Example of a local "boring-niche" site in a relatively high competition area using strictly white hat tactics
-
I'm looking for an example of a site in a very boring service niche locally "let's say elevator doors in chicago" or something like that, that successfully using blogging, content generation, etc to achieve top rankings above its spammy competitors. Anyone care to give out a case study? I'm not talking about companies that submit to 100's of local directories like yelp, or google maps rankings. I'm talking about organic or blended serps.
-
Joe
Thanks so much, your succinct and direct response is very valued, especially because it seems like quite a few replies are self-endorsing.
-
A company I have not worked with, but have been familiar with for years has been dogged in the pursuit of producing content for SEO purposes -- http://www.ctswholesalesunglasses.com/ they have a blog, i know i've seen videos on their site in the past. they rank well but not #1 on the primary competitive term, however explore the keyword space around it and you will see there content mixed into the SERPs consistently
-
To be honest I'm starting to wonder about the presence of these mysterious boring niche sites that everyone purports to be ranking using high level white hat strategies. Every single service niche site I have ever seen, ranks at best with profile links, blatantly paid directory and footer links, and sponsored reviews. I have yet to see a local service site that actually USES this tactic you're talking about - content that actually 'sticks'. I'll re-state the question: show me a site that does this successfully. It doesn't have to be a client...it can be any site. It feels like your answer 'skirts' the question to be honest and instead tries to showcase your strategy (which isn't what I asked for). I didn't ask "what would your strategy be for a boring service niche site". I asked "show me an example of one that does. I don't mean to sound harsh but this is the second question of mine you have weighed in on where you have 'dangled' an answer without actually answering the original question. I'm asking for a URL I can study and examine myself. I'm not looking for an elaborate theoretical answer.
-
Now that's thinking outside the elevator! I like it!
-
We have some clients that would fit into this category. I can't share the URLs due to non-disclosure setups, but I can share the basic strategy we use.
Basic strategy is to brainstorm interesting topics that are at least tangentially related to the topic at hand.
For "elevator doors in chicago" we could use topics like:
- Top 10 Most Epic Movie Scenes That Take Place In An Elevator
- 10 Smartphone Apps To Make Your Visit To Chicago A Breeze
- 7 Videos Of Elevator Pranks, Bloopers, & Accidents
- http://www.prettycoolthings.com/2008/03/27/the-worlds-coolest-elevator-rides/
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
-
If My site has 20 DA will it be good to get backlinks from a very low DA 3 site for free
is there any side effects to get backlinks from a site which has low DA than you?
Link Building | | ShashankDubey10 -
Backlinks with high DA but PA1
Whenever we get new backlinks, its always on a PA 1 page, does this pass a lot of link juice as long as the DA is high? I know the PA can go up by promoting the page, but i rather promote my own website than one page linking to my site. Any thoughts on this?
Link Building | | MozVpn0 -
Should I work with current site or start a new site with more keywords?
I have been working with my site for some time. Sadly, I am moving lower and lower in ranking. I am wondering if I should just transfer my site to a new URL (this time including keywords). I don't understand the whole disavow link thing. I hired someone about 2 years ago, when I lost my ranking due to malicious software. Well, it turns out that, she submitted my link to weird sites that I don't even know what they are. It is like sites with thousands of websites just listed. Things have never been half of what they were and I am really just growing frustrated. I understand that having an a URL for awhile is helpful, but I appear to have lost many of my good linking sites. Any thoughts?
Link Building | | tiffany11030 -
I have a real estate site. I want to beat Zillo and Trulia for local real estate searches. Any suggestions and also how do I get white hat backlinks( not just write great content stuff but good alternative ideas).
I need some tips on outranking giants in the real estate field for local search keywords. I need sources of back link sources (white hat) and some ideas to beat them in my backyard with my Real estate site. I have a great idx plugin and am ranking first page for address searches. I want to beat them for local long tail. Any ideas?
Link Building | | kpstreams0 -
Should you avoid links from infographic sites?
Suppose you have an interesting infographic that you are promoting. Should you be cautious about having it published on sites that only publish infographics? Do you think these sites pass any link value?
Link Building | | ProjectLabs0 -
White, Black, Grey, B.S. Hat?
I was using Open Site Explorer to check out some competition and I noticed that there were a good amount of links coming from a no-name blog Seen Here. Obviously there are 50+ mentions of Express Auto Repair across a few blog posts. I've seen this tactic used before, but does it really do anything for the client, or is this just old school trickery? Thanks for your help.
Link Building | | onmywayto0 -
Do you think it is worth using this directory?
I mean if it will be beneficial for my project (site) to get listed at web-designers-directory.org Any thoughts on that or you had the experience of working with that site?
Link Building | | VinceWicks0 -
Discrepancy in Site Metrics
I site I've been working on has been up since early January. The domain was not new, but no site or links existed prior. Link building finished 2 months ago. There are about 80 fairly high quality links mostly from unique domains, and the site has been doing well with search engines for some time. OSE lists only 24 of these domains (for all pages on the root domain). OSE stats hardly changed in the last update so here's my question: when will OSE data reflect the current reality?
Link Building | | waynekolenchuk0