Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital part of any internet marketing strategy. SEO helps you gain visibility to the search bots when they index your site, deciding if your content is worth pushing up the rankings.
The demands of your SEO strategy depend on your niche and the barriers-to-entry surrounding the industry and market. Some niches are harder to crack than others, requiring a more focused and in-depth strategy.
When deciding on taking on a project for your internet marketing company, doing your due diligence can save you headaches when executing your strategy. Trying to penetrate competitive markets isn’t easy, and it requires an extensive planning process to see if you have the budget and the time needed to achieve your required business outcomes.
If you run out of budget before you start ranking with the search bots, you’re going to end up failing at your marketing efforts. Understanding the best strategies to optimize your SEO dollars goes a long way to ensuring you experience a successful campaign.
So, which niches should you avoid as a newbie internet marketer? In this post, we’ll look at the five most hard SEO niches to penetrate.
#1 CBD
CBD is a trending niche within the health market. There are plenty of affiliate sites crushing it with their performance right now. CBD is a profitable niche, and if you’re ranking for the top buyer keywords, you can expect to pull in more than a million dollars in commissions every month.
The biggest SEO tasks involved in your strategy are content quality and link building. Remember to account for your average link velocity (the number of links built every week or month) on the top affiliates in the CBD niche and the quality and type of links your building.
Target guest posts, editorials, and even hacked links to drive your search results. From your due diligence, you should get a rough estimate of the costs of your SEO campaign.
#2 Pharma
Affiliates and drop shippers in this category can expect to make huge profits. Some newcomers manage to 4X revenues in a single quarter with the right SEO strategy. To dominate in this market isn’t as challenging as you think. Using SEO tactics such as PBNs helps you rank for local SEO keywords.
There are dozens of SEO firms attempting to rank for local plumbing services, but very few are doing the same for search terms like Cialis. There’s no need to focus on supporting content when ranking for the pharma niche.
However, using PBNs for your backlinking tasks is a must, and a budget of $250 per month for each keyword with PBN links is all you need to succeed.
#3 Online Casinos
Online casinos are seeing revenues jump in 2020, thanks to the global pandemic’s social and economic effects. Online casino games like slots and blackjack are substituting for live casino trips and sports betting this year.
Ranking in the casino niche is challenging but rewarding. Top affiliates in this niche consistently earn more than a million dollars a month in commissions. However, you’re going to need an astronomical budget to get your search ranking moving up the list. Some SEO campaigns cost north of $250,000 per month.
Backlinking is the best option for your SEO strategy, focusing on guest posts, PBNs, relevant directories, and niche edits. You’ll also need a big team to manage and execute your strategy.
#4 Adult
It might surprise you to learn that adult is one of the largest markets online and one of the most competitive. Getting traffic isn’t the challenge with adult sites – it’s keeping the traffic on the site after it arrives; that’s the problem.
Building monetization models and establishing sales funnels is the most challenging part of competing in this sector. However, with the right optimization strategy, you can outperform the rest of the competition.
Most adult sites have plenty of pages. Cleaning up the site, removing duplicate links and duplicate content will go a long way to improving page and loading speeds. The search bots consider that when indexing the site, and the more on-page optimization you have, the better.
#5 Weight Loss
Weight loss is another incredibly competitive niche in the health and fitness sector. However, if you manage to crack the top rankings in Google consistently, you can expect revenues of between $250,000 to $500,000 per month.
The key to success in this niche is to stay on top of trends. Backlinking strategies must include guest posts, and you can expect to have to add social media marketing into your plan to reach your core audience.
Some keywords are easier to get than others. From lower-ranking keywords, you can expect to pay $10,000 per month. For search terms like “the best weight loss pill,” you’re going to need a budget that’s four or five times that amount.