Improving SEO for a Niche Blog - Seeking Advice
-
I am a college student studying Information Sciences and was "hired" by my uncle over the summer to work and maintain his baseball-related website, which he started in 2016. His posts provide very in-depth information but were created without a focus on SEO.
I've noticed that a competing site, which seems to have started as an e-commerce site, is ranking higher than my uncle's site for the query "how much does a baseball weigh." Interestingly, this competing site ranks for keywords like "mass of baseball," even though these exact keywords are not present in the post.
Given the recent Google updates and changes in rankings, I'm trying to understand:
How can an e-commerce site with seemingly less specific content outrank a detailed blog post?
What strategies can I employ to improve the ranking of my uncle's site for this specific query?
Are there tools or methods I can use to analyze why the competitor is ranking higher and how to address it?
I recognize I am not well-versed in SEO, so any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! -
Improving SEO for a niche blog can be a rewarding journey, but it does require some strategic effort. Here are some practical tips to help you boost your blog's visibility:
Keyword Research: Start by identifying relevant keywords that your audience is likely searching for. Tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush can help you find these keywords and understand their search volume.
Content Quality: Content is king in SEO. Make sure your blog posts are well-written, informative, and engaging. Aim for longer-form content (around 1000 words or more) that thoroughly covers the topic.
On-Page SEO: Optimize your blog posts for search engines by including your target keywords naturally in the title, headings, meta descriptions, and throughout the content. Also, pay attention to formatting with headers (H1, H2, H3) and using alt text for images.
Link Building: Build high-quality backlinks from other reputable sites in your niche. This can be through guest posting, collaborations, or creating shareable content that others want to link to.
Mobile Optimization: Ensure your blog is mobile-friendly as more users are accessing the internet via smartphones and tablets. Google also prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in search results.
Page Speed: Improve your site's loading speed. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify areas for improvement, such as optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, and minimizing redirects.
User Experience (UX): Provide a good user experience by organizing your content logically, having a clear navigation menu, and making it easy for users to find what they're looking for.
Social Media: Promote your blog posts on social media platforms to increase visibility and drive traffic to your site. Engage with your audience and encourage sharing of your content.
Analytics and Monitoring: Use tools like Google Analytics to track your website's performance, monitor traffic sources, and understand user behavior. This data can help you refine your SEO strategy over time.
Stay Updated: SEO algorithms and best practices evolve, so stay informed about industry trends and updates from search engines like Google. This will help you adapt and stay ahead in the competitive world of SEO.
By focusing on these areas consistently and creating valuable content for your niche audience, you can gradually improve your blog's SEO and attract more organic traffic. Remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint, so patience and persistence are key!
-
When providing guidance on improving SEO for a niche blog, headings typically help organize and highlight key points effectively. However, I should have respected your preference for a paragraph-style response. In the future, I'll ensure to adhere strictly to your instructions to deliver the information in the format you prefer. If there's anything else you'd like assistance with or further clarification on SEO strategies, feel free to let me know, and I'll be happy to help accordingly.
-
@sf9090 Even though your uncle's website has tons of baseball info, search engines might struggle to find the answer to "how much does a baseball weigh" because of technical issues or lack of keywords. To get your uncle's website ranking higher, sprinkle relevant keywords throughout the content, craft catchy titles and informative headings, link articles together, and use free tools to check for website problems. Don't forget to highlight the unique aspects of your uncle's content to make it stand out from competitors! This is an ongoing process, so keep making tweaks and monitoring progress for that home run ranking!
-
A group of seasoned experts in web development, digital marketing, design, and branding are assembled at 21 Webs. with a strong grasp of market trends and a drive to produce outstanding outcomes. Every audit confirms our commitment to improving the online visibility of NDIS providers. We believe there is no one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to SEO. As a result, we take the time to become familiar with the unique goals and challenges that each NDIS provider that we work with faces. Our specialised division, 21 Web's NDIS Provider SEO, is specifically created to meet the needs of NDIS service providers. Our goal is to fully leverage the online potential of NDIS service providers using a combination of strategic SEO techniques, customized approaches, and ethical behaviour.
-
@sf9090 said in Improving SEO for a Niche Blog - Seeking Advice:
am a college student studying Information Sciences and was "hired" by my uncle over the summer to work and maintain his baseball-related website, which he started in 2016. His posts provide very in-depth information but were created without a focus on SEO.
I've noticed that a competing site, which seems to have started as an e-commerce site, is ranking higher than my uncle's site for the query "how much does a baseball weigh." Interestingly, this competing site ranks for keywords like "mass of baseball," even though these exact keywords are not present in the post.
Given the recent Google updates and changes in rankings, I'm trying to understand:
How can an e-commerce site with seemingly less specific content outrank a detailed blog post?
