How To Quickly Assess The Competition In Any Niche
Preface: A couple of years ago, I wrote a guest post for someone, and I just noticed that the post has since disappeared from the ‘net. It looks like perhaps the site went through an overhaul, and came out with a totally different content focus. Because my post is gone, it seemed like a good opportunity to rewrite it and place it here, where I know it won’t go away.
Those who know me well, know that I have new site ideas nearly every day. Although I don’t act upon every idea that floats through my head, I do act upon quite a few of them. Occasionally, I’ll start a new site just on a whim, but I at least “try” to be sensible about it before starting one. Essentially, the smart thing to do before I waste time starting a new site is to determine several things:
- Can the site make money – either while I own it or from selling the site later?
- If the site can make money, am I knowledgeable enough to create the site, and am I interested enough to want to do so?
- Finally, how hard will it be to compete in this niche?
This post will only concentrate on that last question – How hard will it be to compete? The competition level will determine if I have the timepower and manpower to make the effort worthwhile for me. If the competition is so tough that it would require a massive amount of time, energy, personnel, or money, then I may decide that it’s just not worth pursuing. If it’s still worth pursuing, even with a huge amount of competition to face, then at least I know what an uphill battle it will be – and I can prepare for it accordingly.
Each niche is different, so some may require more extensive research than others. Still, most niches can be scoped out pretty quickly with just a few statistics gathered. A quick glance at the top ranking sites within the niche I’m contemplating entering will tell me if I even want to do further research or not.
There are five main criteria that I check in my initial competition investigation.
- Number of sites with main phrase in title
- Site size
- Number of Backlinks
- Site Age
- Unanswered content opportunities
I generally compile the data for the first four criteria manually for each of the top 10-20 competitors into a spreadsheet. (Actually, the first criteria is an overall number, and not something that gets calculated for each competitor). Once all the data is lined up, just a quick glance at the numbers gives me a good idea at what type of battle I’m going to be facing.
1) Number of sites with main phrase in title
To find out the number of sites that have the main phrase in the title, simply do the following search in Google:
intitle:”your main niche phrase”
So, for example, if you were thinking of creating a site that was all about the latest fashion styles in rubber boots, you would run a search in Google like this:
intitle:”rubber boots”
When I ran that search, it returned 196,000 results, which means that nearly 200,000 pages have that exact phrase in the title of the page.
Now to contrast that number, let’s say you were thinking of doing a site on the history of angels. Run this query:
intitle:”history of angels”
That query only returns 372 pages with that exact phrase in the title of the page. More than likely, the history of angels niche has less competition than the rubber boots niche has. Of course, that’s only one metric, so that is still just a quick guess, and it doesn’t tell me anything about the top competition. It only gives a general idea of how many people might be targetting this particular niche. Now I’d move on to gather more stats about the top competitors in the niche.
2) Site size, number of backlinks, and site age
The data for the size of the competitors’ sites, the number of backlinks each competitor has, and the age of the competitions’ sites can be obtained in any number of ways, but Firefox plugins such as SEO for Firefox or Search Status are usually the easiest. I use Chrome as my main browser these days, and SEO Site Tools is the best Chrome extension for gathering this information.
There have been good tools I’ve used in the past that unfortunately are no longer available, so I generally stick with the tried and true method of gathering the stats manually and analyzing them in a spreadsheet. Having said that, there is still one free tool that I’ll occasionally use to gather some additional stats.
NicheWatch lets you enter a keyword phrase and optionally your url. Submission then returns the top 20 URLs ranking for that phrase and attempts to include the following data about each:
- Backlinks to the domain in Yahoo.
- Backlinks to the webpage in Yahoo.
- Pages Rank of domain.
- Pages Rank of webpage.
- Keyword/Keyphrase occurrences on webpage.
- Pages indexed of domain in Yahoo.
- All in Anchor Rank of domain in Google.
- All in Title Rank of domain in Google.
- All in Text Rank of domain in Google.
(Note that not all of this data gets returned, with some columns being empty. So the tool is no longer perfect, but it’s still a pretty quick way to get at least some info).
