Defining a niche for my SEO company

[BobGW]

Hello,

I realize that in order to get business in SEO, you really need to specialize.

The most experience I have is with the nuts and bolts of small business E-commerce and and many types of small business web design. I've run several online stores for about 9 years and I've been doing small business web design (and a bit of development) since 2001. I've had several other SEO clients over the years.

I'm in Boise, Idaho at this site

What would be a profitable approach? I'm thinking I could mainly build and market small online stores for locals. Maybe something like 'Ecommerce Web Design and SEO in Boise, Idaho' for a home page title. Or I could learn Local, but I have less experience with that. Or I could try to get national clients in an even smaller niche. I'm trying to find a good approach. I only charge $75/hour and I give generous quotes when appropriate, so an 'affordable' approach would be good

Thanks,

Bob

[ClaytonJ]

Bob

You should have a feel for what you clients want from you - a gut feel for what area to develop and specialize in.  Your URL has you limited ie it is a person. So it makes you look and feel like a one man band. If this is the case the work you get will be limited to small business & mums and dads type operations. Unless you can turn yourself into a Consultant to oversee the agencies retained by larger companies. Call that a pivot.

So I would sit down and work, out what past customers will support you with ie testimonials and work out what works for you now. You may want consider a pivot - to consulting as your long term goal - but at present you need money coming in.

Also your website it could be argued looks a little outdated, not modern and fresh - to attract the new young ecommerce up & comers. Have a look at squarespace for some modern sites.

On your actual title & H1. If you know your niche then the words will come natural  - ecommerce website design is a  competitive phrase - so the local factor and city or suburb will be key to ranking well.

Hope this gives you something to think about.

[irapasternack]

Hi Bob,

I have developed a few niches, and maybe the ways I found those will give you some ideas.

Back in the late 90s, I worked on a few medical practice websites. Based on that experience, I began to develop a niche building websites and doing online marketing (including but not limited to SEO) for medical practices. We have worked with many medical specialties, but along the way we began working with many urgent care practices, and thus developed an even stronger program for this specialty. We can do a great job for just about any type of practice; for urgent care, we can do even more. We are now looking into replicating this deeper focus with other medical specialties.

So, the lesson here is to examine your own current client base, and look for industries where you can replicate what you are already doing. Or if you don't yet have a client base, focus on your past work experience. Based on the options you come up with, I'd consider things like the level of competition for others focusing on that niche, and how much you like working with that type of business.

Of course, one thing about medical practices is that they are local businesses. We generally don't take on 2 clients in the same market, because then we'd just be competing against ourselves. That said, still have an a huge number of prospects when you consider all of the medical practices out there.

And this leads me to the 2nd niche that we have. By working with medical practices, we learned how to do local. I would occasionally get clients in other industries, and began to realize that local marketing techniques are pretty similar for many industries. So, our 2nd niche is local marketing. On that side of the business, we have a strong focus on our home city of Portland, OR. In addition, since we are already doing local marketing in dozens of other cities around the country, we are learning to target other businesses in the cities where we already have clients.

In general, I think there is a big need for more people to specialize in local SEO.

Hope this helps you find your direction!

Ira

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hey Bob,

I hope you don't mind a little constructive feedback, but I would lose the video on the homepage as a starter. It seems like you are really unsure what you are talking about, keep looking away from the camera, not sure what to do with your hands, and this is all bad for when someone visits - you need them to feel comfortable with you and know you believe what you are saying - and I know this is all because you are not reading from a script, so maybe a new one where you have a screen and presentation to remind you what you need to talk about? Use bullet points and try not to 'umm' or 'erm' too much - keep that eye contact with the camera too and don't look away.

I would also spend a bit of time / money and have a nice new site developed. Whichever way you decide to go, you need to not cover too much generic information on one page, and make good use of big, bold messages to catch the eye.

In terms of the route, I have been a consultant for many years now and find it most profitable. I specialise in a few areas and make sure these are covered clearly on my website. I back this up with pages that talk about what I do and how I do it - basically, I try to answer the questions I would be asked on a phone call or in a meeting. Of course, you can't hope to cover everything, so I try to give a good grounding.

Carving a niche is all well and good, but you need to be able to back this up so that when someone comes along and asks for examples of 'Local SEO' that you have performed, that you can show them. If you haven't done too much, don't be afraid of offering work in return for a testimonial that you can show.

Best of luck,

-Andy

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Bob!

Good for you for being open to constructive feedback. Given what you've described, I'm hearing two things:

1. You know e-commerce

2. You have an interest in Boise

Have you considered specializing in doing the e-commerce functionality for physical stores in Boise? And I mean everything ... setting up online shopping on their sites, setting up beacons in their stores, getting into mobile commerce, etc. Just a thought that struck me. What if you became 'the' company bridging the gap between on and offline for the major stores in Boise? The future is mobile. A plan like this could mean good work for you for years to come.

[BobGW]

Mariam,

You've got great points there! I will definitely network for E-commerce and bridging the gap.

What's the quickest way to be excellent at Local? I wouldn't want to do a Local SEO project for someone unless I could see clearly how it would be profitable like I can often (though there's no way to know for sure) see with E-commerce. How do I get there fast?

Thanks.