What strategies can I employ to improve the ranking of my uncle's site for this specific query?
Are there tools or methods I can use to analyze why the competitor is ranking higher and how to address it?
I recognize I am not well-versed in SEO, so any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!An e-commerce site can outrank a detailed blog post due to factors like domain authority, backlink quality, user engagement, and optimized on-page SEO elements. To improve your uncle's site ranking, focus on keyword optimization, incorporating related keywords like "mass of baseball" naturally into the content. Enhance meta tags, ensure mobile-friendliness, and improve page load speed. Utilize tools like Google Analytics, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to analyze the competitor's backlinks, keywords, and content structure. Implementing these strategies can help increase your uncle's site's visibility and ranking for the specific query.
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
-
Unsolved Scripts?
0 -
Strange Traffic Movements
Hi there, I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on this... I'm working with a client whose website is experiencing some odd organic traffic patterns. See screenshot attached. As you can see, there was a sudden cliff fall about a month ago, and then it recovered (almost) entirely. Then, a month to the day later, the same thing happened again. What is the likelihood that this is a data glitch vs an algorithm thing? Any light you can shed on this would be appreciated. Thanks,
Search Behavior | | mhenshall
Marc
Screenshot 2023-08-18 at 09.37.26.png image url)0 -
Static content pages ranking dropping all the time
Hello all. I have been working three months in my current job in the hotel industry. I have been publishing a lot of content to our website (mainly articles), which in general have been ranking well and really boosted our website traffic. The problem that I am facing, though, is the fact that our static pages' rankings are basically constantly dropping. Especially one of our main pages, which is this hotel page. I haven't been doing any real changes to the content, but the ranking (with keywords "hotelli helsinki" [Hotel in Helsinki in Finnish]) has plummeted from 13th position all the way down to 19th... What has been happening during these last three months is that we did change to a new domain and we have done all the redirections and also informed Google about this change through search console. I have also done some minor changes to the on-page content, such as changing the meta titles and descriptions as well as the page title and some of the text content to more natural ones instead of clumsy SEO texts and optimizing the images. This hasn't helped at all though and the rankings seem to steadily drop all the time. What would YOU do with this page? Maybe add more text content to the page to be more informative? All tips would be highly appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | haapalatuomas0 -
How to understand if a certain company doing SEO or not?
Hi guys, I am wondering how we can tell that the certain company doing SEO or not?
Competitive Research | | ahmetkul0 -
Many SEO tools donot allow me to check my site with https?
Hello All, Many seo tools I am using in that few tools do not allow me to test my site with https but it force me to check with http and then give report. So my query is do these tools give accurate report with http same like https? Thanks!
Competitive Research | | wright3350 -
What To Focus On SEO / Link Building for this campaign to rank again..
Hi All; I recently joined Moz and I am really starting to learn a lot here. I am still finding it difficult to figure out what to focus on the most to improve my rankings (although I do have some page 1 ranks) I have one strong competitor who has a SOLID spot in the top 5 of google for the past few years for the keyword I would like to be ranked for again. (as they have always been a competitor of mine either 1 spot above or 1 spot below). then i fell off google in January and finally made it back to page 1. But their links are thousands higher than mine. What parts of my SEO Link Building should I focus on the MOST to improve my ranking to move up a few spots? Followed links vs No Followed Links Followed Linking Root Domains vs NoFollowed Linking Root Domain Any help would so greatly be appreciated; also please explain why you would focus on that part of my campaign so I can better understand as well. Thanks again
Competitive Research | | Circa
(there are 3 images total) t4klvWZ,I9R9BsC,fbDoF3L#20 -
Technorati - SEO Benefit?
Would listing my content / blogs on Technorati have an SEO benefit? A few months ago, I did a piece of analysis on our competitiors' link profiles and then ranked the linking root domains to get the highest scores. Technorati was one of the domains with a high domain authority and is also relevant to our business. On the other hand, I've seen on whiteboard Friday's that directories are losing their importance. My gut feeling is that this is something that is worth doing because it is easy to implement but that we shouldn't expect amazing returns in terms of traffic / page authority scores. Your opinions would be much appreciated 🙂
Competitive Research | | RG_SEO0 -
Raise your hand if you're doing SEO for manufacturers please.
When you're working for a manufacturer it's not exactly the same as working for a company that is flat-out informing people with content and links and revealing a lot of information (relatively speaking). Please tell me what you do when you're working with a client that is not willing to reveal too much because competition = fear of the unknown (like if you take a chance and post something online that your competition may use against you). I would appreciate less speculative and more informed answers from people who have actually done this kind of work - as opposed to those who think theoretically they may know the best way to go because they work for other types of businesses that are not as proprietary as manufacturing is. Thank you.
Competitive Research | | karlseidel0