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
-
Webmaster Rankings vs. Moz Rankings
Hello all. For quite some time, both Moz & Ahrefs have indicated to me that I am in first position for several keywords. However, when I go into my Google Webmaster Tools, it says that I am in 7th or 8th position. Any idea why there is such a discrepancy?
Keyword Research | | smithcorona0 -
Should I Build A Niche City Site or Link to Existing Directory?
I have a main site for real estate that works fairly well. There's city pages within the site. I have been able to get the specific citynamehomesforsale.com domain and now I'm back to the old question of whether to build out a high traffic niche site to capitalize on the exact keyword match or should I just link it to the directory (domain.com/city) Thanks!
Keyword Research | | Jarvatar0 -
Which keywords are sending traffic to my site?
I want to know Which keywords are sending traffic to my site? What type of strategies behind this ?
Keyword Research | | surabhi60 -
All In One SEO Plugin & Titles
When I first started blogging I hired a company to design and develop my website. They provided SEO training which I've followed religiously but now I'm starting to wonder (after researching more and more about SEO) if by following these guidelines I may be placing myself in jeopardy. I write a blog about desserts. I was told that my SEO title should be different than my blog post title and I should incorporate a few different keywords in the title, write a meta description inserting a few keywords, and also attach 10 keywords, ie here is a typical post: Dark Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Cherry Ganache - post title Moist Chocolate Cake-Chocolate Ganache Cake-Chocolate Cherry Cake - SEO title Find recipe for quick and easy, moist Dark Chocolate Cake topped with Chocolate Cherry Ganache & fresh cherries & other Chocolate Desserts at Grace's Sweet Life. how to make chocolate cake, best chocolate cake, chocolate cake from scratch, best chocolate cake recipe, moist chocolate cake, simple chocolate cake, easy chocolate cake, homemade chocolate cake, chocolate cherry cake, chocolate fudge cake, chocolate ganache recipe I've come to realize that I really don't know how to keyword search (not so much how to search for phrases but how to implement them properly) and I'm wondering if there's such a thing as "hiring a trainer or consultant" to put me on the appropriate path for keyword research.
Keyword Research | | gracessweetlife0 -
Keyword cannibalization - blog posts vs. site content
As an example, I am trying to rank for the term "ice cream". I have site content pages that relate to "chocolate ice cream", "vanilla ice cream", etc.These content pages have been SEO optimized using best practices. Would I be ruining my SEO work if I begin to publish blog posts for the same keywords that my content pages target? Am I basically forced to find alternative keywords and only target one page per keyword?
Keyword Research | | jcph0 -
Looking for 4 keywords for site home page
Hello, I am helping out Bentinho Massaro, a spiritual figure from Holland, for free since he is such a good guy. I want to give him 3 to 4 keywords for his home page title tag. That's all he has time for. site: www.free-awareness.com The only things I can find so far that I think will fit are: Spiritual Awakening Bentinho Massaro The reason for #2 is that he is getting more and more famous. Any help you can come with to give him 4 options would be great. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | BobGW0 -
On Page Optimization vs. Anchor Text
Is it hard to get a page to rank for a particular term if the majority of the anchor text pointing to that page is different from your chosen term?
Keyword Research | | kylesuss0 -
Broad match Vs Exact match
This may sound a little basic, but i'm going to ask anyway. On Googles keyword tool Ive always used broad match, knowing that they are never 100% accurate, and obviously inflated by other SEO's searching for their keywords, but used it all the same to get an idea of global monthly searches and potential targeted traffic. I have seen recently, on SEOmoz, and a post fromJill Whalen not long back, that unless you change the match to "Exact" your data is useless? Could somebody explain why this is the case? My initial thoughts were, a search for SEO on broad shows 6,120,000 per month Yet a search for the same keyword in exact match shows 673,000 per month. I had presumed that the broad match would include "learn SEO" "What is SEO" etc etc, where as 673,000 just search exactly for SEO. Is this correct? 3 points go to Richard Q&A answering animal dude Getz if he gets this first! Thanks in advance
Keyword Research | | Yozzer2