Anyone still building Micro Niche Sites?

[Samwise89]

I know that in the SEO community at large, and especially here, people are trying to build authority sites and pouring all their resources into one or two sties. I see the sense in it and understand the reasoning behind it.

But is there anyone out there still on the micro niche site model? I don't mean the worst of the worst like exact match domains (though if anyone is doing that I'd like to hear about that too).

I'm talking about sites on the order of something like CrossbowHQ.com, where you'd focus strictly on crossbows and crossbow related things and not expand out to all hunting or even out to compound bows. Strictly crossbows, bolts, quivers, etc.

I also don't mean making 25 pages and moving on to the next. It might be 50 pages or 200 pages or more, depending on the niche. Of course you can't spend forever on a site that's got a revenue cap on it, but you get the point.

What I don't mean (though I'd like to hear about it if anyone is doing it) is stuff like "CrossbowBoltReplacementFletching.com" where you'd try to rank for that specific term "crossbow bolt replacement fletching" and not worry about much else.

I just mean a tighter niche than an authority site, where authority site might cover all hunting while micro niche would cover just crossbows, compound bows, rifles, camouflage clothing, etc.

I'd have thought Google would have moved towards ranking these sites more and more. You'd think they fulfill user needs better if they're actually good sites. The problem is probably spammers still.

Something like CrossbowHQ could definitely work, it's a poor example. Is anyone making sites of this nature though like BesideLampsHQ or BonsaiTreeHQ. It seems like writing the 5-10 "best bonsai clippers" style of posts and then continuing to add content linking back to those while getting links could work. Or does a site like Top10everything and Wirecutter destroy you as soon as they try to jump in?

 

[Future State]

I'm not actively building them but I still have a few. They're just like you described, with the main word in the domain plus something like HQ attached to the end.

The problem with these is you can't be quick and dirty any more unless you want to get a "thin content" penalty for no better reason than it makes Google look stupid for ranking you. They definitely need to be nicer looking, not like the EMD sites of ages past. It helps to move away from themes like this:

and towards themes like this:

I lazily grabbed those two from the same google images search, so don't take that advice to be too specific.

The main challenge is to get past the human raters and what they read in their user guidelines.

And, like all other sites at this point in time, you'll do infinitely better if you hide the fact that you're an affiliate site by having a lot of content that isn't bottom of the funnel. It's how you'll get your backlinks and build relevancy too. Even if you toss in PBN links, this will help you keep those a much smaller ratio of the links you're using.

The reason everyone is doing authority sites is because its a lot harder to get to the first $1,000 a month than it is to get to the $2,000 mark. So why keep doing the hard part. It's easier to do HuntingHQ than CrossbowHQ. On HuntingHQ you can only focus on and dominate crossbows and then you still have room to move on to compound bows and keep growing while piggybacking off the authority you already built.

 

[bernard]

I bought a micro niche EMD, actually a one pager, just to test and so far, Google has been complete unresponsive in ranking the site. I haven't built a lot of links, but it's not even ranking top 100 for an easy keyword.

 

[Andrewkar]

I do them, they work great as long as you keep it "legit". Also, EMDs are still working very fine, just stay away from bad rep spammed to death niches. Another thing to think about, even a one page website can become authority site if you find proper niche Then in this niche you can rank even with one page (well plus set of "must have" pages). There are some methods that I won't write about here of cousre that are pushing EMDs to the top with no problems however, targeted niche must be chosen wisely. HINT: sidewide links with the right anchor. Lately I'm working with two stores, it took me about six months to get them into tops for some serious KWs, both are EMDs. Sure, those are e-commerce stores so we have 100s of pages (product pages) so those sites are not tiny EMDs, but still EMDs Regarding content, aside well crafted product descriptions, we are bombing G almost daily with long blog articles 1800-2400 words, linking to products on store etc.

I bought a micro niche EMD, actually a one pager, just to test and so far, Google has been complete unresponsive in ranking the site. I haven't built a lot of links, but it's not even ranking top 100 for an easy keyword.

When have you bought it? Do you know history of this domain? What niche? Is it easy, medium, hard? What kind of links have you created and how many? Any social "signals"? Traffic from social networks?

While there might be a delay if domain is fresh so you won't see any momvent in initial phase, I would say you should see some results if you have chosen your niche wisely. Of cousre, I don't mean like TOP10 rankings but something should move for sure.

 

[bernard]

When have you bought it? Do you know history of this domain? What niche? Is it easy, medium, hard? What kind of links have you created and how many? Any social "signals"? Traffic from social networks?

While there might be a delay if domain is fresh so you won't see any momvent in initial phase, I would say you should see some results if you have chosen your niche wisely. Of cousre, I don't mean like TOP10 rankings but something should move for sure.

It's a brand new domain and I have built maybe two links to it.

I just compare to how it used to work in the past.

It's a new domain, so I bet it will look better after the obligatory "3 month" waiting period.

 

[Andrewkar]

It's a brand new domain and I have built maybe two links to it.

I just compare to how it used to work in the past.

It's a new domain, so I bet it will look better after the obligatory "3 month" waiting period.

Oh! So don't worry, just keep pounding it with more legit links, you have a list on Serpwoo blog somewhere. Still, make sure that the niche you have chosen is remotly suitable for a onepager... And even if it isint't, create a few long articles 2400 words (chose KWs carefully) and look for what sticks in serps. Most likely it won't work the way it worked days before... Unless you have find out some really cool KWs to target.

I don't know about your site and content you have hanging over there, but I would make sure that this is a well crafted long copy with a bunch of KWs. Then I would link to it.

 

[bernard]

Oh! So don't worry, just keep pounding it with more legit links, you have a list on Serpwoo blog somewhere. Still, make sure that the niche you have chosen is remotly suitable for a onepager... And even if it isint't, create a few long articles 2400 words (chose KWs carefully) and look for what sticks in serps. Most likely it won't work the way it worked days before... Unless you have find out some really cool KWs to target.

I don't know about your site and content you have hanging over there, but I would make sure that this is a well crafted long copy with a bunch of KWs. Then I would link to it.

Yeah, well, I guess it really isn't that good a niche.

It's a finance niche, however this particular keyword is not highly competitive yet.

Content wise it is more of a collection of companies that fit the bill. With affiliate links and without. It actually is a service to the consumer, and took some hours to put together, but I guess it could look like a "middle man" site to Google.

Content is definitely not up to usual quality.