Some advice on setting up a site

[bornstein75]

Hi Everyone,

I just want some advice on a site I am thinking of setting up.

Normally I would set up a site around keywords relating to a particular niche, such as 'Dog Training'. I would then register a domain with those keywords such as www.dogtraining.com.

Obviously those keywords would have low competition and good commerciality. I would then research other keywords that relate to the site and they become my category keywords etc.

Right through this process I would ensure that the keywords that I am targeting have low competition etc and are definite keywords I am targeting.

My question is the site I would like to set up has highly competitive keywords in it and therefore no matter what URL I choose to make this site I will be trying to enter a market that is flooded. I really want to set this site up though because I'm passionate about it, and it's an interest of mine, and I just wanted some feedback on how other people would tackle it.

I would like to set up a site on training people how to use the iPhone and iPad. So obviously no matter what URL I choose with iPhone and iPad in it, it's going to be competitive. Also most of the category keywords around this site are going to be competitive.

So how should I go about setting this site up. Should I worry about targeting keywords, or is there some other way to market this site?

Should I just brand myself and brand my domain, instead of trying to find keywords for the domain name like iphoneandipadtraining.com. Should I rather create a brand like other sites do such as macrumors.com, cultofmac.com etc?

Now if I did create a site around a brand name, how would you then try and gain rankings in google, would I then use keyworks for the categories and keywords for my post titles?

How would I go about trying to rank for iPhone/iPad training keywords with a brand name as my domain name?

Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks.

[Lynn Terry]

I would stay away from any domains with potential trademark or copyright infringement. You don't want to build it up just to lose it. Instead, go with branding. Exact Match Domains are out anyway. ;-) Consider ClickNewz.com and the fact that it has NO keywords in it, yet ranks well on a micro-level (individual posts & keyword phrases).

You can go BIG just with social media alone these days. Including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ etc. If you're passionate about it, make it super cool, brand it well, and go for it!

[bornstein75]

Thanks for the advice Lynn.

Just a few more questions - Are your individual posts/keyword phrases targeted keywords, or do you just create a post based on whatever you feel like?

I've just learnt in the past to use a program like Market Samurai, to search for keywords that are low in competition and that have high commerciality value and set up a site around that. Then write posts with targeted low hanging fruit keywords related to the main keyword.

Maybe I'm focussing on keywords too much. Maybe I should just set the site up because I'm passionate about it and not worry about all the keyword ranking etc???

Your advice would be appreciated.

Brian

[ChristineCobb]

You can use Market Samurai or Wordtracker or Google to make a long list of long-tail keyphrases. Then start writing blog posts for every phrase on the list. Find opportunities to link one blog post to another using keyword anchor text. You probably have some blog post topics whirling around in your head already. Just write the article and then look through the list and choose a natural fit and work it in afterwards.

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Brian,

Absolutely! I target keywords on the micro level in much the same way you described. See these two posts for clarification on how I do that: Keyword Strategy and SEO Content: Keywords & Phrases. Once I have an established readership, I might post content from time to time that is not necessarily optimized - maybe a fun post I can't find a good keyword phrase for. Which works fine when you have a strong readership of course. When all else fails (keywords, lol) write it anyway! But the primary focus is keyword targeting of course.

Let me know if either of those posts/tutorials raise any questions.

[bornstein75]

Hi Lynn,

Thank you so much for your advice, I'll read through your posts and see if i have anymore questions.

cheers,
Brian

[Lynn Terry]

Great, just let me know! ;-)

[wadeinni]

Good morning everyone, hope your day is starting off super and positive. Brian, if I may add one thing, definitely don't worry too much about keywords in your domain. Create as many useful post as you can around your topic and deep link to each post (not your homepage) from a relevant niche site (blog or forum) where possible using different keyphrases. Use noncompetitive long-tail keywords where possible, but that's half the battle to getting the site recognized. As sitemaster you should build your personal brand and establish yourself as an expert through social media. Just as you see Lynn create post and videos using her real pic and videos on Youtube, this technique will help you tremendously in building trust and recognition as an authority on your iphone and ipad related website.

People are drawn to a trusted face and brand much quicker than an obscure one. Consider my own website Erookie which offer startup business advice. My wife and I run this site together in a highly competitive niche against Entrepreneur.com, startupnation.com, and inc.com, but we're doing very well with user interest and traffic because we've established ourselves as experts and authorities in this niche, photos and videos included. Good luck fellow marketer :-)

[bornstein75]

Thanks for the great advice wadeinni, much appreciated.

Brian

[goxmedia]

Hi Brian,

You have lots of great advice in this thread, so I won't restate the points already made.

Regarding the need for keywords in your domain name, here's a great clip from Matt Cutts himself that pretty much sums it up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAWFv43qubI