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Went Hot: March 11, 2008 - 5:27 am
Posted By: theGypsy 118 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.seo-scoop.com)
Category: SEO
SNIP - There’s no doubt about it… trying to optimize a web site in an ultra competitive industry these days is a daunting task! With the commercial reality that top rankings equal big bucks, large organizations are throwing mega dollars into SEO. But that doesn’t mean the little guys can’t still win. In fact, this case study shows how one blogger applied some smart SEO tactics and landed on the first page of Google within 4 months.
8 Comments
Comments
A good post that shows it's not rocket science. Intelligent hard work will do the trick.
SEO in highly competitive arenas is for the big boys. SEM Australia and Australian SEO are
obviously not very competitive.
Thanks for the submission Dave.
@ EmanualH - I agree that Fortune 500 SEO is the domain of the big boys. I've seen small time SEO's struggle in corporate environments. And while SEO Australia isn't as competitive as the US and European markets, it is still a highly competitive environment. Australia has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world, so we're not exactly third world down here... :)
Nice well-written case study that's understandable by non-technical folks. It shows that picking a niche and focusing on it matters.
@JamesDuthie - the competitiveness of an arena has nothing to do with the size of the firms who own the websites that show up in the top rankings for the search phrase that identifies that arena. It only has to do with the relevance score of the website that now occupies your targeted ranking - usually # 10 - versus the relevance scores of the websites that occupy the same ranking in other arenas.
The terms SEM Australia and Australian SEO are not popular. One way to get an impression (though not reliable data) is to compare them with other search phrases in Google Trends. These two phrases are reported as having insufficient search traffic - which is probably why other SEO firms don't bother to optimize their websites for them, and the few who do didn't invest enough work to get high relevance scores.
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree Emanuel :)
I'm not surprised that the keyword 'SEO Australia' doesn't show up within Google Trends. After all, we are but a nation of 20 million, and Google Trends is a global tool. But within Australia these terms do attract regional traffic. Indeed, the blog at the centre of the case study accumulates a good amount of organic traffic via these keywords every day.
Perhaps the distinction comes in the word popular. The terms SEM Australia and SEO Australia are relevant to every search marketing firm in Australia, of which there are plenty. They are competitive regionally. They may not be popular on a global scale, but this is indeed part of the long-tail targeting strategy (as referenced in the article).
Thanks for the Stumble Joy.
+1 JamesDuthie. I hardly think that using Google Trends is a reliable method of gauging the "popularity" of a term like "SEO Australia" :P
I agree with James also with Burgo.
Google Trends doesn't mean anything. Hot Trends reflects what people are searching for on Google today. Rather than showing the most popular searches overall.
Google Trends uses IP address information from their server logs to make a best guess about where queries originated.
We are talking about guess here...isn't the best way to measure an importance of given search term.
But anyway, SEO is not a popular contest and it’s much better do not compete but be unique. Niche marketing, long tail, whatever you want to call it, the important point is to find your niche and have your customers/consumers/subscribers engaged.
There are thousands of target markets. Some are easier to penetrate than others, and some have more upside potential. It doesnt matter which target market you choose. It’s better to choose one you want to be notable.
I remember a Post I read on Seth Godin s blog about been notable, it goes like this:
It occurs to me that the web is redefining what notable means, and so are we. Famous used to mean Gene Kelly and Mae West, or Sandy Weil and Bill Gates. But with the long tail, notable means: you're the #1 player on your tennis team; you're the top of your marketing department; you're a blogger lots of people read and talk about -- you're the best and most" notable" in your niche, however small.
Cheers
Lucio