Expectations for a wide open niche?

stackcash

stackcash

I Sell Words
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Question for y'all:

I'm about to launch a website. 100 target keywords. 100 articles - one per keyword. Each keyword has over 5,000 monthly searches and is KD10 or less (ahrefs).

So, on paper, this niche looks wide open. We also did cursory checks manually to ensure that we won't be up against sites with huge domain authority. All looks good.

My question is - knowing these metrics - what would your ranking expectations be for 6 and 12 months out if we post all 100 articles on day 1 and drip an article per week after that?

I'm so used to chipping away at highly competitive niches that I really don't know what to expect with a niche that's wide open like this!
 
Setting expectations before you've gone into it is a good way to disappoint yourself if it doesn't turn out the way you think it will.

One of the first sites I started had super-low competition scores, so I jumped in. I later found out it was one of the most heavily spammed industries online. Not saying that's the case with yours, but I had expectations and I was sorely let down.

Just jump in with both feet and let us know how the water feels.

If it really is low competition, and you're used to higher competition industries, it should be a walk in the park for you. Just go with the flow, and it will be a lot more fun -- less disappointment.
 
Sometimes you find a real winner. Newer industries can be booming that never attract the attention of us internet and tech oriented folk. By the time we catch on, it's huge and there's not a lot of SERP competition.

But with that being said, the one thing I say to watch out for is if these are brand terms. A brand might have nearly zero competition according to all of the metrics. They may have no backlinks and no on-page SEO. But as soon as that brand decides to create a Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and so forth, it's game over for the top 10. I'd go into brand related terms knowing that certain companies could bring you to a screeching halt.

Ranking for the brand can be good, ranking for "Brand + Review" or whatever can still work well too, although I prefer "Product Type + Review" or other variants. I've rarely seen companies have the sense to create their own review posts to block out having to pay unnecessary affiliate commissions, but a good example is NameCheap. They ultimately created NameCheapCoupons.com and list new ones each month, but then they also automatically roll them in at the checkout so there's never a need to use one. The entire reason was to kill off "Coupon affiliates" who offer nothing, since that's already a guaranteed conversion for the most part. Of course that's not the case with reviews.

Beyond that kind of thing, if it's wide open, I guess the question becomes how close to the conversion are these terms in intent? Will they convert or is it a ton of information queries?

I know that you've thought of these things and typed that out for the sake of any readers who may not cover all these bases.

As far as rankings for 6 - 12 months, if it's that low of competition, I would expect to be ranking pretty highly by then. I can't really say if they'd still bar you from the top 3, but I doubt a sandbox would matter. If there's barely any qualified results, you'll likely be more qualified with superior site build and on-page even if you're sandboxed.

I guess I'm trying to say that if everyone in a SERP get's a -10 penalty, it's still a level playing field if there's only 10 combatants.

I'd think if you come out of the gates like you're saying and immediately establish all of your social networks and get as many relevant links as possible early on, I see no reason you shouldn't be doing damage by month 6, and definitely month 12.
 
Ryuzaki said:
As far as rankings for 6 - 12 months, if it's that low of competition, I would expect to be ranking pretty highly by then. I can't really say if they'd still bar you from the top 3, but I doubt a sandbox would matter. If there's barely any qualified results, you'll likely be more qualified with superior site build and on-page even if you're sandboxed.

I guess I'm trying to say that if everyone in a SERP get's a -10 penalty, it's still a level playing field if there's only 10 combatants.

I'd think if you come out of the gates like you're saying and immediately establish all of your social networks and get as many relevant links as possible early on, I see no reason you shouldn't be doing damage by month 6, and definitely month 12.
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Yeah, I think I phrased my question in an odd way. I guess I'm just wondering how Google treats a brand new site that fills a void in a niche. I always expect the sandbox, but I'm hoping the duration I'm in it is shortened since my content will actually be the best in the niche....because there's nothing else really out there.
 
JasonSc said:
@stackcash I have not personally tested this, but I have read having social traffic can shorten the sandbox period. If the niche made sense for social traffic you might try it.

https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-sandbox-2-0-know/

It would be an interesting case study.
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I've personally had pages on fairly young sites index and settle in decent spots (1st page) for non-competitive terms by posting and getting upvotes and traffic thru reddit.
 
One question - is the domain totally brand new (never registered) or an old one repurposed, with some link strength?

I've seen those react differently (as you'd expect, the older domains with link strength getting through the sand faster).
 
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