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?
-
I like EGOL's idea of partnering with US websites that do not ship to Canada and arranging a referral scheme. This is one way to take advantage of US sites taking up real estate in Canadian results.
I agree that "canada" is likely a common modifier - if the product is niche enough or bought in small enough quantities, large-scale keyword research tools might not be of much use. Consider other modifiers, such as "ca" as well.
Don't go overboard on the keyword usage though: stuffing "Canada" into every title is unnecessary and will start to look unnatural. Make sure you've taken advantage of localisation tools and techniques such as geo-targeting and the rel="alternative" tag for language, i.e. specifying en-ca as English language, for Canada (or French as well, if that's part of your market!).
Unfortunately if your competition, albeit irrelevant US sites, are incredibly strong, you'll need to compete with them on standard metrics such as the rate of link acquisition and the quality of the links you both build. Don't worry yourself with building the same number of links Petco has outright, but you may need to look at figuring out their rate of link building and look at their social / content activity, and devise a plan to match that as best you can in the future. You don't need to build the same historical numbers as these huge sites have, but your competitiveness needs to rise to match or better the sites you want to keep up with / pass.
-
Find USA companies who do not ship to Canada and ask them to refer visitors to you on their shipping policies page.
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.
Original content is highly commendable. I am one who uses and recommends the content attack almost exclusively. But, the real key is how fast you are able to shovel. If you can shovel 100 tons per hour but your competitors are using these... then you are wasting your money.... but if the commodity that you are shoveling has a higher value per ton, then you might have a chance.
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
-
Keyword and Branded Title Tags Site Wide
I have a client who is using a structure like this for site wide title tags: Page specific keyword | Brand Name | Industry specific keyword + locations So in an example it'd look like: Drupal Development | BrandName | Web Services for Los Angeles, San Fransisco, New York I've researched this structure pretty thoroughly to be able to make a case for or against doing this site wide.
Local SEO | | culturefoundry
However, I've received many mixed signals on many things. My questions are as follows: Should brand name be last in this structure? Does it matter? The length of this is obviously causing truncated Title in search results, so which is more useful? Is using a keyword intended for site ranking like "Web Services", "Digital Agency", "SEO Specialist" useful for every page to have or damaging? Is this cannibalizing that keyword? Is having multiple locations on every page title helping, hurting, or neutral It seems like all these things could go either way to me, but I don't want to tell them one way or another without having some more detailed explanations to give them. Thanks for your help!0 -
Find high DA link opportunities in your local area
Hi, part of my link building strategy is ideally going to be from outreach to local businesses. I run a local service business operating in multiple locations (with no physical base). I have created local landing pages on which I'm showcasing local businesses and photographers (relevant not in terms of industry but location). Its my intention to show off their business as best I can, then get in touch to say "hey, we love what you're doing with X product/service, check out our site here [link]. We'd love it if you could link to us etc etc". Assuming that this is a valid strategy, what is the best way to find locally relevant sites with the highest domain authority?
Local SEO | | Cleanily0 -
Community Discussion: Are You Practicing Awareness Of Your Own Marketing Questions?
Good Afternoon Moz Friends! This week, one of my favorite bloggers in the Local SEO industry wrote a post to celebrate his 5 year blogging anniversary. Phil Rozek has brought an incredible level of knowledge to the industry and one of the things I've most admired about his writing is the consistency with which he tackles common, important problems everyone involved is facing. The tip from Phil's anniversary post that I'd like to discuss with you all this this one, about practicing awareness of the obstacles you encounter in your daily work, for the purpose of investigation and possible public sharing of the solutions you discover: "Jot down every idea you have, every question you ask yourself that stumps you, and every question someone asks you that stumps you. Those are yourraw materials. You probably won’t write on all of them, but you’ll want the ability to cherry-pick." As a Moz staffer and a marketer, I can testify to the fact that my brain exists in a whirl of possibilities, questions and a never-ending search for relevant solutions. Never a day goes by in which I don't say to myself, at least once,"I wonder why that's like that? Why doesn't this work? How do I do that? What is that? Why don't I get that?" or something similar about a new product, new technology, Google issue, customer issue, industry issue or what have you. What I've learned is that if I have a question about something that I can't instantly resolve, chances are, I'm not the only one who has that question. If you're a blogger, a copywriter, an email marketer, a social marketer, if you can solve a common problem, you have just discovered something to share. _But,_if you're not practicing mindfulness, little questions that arise in the course of an 8 hour day can come and go. They can simply get lost. This is why I value Phil's common sense suggestion of jotting each mental query down as it arises. A spreadsheet seems like a great idea for this task. Just think of how many talking/sharing points you could accumulate in a month ... and how that could translate into blog posts, newsletters, tweets, etc. Now, I'd like to ask if you've come up with a method for capturing your own thought process when questions arise so that you don't lose track of what might be some of your best queries and ideas. If you have tips to share, the community could really benefit! Thanks!