All of these methods and tools return data that isn’t perfect. Search engines and tools often fail to give us perfectly accurate numbers. Still, when taken with a large grain of salt, and used just as a general overview, the numbers can give me a pretty good idea of what kind of competition I’ll be facing if I decide to start a new site. And really, a “pretty good idea” is much better than just starting a new site “on a whim” without any research done at all. I’ve done both, and the times I’ve gotten a “pretty good idea” have usually resulted in much more success.
But wait! I’ll bet you’re wondering about that last criteria that I haven’t touched upon yet, aren’t you?
3) Unanswered content opportunities
The fourth criteria for analyzing competition is that of unanswered content opportunities. Since this requires a completely different method of research, I left it for last. There aren’t any easy tools to help determine what the competition is for this aspect. This requires that I simply investigate top sites as thoroughly as possible to determine what they may be missing. What content haven’t they covered? What are they lacking? What content can I provide that no one else provides? If I can come up with some good answers to this, it may not matter how competitive the landscape is – I may be able to knock them all out of the running by giving users what they can’t get anywhere else.
(Hint: A good place to find content ideas that people actually want to find are the various Q&A sites such as Yahoo Answers. People are looking for answers to questions about your niche. Is the top competition in your niche giving them the answers they seek? If not, you should!)
4) So What Numbers Are You Looking For?
Sorry, but that’s not a question I can really answer. What you consider to be too competitive might be completely different than what I consider to be too competitive. Over time, with some experience under your belt, you’ll come to your own determination of what numbers you’d like to see and be able to “draw the line” at whatever point those numbers exceed the comfortable competitive point that you establish for yourself.
Your turn now
That’s how I quickly decide if I should tackle the competition in a niche. Do you do anything differently? Do you gather different stats? Do you get more detailed information, rather than relying on quick info like I do? Should I be more precise before jumping into a niche? Tell me what you think.
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Tags: competitive analysis, niche
| How To Quickly Assess The Competition In Any Niche | |
 | Before jumping into a new niche whenever an idea pops into my head, I try to analyze the competition for the niche to see if I have a shot at competing. This is how I assess the competition. |
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Hey Donna, I do not like it when guest posts go missing, that’s just not right.
I started in a new niche a few months back. The niche is in DSLR video (see the link above). I am only making a little over a $100 a month on it – mostly from direct advertising. I have tried several different methods of monetizing so far but I haven’t had that much luck.
I am thinking of creating a training DVD next but that will take months of work, how can I find out if I will do alright with that method before I start?
That’s a good question, Dave. I’m not sure there’s a way to predict that, but I’d probably start by looking (again) at what the competition has done. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to know how many products the competition might have sold, but you can at least get an idea based on traffic stats to their product pages (via compete, quantcast, etc), pricing of their products, etc. Also, are there any affiliate programs for the competitions DVD products? If so, you might be able to determine how popular the affiliate program is. Is it a featured program in an affiliate network, for instance?
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Hi Donna,
I’m glad you updated this post. I’ve been using SEO Site tools and it’s such a comprehensive tool that I still haven’t made use of all of the features, so this will give me a good start. I’m curious about Yahoo Answers, why do you recommend using that over one of the many Google tools? Thanks for your advice.
Ileane recently posted..SEO Site Tools Finds Google Page Rank
Yahoo Answers is just a place that many real people go to look for answers to their questions. There are several Q&A sites that could work just as well. I’m not sure which Google tools you’re referring to, though I suppose one might be their excellent keyword tool. That’s certainly useful for finding out what people are searching for, but the Q&A sites give a different kind of insight that goes beyond phrases, and more into the mindset of what users are trying to find answers about. For me, at least, it gives a better place to start when deciding what content can be created that the competition hasn’t covered.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Thanks to @Ileane that drove me towards this very interesting post of yours. These are indeed solid tips and I agree that the most important part should be to determine whether or not it is actually interesting to even initiate another online endeavor.
