Defining a niche for my SEO company
-
Hello,
I realize that in order to get business in SEO, you really need to specialize.
The most experience I have is with the nuts and bolts of small business E-commerce and and many types of small business web design. I've run several online stores for about 9 years and I've been doing small business web design (and a bit of development) since 2001. I've had several other SEO clients over the years.
I'm in Boise, Idaho at this site
What would be a profitable approach? I'm thinking I could mainly build and market small online stores for locals. Maybe something like 'Ecommerce Web Design and SEO in Boise, Idaho' for a home page title. Or I could learn Local, but I have less experience with that. Or I could try to get national clients in an even smaller niche. I'm trying to find a good approach. I only charge $75/hour and I give generous quotes when appropriate, so an 'affordable' approach would be good
Thanks,
Bob
-
Mariam,
You've got great points there! I will definitely network for E-commerce and bridging the gap.
What's the quickest way to be excellent at Local? I wouldn't want to do a Local SEO project for someone unless I could see clearly how it would be profitable like I can often (though there's no way to know for sure) see with E-commerce. How do I get there fast?
Thanks.
-
Hey Bob!
Good for you for being open to constructive feedback. Given what you've described, I'm hearing two things:
-
You know e-commerce
-
You have an interest in Boise
Have you considered specializing in doing the e-commerce functionality for physical stores in Boise? And I mean everything ... setting up online shopping on their sites, setting up beacons in their stores, getting into mobile commerce, etc. Just a thought that struck me. What if you became 'the' company bridging the gap between on and offline for the major stores in Boise? The future is mobile. A plan like this could mean good work for you for years to come.
-
-
Hey Bob,
I hope you don't mind a little constructive feedback, but I would lose the video on the homepage as a starter. It seems like you are really unsure what you are talking about, keep looking away from the camera, not sure what to do with your hands, and this is all bad for when someone visits - you need them to feel comfortable with you and know you believe what you are saying - and I know this is all because you are not reading from a script, so maybe a new one where you have a screen and presentation to remind you what you need to talk about? Use bullet points and try not to 'umm' or 'erm' too much - keep that eye contact with the camera too and don't look away.
I would also spend a bit of time / money and have a nice new site developed. Whichever way you decide to go, you need to not cover too much generic information on one page, and make good use of big, bold messages to catch the eye.
In terms of the route, I have been a consultant for many years now and find it most profitable. I specialise in a few areas and make sure these are covered clearly on my website. I back this up with pages that talk about what I do and how I do it - basically, I try to answer the questions I would be asked on a phone call or in a meeting. Of course, you can't hope to cover everything, so I try to give a good grounding.
Carving a niche is all well and good, but you need to be able to back this up so that when someone comes along and asks for examples of 'Local SEO' that you have performed, that you can show them. If you haven't done too much, don't be afraid of offering work in return for a testimonial that you can show.
Best of luck,
-Andy
-
Hi Bob,
I have developed a few niches, and maybe the ways I found those will give you some ideas.
Back in the late 90s, I worked on a few medical practice websites. Based on that experience, I began to develop a niche building websites and doing online marketing (including but not limited to SEO) for medical practices. We have worked with many medical specialties, but along the way we began working with many urgent care practices, and thus developed an even stronger program for this specialty. We can do a great job for just about any type of practice; for urgent care, we can do even more. We are now looking into replicating this deeper focus with other medical specialties.
So, the lesson here is to examine your own current client base, and look for industries where you can replicate what you are already doing. Or if you don't yet have a client base, focus on your past work experience. Based on the options you come up with, I'd consider things like the level of competition for others focusing on that niche, and how much you like working with that type of business.
Of course, one thing about medical practices is that they are local businesses. We generally don't take on 2 clients in the same market, because then we'd just be competing against ourselves. That said, still have an a huge number of prospects when you consider all of the medical practices out there.
And this leads me to the 2nd niche that we have. By working with medical practices, we learned how to do local. I would occasionally get clients in other industries, and began to realize that local marketing techniques are pretty similar for many industries. So, our 2nd niche is local marketing. On that side of the business, we have a strong focus on our home city of Portland, OR. In addition, since we are already doing local marketing in dozens of other cities around the country, we are learning to target other businesses in the cities where we already have clients.
In general, I think there is a big need for more people to specialize in local SEO.
Hope this helps you find your direction!
Ira
-
Bob
You should have a feel for what you clients want from you - a gut feel for what area to develop and specialize in. Your URL has you limited ie it is a person. So it makes you look and feel like a one man band. If this is the case the work you get will be limited to small business & mums and dads type operations. Unless you can turn yourself into a Consultant to oversee the agencies retained by larger companies. Call that a pivot.
