Niche vs One massive site
-
In the past I've done fairly well building niche sites for automotive accessories. The problem is, it's hard paying attention to 50+ sites after a while, and the quality ends up going down.
Because of this, I've decided to focus on one large site for trucks and their accessories. I have a site called truckprofile.com where people can create profile pages for their various trucks. It gets fair traffic for not doing much with it. I recently threw a blog on the site: truckprofile.com/blog. This will be my area for posting articles on niche, commonly searched, easy to rank for phrases.
So my questions are:
- Is building one massive site better?
- If so, how should I structure the blog area so that each article ranks well? Would it be better if they were well categorized pages in wordpress instead of blog posts?
- By posting all the articles on a single site, does that mean it will be harder to rank for any single thing since the topic is so broad?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
-
I appreciate your help. I saw the SEOmoz article this morning, thought it was appropriate
Andy
-
Well, what do you know? SEOmoz just put out a blog post today that could be exactly what you need! http://www.seomoz.org/blog/setup-wordpress-for-seo-success
-
I'd suggest a combination of B and C. If you have to compromise, don't compromise B for the sake of C. C could be compromised for the sake of B a little bit, but better to find the perfect balance of the two, of course.
As far as tags go, two basic things to remember is to only give something a certain tag if your post is about that tag/word or mentions it in great detail. If it only mentions it once in passing, maybe don't give it that tag.
Another practice that a lot of people use with tags is to keep them at one word each unless they're proper names or brands. For example, if you post is about truck brakes, add the tags "truck" and "brakes" rather than "truck breaks." Most people say don't go over 10 tags per post. I don't know how much that actually matters, but I usually abide by that and it works for me.
Side point: I'd strongly recommend installing a plugin like Yoast and noindexing all tag pages.
-
I appreciate your help : )
So for instance, if I write an article about a brand of truck bed liner, would I:
A: Create as many niche categories as I can to add that article, all relating to the topic of bed liners?
B: Pick a single, easy to rank for category for that article?
Pick a single category that readers will most likely recognize for that article?
Lastly, is there a good strategy I should be using for tags? Or should I leave tags alone?
Thanks again!
-
- Is building one massive site better?
For SEO and for your own peace of mind, yes. You'll only have one site to keep track of and to do SEO on. That site will build up authority over time, thereby getting better traffic and rankings.
- If so, how should I structure the blog area so that each article ranks well? Would it be better if they were well categorized pages in wordpress instead of blog posts?
The blog area should be a blog instead of Wordpress pages. Otherwise, why wouldn't you just make them regular pages the main part of your website? All you have to do is make a category for each niche.
- By posting all the articles on a single site, does that mean it will be harder to rank for any single thing since the topic is so broad?
Not necessarily. Google likes to rank authority sites. If you are maintaining 50+ sites, it would be safe to assume they do not get a lot of traffic and don't have a lot of authority. But with one site, you are getting all the traffic of the 50+ sites on a single site. The more you put into a SINGLE site the more it will gain authority. An internal page of a site with a DA of say 60, could easily outrank the homepage of a DA20 site.
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
-
To switch high-ranking keyword for one with higher volume?
I have a client who already ranks very well for the keyword "odor removal service" (#3 average rank). I'd like to use this as my primary keyword phrase, but the search volume is not very high (avg. monthly search of 90). A similar keyword phrase like "odor eliminator" has a search vol. of 4400 and the same competitiveness. Even its long-tail derivatives like "natural odor eliminator" still have a much higher volume (360) and would be a more accurate description of the service. In cases like this where you are already ranking well for a relevant keyword (but are still not generating much traffic), is it worth losing that keyword ranking in the hopes of ranking better for a keyword with higher volumes. Just to be clear, I'm not referring to a secondary keyword, but to the main keyword phrase around which we'll be building primary and secondary related keywords. Thanks for any feedback.
Keyword Research | | Mike_E0 -
Site has multiple services, how to target multiple keywords and what to to about citations
Hi i managing a site that has 3 main services its a hotel, a restaurant and a brewery. It has the word brewery in the name and URL and has for years primarily pushed the brewery side and that is doing well its has a good DA and lots of links point back to its home page. Now the problem is it doesn't rank very well for the term hotel or restaurant, theres only 2 referring domains links pointing to its hotel page. All its hotel citations point to the homepage (which is mainly optimised for the keyword brewery) should i update the citations to point to the hotel page which has been optimised for the search term hotel? or should I leave those and just create new citation pointing to the hotel page. Should i right a few blog posts about the businesses hotel and link them to the hotels page? and then I also then do the same for restaurant? I hope i've explained myself well and would appreciate the advice
Keyword Research | | juun0 -
I'm a noob. Keywords for new ecommerce site. Should I go for the "big boys" or start small?
Hey guys, My ecommerce site sells fair trade jewelry, bags, shoes from developing countries. I used the Keyword difficulty tool and came up with a list of about 50 keywords. Should I focus on the 29%-50% difficulty keywords or go for the 50%-75%? Or a mix of both? Thanks so much, Adam My list is attached in a .jpeg VmpJ7iQ
Keyword Research | | Adammcconnell0 -
Different or Same Keywords for Second Site
Hello, We're flushing out a second site for a client that's a second site in the same niche. How do I know when to use the same keywords for both sites and when to use entirely different keywords. One site is fairly strong, and the other will be less strong, though we're going to strengthen it quickly.
Keyword Research | | BobGW0 -
How Can I Rank My One Keyword ?
I read many places about never use the same keywords/anchor text this will consider as spam by google, so i want to know if suppose my main keyword is Indian bridal sarees than how can i give rank to that keyword, should i use the same exact keyword but in different format like bridal indian sarees or indian bridal sarees shopping something like that. Should i use LSI keywords in that keywords. Please help Second, I also read some people saying they use 70% primary keywords and 30% LSI or generic words, so that mean if i have 10 articles so in 7 articles i have to give primary keyword and the rest of the 3 will be generic. Kindly please advice this also.
Keyword Research | | chandubaba0 -
Scoring with one keyword in two languages
I would like to read your advice on using 1 keyword in two languages for one landing page. Perhaps it's better to use the keyword in two different language sites, or what do you advise?
Keyword Research | | U-Digital0 -
Is there a pro tool or google service that I can use to see which sites rank for certain terms? Without having to first identify the url's?
For example I want to see the top 20 sites in order of ranking for top keywords in my industry. Without having to know in advance the url's.
Keyword Research | | CURT-208170