DiTesco recently posted..Make Money Using Google’s Webmaster Tools
Right, exactly! If I’m not terribly interested in the topic, you can bet I’ll end up neglecting the site pretty quickly, and it will have been nothing but a waste of time to have ever even started it.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Donna,
I see from reading your post that I have started my blog backwards. I started writing on things that interest me and have now decided to get off the porch and run with the big dogs after I have been blogging on gardening for six months or so. My niche is vegetable gardening. How do I refine a haphazard site into a focused, monetized site? I bet a lot of people do what I do — at least with their first blog.
Stephanie Suesan Smith recently posted..ComLuv-Famous Bloggers Contest Summary
Oh you betcha lots of people do it that way – and really, I think that’s ok. But now you need to start narrowing down, and you should be able to easily do that without too much hassle. Start finding the niches within the niche. Let’s say you do some research and decide that the latest gardening gadget would make for a very profitable subniche. Great! Now all you have to do is start blogging more about any topic in which you can include a mention of that gadget within the post. You’re still focused on the gardening niche but now you’ve found a subniche that you can focus on that is profitable. If it were me, I’d start by finding 10 or 20 subniches (if possible) within the gardening niche that you can get excited about and that can make money. Then start slowly refining what you blog about, without straying from the original premise of the blog. You can do it.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Thanks Donna, this is extremely helpful for me right now, and no doubt for others too.
AV
AV! Long time no speak. Hope you’re doing well.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
On stumbleupon and added to my delicious – I know nothing about this stuff, but you’re giving some great insight into how to think about what web properties are feasible and which ones aren’t.
In fact, the deep lesson I’m picking up from this is that I have to worry less about SEO and think more about organic traffic and trust from other bloggers. There’s no way I could compete with bartleby.com or the Library of Congress over the words “Emily Dickinson,” say. What I need is for things to go viral because of content.
ashok recently posted..Posts on Greek Drama and History
I’d actually say that you should handle SEO but perhaps in a different way than you might be thinking. True, you probably can’t compete (any time soon) for “Emily Dickinson”. But I’d bet you could find a few phrases that are a bit more long tail that you can compete for. The question I’d want answered first, however, is whether or not any of the subniches for “Emily Dickinson” would be worth shooting for. Is there money to be made in anything related to Emily Dickinson? If so, then what are the niches within the niche where the competition is less hairy than the broad niche of “Emily Dickinson”? If you identify 100 subniches, and then look at the competition of each, you may narrow it down to 5 subniches that can 1) earn money and 2) be less competitive. That’s where you aim your arrows.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
This post has retained its relevancy over the years
I’ve tried to do niche sites and discovered that I can’t keep the interest long enough to develop the site to the point where it makes any money.
So it’s back to selling software.
The pointers you give will help me market my software sites.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen recently posted..Seven Hyper Links
You mention frosted brown sugar cinnamon poptarts on your site. Secret to share: when I was a kid, I ate nothing but frosted brown sugar cinnamon poptarts for several years. No kidding. Maybe there’s a niche there? LOL.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
That’s funny but, believe it or not, I was going to sell Brown sugar cinnamon Pop-tart mousepads.
I had a supplier all lined up, but neither he nor I could get the picture quality where it needed to be
Don’t know if there was a MARKET, but it certainly was a niche.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen recently posted..Seven Hyper Links
LOL, I have a feeling there was a reason those photos wouldn’t come out right. It was a sign.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Wish you would have talked a little bit more about competition and how many hits a day a certain phrase may get. So, if we knew a certain keyword phrase received 100 hits per day and competition were say 50,000 for that phrase, would it be worthwhile to try to do something with that term/niche?
As I mentioned in point 4, Paul, everyone has to determine their own competitive point at which they feel they can handle. I’m not sure 100 per day would necessarily qualify as worth pursuing for me, unless it was a higher ticket phrase, or one I just had a particular passion for. But I also wouldn’t be all that concerned with trying to take it on. So, it may or may not be worthwhile, depending upon the value of the niche, but if it were, then those numbers wouldn’t scare me off. Still…that’s just my own take on it. You, Jimbob, MaryAlice, JohnBoy, and the other million search marketers might all have different levels of comfort and thoughts on worth from those numbers.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Yes, I agree that everyone has to determine the competitions of their own. I always check every keywords competitions and its competitors backlinks for me to identity which is the best keyword I am going to battle. Thanks Donna.