SEO: I've just found a keyword niche that has low competition and high traffic, should I optimize like crazy? What are my options moving forward?

Hi Glenn,

It looks like you have done your homework on this and have defined that there is high volume and low competition. if the aforementioned are correct AND the keywords are relevant to your business and will convert then you should absolutely go for it. However my big question here would be the integrity of your data in coming to the conclusion you have. There are many facets to understanding this. Having been in SEM for over 12 years I can really cut to the chase on this.

Hi DC Glenn,

First, a simple best practice: Never invest heavily in SEO before testing the keywords with PPC. If its low competition, the clicks will be cheap...well worth a few hundred dollar test....
Regarding your Goldmine...

The real question becomes commercial intent of the searches as well as the credibility of the keyword tools you are depending on.
There are 3 main types of search queries.
1. Informational - top and middle of the funnel looking for information
2. Navigational - looking for specific content on a specific website
3. Transactional- bottom of the funnel looking to buy right now. (These are the goldmine keywords)

Without knowing what types of keywords you found, I cannot tell you whether you really landed on a goldmine. My instincts tell me that you are probably missing something...but there is a very simple way to find out one way or another.

Run a limited ppc ad test on Bing for those keywords. The point here is not to drive conversions as much as to see how much search volume there really is. The reason I recommend bing over Google for this is because Bing will report to you on unclicked impressions, whereas google will only tell you about the queries that earn clicks. (it is estimated that your ad shows 20x more than you see in adwords due to queries with no clicks.)

Once you have a baseline for the queries and impressions, you can multiple that by 4x and you will have a pretty good idea how much actual search volume there is... vs. what the tools tell you which are algorithmic guesstimates and rarely accurate. You will also be able to see how those visitors behave on your site (or just launch a quick unbounce landing page with a basic sales pitch trying to get some optins.)

Once you run the bing test, you will know if its worth investing deeply in SEO.

A few things I would note...I you did indeed land on a goldmine...expect it to get discovered within the next 4-6 months. These opportunities rarely last. So, prepare for it to dry up.
Two, don't assume the competition you see on your searches are indicative of search behavior across the country. The world and this country are really big places and its easy to get stuck in your own filter bubble and think competition doesn't exist that does. (i.e. they have been investing in SEO for months or are a stealth startup with huge ad budgets... and you just havent discovered them yet.)

Further, if you really think you found a goldmine, dont share it with anybody. Not me, nor anybody on clarity or anywhere else... it is so easy to compete with you without it being able to be traced back to me. so, so easy!

Good Luck.

As was noted above, there are three types of searches. To optimize keywords correctly you have to do quite a bit of keyword organization before you begin optimizing. Make sure you group your keywords by category and then segment further, as needed, to ensure you have only tightly related keywords in a single keyword group.

By grouping into the categories, you can make sure that your content matches the searcher's intent. You only want informational keywords optimized on informational pages, and transactional keywords on pages where something can be purchased, etc.

Then by segmenting them further you're ensuring that your content can be very focused not just on the overall intent of the search but on the specifics of the search, as well. You want to be able to write content that engages the searcher, providing them with the information they need and not a whole lot more. Depending on the keywords and type of search that can mean a lot of content or very little. You have to figure out what content will best do the job of converting the visitor into a customer.

Consider how this niche will behave as relevant domain names are bought, sold, and developed as landing pages or brands.

That's my professional focus. If you'd like to explore options together, call me.

Not everyone is in a giant niche like marketing or sales or yoga or health food. If you are in a niche like that, a smart content marketing strategy will pull in plenty of organic traffic. You might struggle to generate content ideas and to attract organic traffic. Driving more traffic, increasing visibility, getting more backlinks––it is all possible no matter what niche you are in. In fact, your SEO process will consist of many of the usual suspects––technical SEO, page optimization, link profiles, and so forth. Once you have done that, read on and look at how you can use SEO in a small niche that does not have a lot of search volume. When I say “low-volume niche,” I am talking about search volume. Search volume is the number of searches that a particular keyword gets. And for most keywords, even during the lowest point on the graph, there is still a high search volume.

When you stop and think about it, getting keywords right is essential for low-volume SEO. This is basic SEO, but if you are in a niche with low search volume, you need to focus extra on this. One of the problems I often see is with keyword specificity. If your keyword is painfully specific or way too niche, you could end up getting close to zero searches. Search volume is a good indication. In other words, you need to do keyword research the right way. Sometimes, you might even need to make your keywords more specific, depending on search volume. If you are in a niche with low search volume, this is probably the process you will end up using. Let us say your focus keyword is “watercolour dog painting artist.” That is true even in the smallest of niches with rock-bottom search volume. On a technical level, you need to think about content tags. It is easy to read. If you can create amazing content, you can dominate a low-volume niche. Think about search engine SEO. You should make it as easy as possible for search engine bots to crawl and index your content.
Even though mobile devices are so popular, some people have a hard time believing that the desktop has been dethroned. For your customers to have a good mobile experience, you must make your site mobile friendly. This is easily the best option to handle both desktop and mobile environments. Your readers will not have to deal with a clunky, ugly site that is too big for mobile screens. Mobile keyword research. Generally, mobile keywords are shorter and more localized. That is how a lot of mobile content is. Formatting for mobile is my main goal, and desktop comes second. I find that the usual mobile culprits are long paragraphs and non-responsive images. If you can nail these three things, you will have mobile optimization down in no time. You want your users to have the best experience possible, and that means thinking mobile.
If you are in a low-volume niche, do not panic. You do not have to be a huge site with a ton of influence to rank well in any niche, and that goes for niches with almost no search volume. SEO does not have to depend on popular keywords and lots of paid traffic.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath