Strategies to compete with a new domain/site

[Derek_A]

Hi all,

What would be ( highlights ) your strategy in order to rank and compete with a new domain against competitors that have an average of 50% domain authority and around 2000 root domain linking to them, if you would start with a completely new website/domain?

How long would you estimate the new site to be competitive?

In the retail area.

Working on it a month full time

I would go with

1. On page SEO off course, detailling each products and building the internal link structure
2. Get back links, backlinks, backlinks and... backlinks...
3. Build the social media network
4. feed a blog

Thanks for your input

Considering working on the site for a month full time, I would estimate a ranking after a month or 2 although the competitions very high. Your thoughts ?

[rflores]

Hi Derek,

Sorry for reviving a very old thread but I was wondering how did it go with this project?

Thanks

Ricardo

[Derek_A]

Ok thanks

[EGOL]

If you look at the wikipedia article for Philadelphia you will find something very similar to what we produce.  (but ours would look a lot better)

[Derek_A]

Nice. Would you mind showing me one live article that you produced.

[EGOL]

Right, our goal is to beat their content and then use it as a weapon to beat their links.

[Derek_A]

Ok thanks for the clarification. Those would effectively be best-on-the-web articles.

[EGOL]

In a couple of months (two people working) we would produce perhaps six to eight articles, each with a few thousand words, many photos, data tables, references, graphs/art and more.

We are not going for "high quality".  We are going for "best-on-the-web" for their topic.  That is what you need to get the links to YOUR article.

[Derek_A]

Thanks for the input EGOL. Question: How many content are you looking at to say "couple of month or more" ? I mean that's a lot of content.

I have a good feeling that a kick start with around 50 high quality 1000 words articles all well optimized, each one targeting one specific keyword and interlinked would be a good starter for the content. And forward on the link building afterward.

[EGOL]

I like to attack with high quality content that will pull natural links continuously over time.

So, for a retail site I would be looking to produce great content in the same topic niche as the products.  That content has to be useful to your visitors and be high enough in quality to  attract natural links.  The goal would be to have best-on-the-web content for those topics.  For a niche retail site like you describe producing this content could take a couple months or more of full time work.  Then you need to get a few links to get the ball rolling.   At first this would contribute very little to the strength of your site but if you have done a great job on selecting the right content and preparing it superbly the strength of your site will grow steadily over time.  And, most important, the growth rate of the strength will accelerate over time as your rankings climb and your traffic increases.

[Derek_A]

Thanks for this input. I going in the same path as your first phrase. Making all the page perfect for the choosing keyword. In fact, pretty much of the competition are ranking due to

• Domain Authority
• High number of links ( internal, external, etc )

Most of the description for the "product" are short and more on a "specifications" style. I think that several good article/spec pages ( like 50 to begins with ) all very well optimise would give an edge putting some "content" up.

"Find the keywords that provide the best traffic (your competitors will be using them) and focus on the best 2-3 word phrases" -> yes, I prefer since a long time now to work with 2-3 and 4 word phrase even more.

Thanks for the input again.

[Derek_A]

Thanks for your input Gordon

[oznappies]

I would look at getting all the on page perfect for the chosen keywords.

Making sure the urls target those keywords and all the canonical tags are set up to avoid losing juice to upper/lower case issues.

Having good human appreciated headings but still using keywords without overuse.

Get the links and blogs rolling with good anchor text.

See where you competitors are making errors in these areas and just do it better.

Find the keywords that provide the best traffic (your competitors will be using them) and focus on the best 2-3 word phrases.

Most of all keep it white-hat, or the hard work will be short lived.

Our business www.oznappies.com is ranking on page 1 & 2 for the main keywords within 2 months using that strategy and following reports and tools on SEOMoz. We have an SEO doing the links and blogs and I am doing the on-page work.

[serp360]

Hello,

As you probably know with a brand new site it is difficult to rank for competitive keywords within the first few months. I suggest create 2 lists of keywords - one keyword list that should contain keywords that are competitive and should be seen as longer term goals.  The other keyword list should be less competitive keywords(possibly longer tail), that you can rank for in the short term.

Regards,

Gordon