So I would sit down and work, out what past customers will support you with ie testimonials and work out what works for you now. You may want consider a pivot - to consulting as your long term goal - but at present you need money coming in.
Also your website it could be argued looks a little outdated, not modern and fresh - to attract the new young ecommerce up & comers. Have a look at squarespace for some modern sites.
On your actual title & H1. If you know your niche then the words will come natural - ecommerce website design is a competitive phrase - so the local factor and city or suburb will be key to ranking well.
Hope this gives you something to think about.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to go about SEO when the content on all the pages is in a regional language (with its own script which is non-roman) but majority of searches are in the same language but roman script?
For example, the entire content is in an Indian language called Gujarati and the script is also Gujarati. However, when I did a keyword research, I found that majority of the searches are in Gujarati langugage by roman script e.g. "gujarati sahitya" meaning Gujarati literature. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Local SEO | | Tumul0 -
Opinion on stripping down homepage to two navigational links for SEO
I am in the process of restructuring a clients site who offers two niches. One is an event venue and the other is private dining. We have struggled in the past with ranking for either one since google sees restaurant and event venue as two distinct businesses. So on the homepage I would like to essentially 'divide' the site into two sections - Weddings and events, and Dining. From there people can choose which part of the website they would be directed to. (There are other things we will do as well, like up content etc. but this is the start) So my question is this - from an SEO standpoint should I do away with a menu on the home page and only have two links there and have the site hierarchy go down from there, does this give more 'juice' to the two categories? or will it hurt the site since there is no about, contact, etc page link on the home page? thanks for any opinions on this!
Local SEO | | Jenn_E0 -
SEO and IP based content
Hello, We are building a guide/directory that will service multiple cities across Canada. Currently, our home page will detect your IP, and display local content on the home page. Although we feel this is incredibly useful to the end user, we are worried about how search engines will interpret our home page. In addition to our home page, should we have landing pages for each city that we are in? and should we follow site structure like this? www.thesite.com/vancouver So if a user from Vancouver goes to our home page, they will see Vancouver related content, but how would a search engine see the home page? We would like to know the best approach to placing well for searches in different Canadian cities. Most of our searches will be city specific: Calgary widgets, Vancouver widgets, etc. Thanks
Local SEO | | ebk0 -
How to market web design and SEO company locally
Hello, I'm looking for easy (yah right, correct?) ways to market locally my web solutions company. I do web design, E-commerce web design, and I start informational and E-commerce companies for people starting at $1000/month - only new companies, later I'll do a little more E-commerce stuff. Looking for inexpensive, fairly easy ways to market locally. Thanks!
Local SEO | | BobGW0 -
Two Companies Same Address
A client has two businesses running from the same address. Both businesses will operate out of Unit 1. Would it be safe to go for Unit 1 and Unit 1A. Will that distinction be enough for Google local and has anyone had any specific experience with this issue?
Local SEO | | MickEdwards0 -
Niche Keyword Opportunities in Canada when US Market Dominates
Hey, I have an interesting question. I am the owner of a Canadian E-Commerce site, and I have been brainstorming ways to find opportunities and niches for Canadian online shoppers in an industry that is dominated by American E-commerce sites. I looked around at another Canadian e-commerce site, and I wanted to get some advice on whether this strategy is sound. Here is an example. Well.ca is a large e-commerce site in Canada. They take a competitive product like a "KONG Goodie Bone" (a dog toy) and include local and intent terms in their title. For example "Buy KONG Goodie Bone from Canada at Well.ca - Free Shipping". If a Canadian shopper searches for "Kong Goodie Bone", they are going to find results for amazon.com, ebay.com, the Kong company website, Petco (which is not in Canada) etc. I would imagine that Canadian shoppers would start to add terms such as Canada, Buy, or online to try to find Canadian sellers. If that is the case, then Well.ca ranks. I guess my question is, if the dominant search terms in my industry are polluted with irrelevant or American companies (even in Canada), is this form of localization a good idea? The terms don't seem to be searched much according to any keyword research tool I've used, but I know that I add "canada" to my search terms in order to find Canadian results? I will also note that our website recently launched, we are using 100% original product page content, we are using videos, and we are really putting a lot of energy into quality content. I am just wondering if patience is the name of the game when you are dealing with sites with incredible domain authority, or if we are better off trying to find niche opportunities. Thoughts?
Local SEO | | evan890 -
SEO / PPC Middle East Recommendations
Hello - We are an online store and do a lot of business in the middle east, but are looking to expand there further and looking for a reputable company that specializes in SEO, PPC and social marketing in the region. Specifically a company that can help in region specific content (works in Arabic) and can target properly. Does anybody have any recommendations or company's they have worked with in the past? Thanks for any info!
Local SEO | | BabyBeauBelle0