Last year Priceline.com CEO Paul Hennessy raised several eyebrows when at the end of a speech he said that in terms of Google, it is a “paid world.” In other words, in the Google searches, the results that appear first are paid advertisements, or those advertisers who pay Google. Organic content is being shoved down in the search results. However, Hennessey did not agree that Google is a monopoly; instead, he announced, “As far as SEO [Search Engine Optimization] is, my view on that is it’s more of a desktop thought because as the devices get smaller and smaller and smaller, the number of choices from an SEO perspective on mobile decline dramatically.”
Meanwhile, Hennessy’s fellow cohorts share a similar sentiment with the CEO of Gogobot saying that “SEO is dying” and the managing director at Trivago claiming that the importance of SEO is diminishing. Trivago is well known in the industry to have built its model on SEO. So where does that leave SEO in general?
Francis McGovern, CEO of Qseeker, agrees and contends that SEO is becoming more competitive. To ensure that quality, organic content reaches the top page of Google, a business must employ a strategic and lasting SEO campaign. SEO is an art that requires endurance, knowhow and strategy. And in regard to niche markets, such as in travel, SEO is more competitive but flourishing especially when the “paying field” shrinks the organic playing field.
For example, if a small business owner runs safari trips to Kenya, that is a niche travel market. The owner has a good chance of being on the first page of Google…if he employs the correct SEO practices. Then he can dominate this niche. Also, in regard to travel products, if a business owner markets a backpacker’s backpack that is lightweight and perfect for traveling in Western Europe in particular, that is also a niche. Travelers searching for this type of backpack could easily find the company in a Google search, but you really need to be targeting very specific terms across a niche and be out producing competitors to position at the top.
As Travis Katz, founder and CEO of Gogobot, reports on Skift.com, “Google knows what they are doing constitutes a bad user experience. Their own data tell them so. In fact, in 2012, they rolled out a penalty to punish sites with too many ads above the fold…So what do they do on their own site? Tons of ads, no visible content.” What Katz discusses is true: users want quality, organic search results. That is why SEO is so vital still to niche markets.
At Qseeker.com, we enjoy helping niche businesses with SEO strategy and implementation. We’ve had years of expertise in search engine optimization (SEO), social media, content creation, and management of websites, especially in regard to top search results in Google. If you’d like to incorporate SEO practices into your niche business, please contact us at 617-816-2969 or use our contact form.