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis4 -
Is it worth tracking both "keyword" and "keyword near me" for a nation-wide directory?
We're a directory of industry-specific services, so a lot of people find their way to our site by searching something like "tire repair near me." For every keyword we rank for, ("tire repair"), we also rank for the "near me" version, ("tire repair near me"). I'm looking for opinions on if is worth spending ~50% of the keywords included in my plan to track these "near me" keywords, or if we would be better off tracking some of the most important "near me" keywords, and some of those same base keywords on a local basis for major population centres, (for example "tire repair nyc"). What does the forum think?
Local SEO | | 4RS_John0 -
.ca for Canada-specific business currently using .com?
I work for a Canadian company and we are re-doing our website (corporate and branch sites) and the question has come up if we should change our current main domain from .com to .ca for local SEO benefits since we don't target an international audience. We own both versions but the .ca re-directs to the .com and we use .com in all our marketing materials. My understanding is that we can specify in Google Webmaster Tools that the focus of the site is Canada and I feel that switching to the .ca as the main domain isn't necessary, but I was wondering if there are real SEO benefits to make us seriously consider the change? Thanks, Taira
Local SEO | | ArborMemorial0 -
How to market locally for a national brand?
I just got a new client that offers travel information for cities throughout the US and Canada. They have a specific page set up for most locations. I want to promote each page for that community, but the task is very daunting, as you could imagine. It's almost like having a separate client in each city. I've optimized the title tags, meta descriptions, content and so forth, but that's not enough. Engaging in a backlinking and social media strategy for each location is insane - I wouldn't have enough time in the day. Looking for off page promotional ideas that can be scaled nationally. Does anyone have a similar situation with a national brand, or any ideas you'd like to share?
Local SEO | | Masbro1 -
Developing a content marketing strategy for a social security disability firm.
I have a client that I've been working with for a little over a year now and I've been struggling to generate new business from his online presence. Initially, I completely re-designed his website with semantically correct html markup, and used all of typical, site level SEO tactics, i.e., keywords in title tags, h tags, paragraphs, correct NAP, etc. We've only seen very low marginal returns off of our efforts. Part of the problem is that my client is not an attorney, but instead he runs a social security disability advocacy firm. He still performs all of the operations that an attorney performs, but due to the fact that he is not an attorney, we cannot optimize his site for search phrases containing "attorney", which is a common keyword that people would generally use to find the services that my client offers. So I've decided to try a different approach. A content marketing approach. The only reason I prolonged avoided this approach for so long is that, to be frank, I had no idea how to target his ideal clients with content. After talking to my client the other day and recommending this new approach, I uncovered some similarities between his previous clients. Most his clients live in rural areas, and they like nascar, hunting, fishing, etc. So I suggested that I create blog for him, and begin finding some freelance writers that can create some killer content about nascar, hunting and fishing. Admittedly, I don't have a much experience with a content marketing approach, but I want to learn everything there is to know about it. I guess I'm a little unsure about this approach that we're getting ready to try, and would love to hear from some people that have been down this path, and might be able to offer any advice. I really want to help my client's business flourish, and it's now very clear to me that solely relying on an old SEO line of thinking is not doing the trick anymore. Any tips, tactics and strategies would be greatly appreciated. Am I on the right track here? How would we get this content in front of his ideal clients, and market it in such a way that he will get a good return on his investment?
Local SEO | | ScottMcPherson0 -
If you have a product on your site that's only available in the US, is there a way to avoid it leading to a 404 error if a user in Canada accesses it?
A client has some products on their site that are only available in Canada. When a user in the US accesses the product listing, it results in a 404 error page. Are there any work-arounds for something like this? Thanks in advance!
Local SEO | | DA20130