yourself more of a niche, you become more of a standard for that area. You will get more search results, more traffic to your site, more leads, and ultimately more profit.
Jared Pomranky
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