Defining "Niche keywords"
It is common knowledge amongst search engine optimizers that finding "niche keywords" is fundamental. We need niche keywords to develop web pages that will bring visitors to our websites. There are many keyword related programs that aim to find niche keywords.
So how do we define a niche keyword?
Surprisingly, there does not appear to be an accepted definition of a niche keyword.
A niche keyword for a specific website has an above threshold search volume for location with potential for beating some of the top ten competing web pages on the search engine results page for that location.
Location
When the Internet was first launched more than twenty years ago, it focused on its ability to reach the world and URLs begin with www. - world wide web. Whilst websites will continue to be reachable from any location, the vast majority of websites are aimed for visitors within a country, state / county, or city / town. Only a minority of websites aim to provide information across the globe or seek sales internationally.
When we seek niche keywords for locality based websites, we need data on the number of searches conducted for that locality and an assessment of the competition for the country specific search engine.
Threshold Search Volume
The search volume that is acceptable is dependant on the purpose of the individual website.
- A global information website may have a threshold search volume of a thousand searches per month before it would consider producing a web page focused on a keyword.
- A lawyer's website seeking clients within a city, might consider the return on investment acceptable for developing a web page on a keyword with potential to attract one additional client a month.
Competition
Few searches click on web pages positioned below the top ten. Only 0.7% of searchers will click on the 11th positioned webpage. From an SEO point of view, a web page that cannot be positioned within the top ten positions for a keyword will fail to bring much traffic.
Keyword difficulty is an assessment of the chance of positioning a web page within the top ten positions on a search engine results page for a keyword. Traditionally competition has been evaluated by the number of 'results' which is the number of competing web pages. Invariably a search will show at least hundreds of competing web pages and often millions. Whilst the number of results will provide some indication of keyword difficulty, it is the strength of the top ten web pages compared to the potential strength of the page we can build on our website that will determine if our page can reach the top ten.
|
|
KEI KOI Page 44
The competition is the web pages that are competing for a keyword.
Focus area.
The competition should not only be measured in absolute number but also by their quality.
Any position of opportunity for which one is well-suited, such as a particular market in business.
Niche market, a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector. (wikipedia)
focus
How can we assess the competition for a keyword?
The number of competing web pages for a keyword appears near the to of the search engine results page.
In the example below, there are 266 million web pages competing for the keyword 'SEO'.
Google uses PageRank as a guide to the likely quality of a web page.
You can download the Google toolbar and the page rank indicator.
In the example below the page has a PageRank of '4'.
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."
-- Bertrand Russell
Firstwebsitedesign.com aims to help you build a search engine friendly website with search engine optimized pages that will receive large volumes of targeted traffic.
For information on website design, please visit our specialist site - firstwebsitedesign .com
David Viniker, the author and webmaster of SEO4us.com, believes that quality of content is a prerequisite to success. He is a clinician (consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist - ObGyn at Whipps Cross University Hospital, London - borders of London and Essex). He has research and teaching interests. His website www.2womenshealth.com receives 1.5 million visitors annually and is the most popular personal women's health website on the Internet. He has applied his clinical skills to researching SEO techniques.
We are based in Loughton, Essex and close to North and East London and Hertfordshire.