December 6, 2007
Build a Niche Store Site: www.TheDartsShop.co.uk/
Target Niche: Dart Supply Website
Date Reviewed: 12/05/2007
By: Mark Hansen
Overall Score: 5.14 out of 10 (10 being the best)
Lets get deep into the review of the Dart Supply website.
One of the first things I thought about when I landed on the Darting Supply Website, was that it is really an untapped niche market in the BANS community. I have looked at many BANS sites and this was the first time I had seen one specifically in this particular niche market! After considering the niche, I decided to run a quick search in big G to see if the market was in fact saturated.
I found that when searching for other BANS powered stores… there really is not much competition and the Dart Supply shop already ranks at number 3 of 875 for the search string I used! (“Dartboard” + “Build a Niche Store”) That alone tells me you chose a good market, now we need to see how to take it to the next level!
Domain Name & Age
So - what is in a domain name in relation to the success of this site? First and foremost, you have 2 very high volume words that leave no guessing why the user may want to visit the site! “Darts” and “Shop”. If I were browsing through search engine results and saw the domain name, I would instantly know that your site shows a good possibility of filling my needs!
The domain name itself is only a couple months old - as time passes and the site gains age to it, you will find it easier to rank better for target phrases. Also, since it is only 2-3 months old, you may experience the sandbox effect from Google. The best way to avoid that is to focus on very high KEI terms and make sure the site can be found.
In order to balance out what I mean by a good domain name, go back to this link again that and take a look at the site 2-3 listings below yours. You will see the domain www. cathealthcarecenter .com (gaps left purposely) Believe it or not, the site IS about darting supplies! You have now seen both ends of the spectrum on choosing a domain name - if you do your best to use a domain focused on what the site is selling, you greatly increase your odds of success from day 1!
Niche Specific Site
Looking back at the first paragraph again - keeping your site specific to your niche is a priority! The Dart Supply store is very well focused both on the domain name AND in the category structure thus far and one simple thing you could change to the main landing page would be to show 10-20 listings. This will provide your home page with fresh rotating content each time a search engine visits the site.
You will also find very good information in the spreadsheet I have sent to you that will help expand your main category tree into 10-15 main categories with several (10-20) subcategories, or product listing pages, beneath each one! There are very good KEI results associated with your niche and once you begin targeting the terms, you will find the site becoming very active within 30-90 days of completion.
One of the first suggestions I would encourage for the main page, would involve re-titling the page to include the term “Dart Supply” or “Darting Supplies”. Login to your admin section and choose “Content Pages” from the left menu. Click on edit for the very top content page listed. This is the section that controls the meta tags for your home page.
Current title:
The Darts Shop: quality tungsten darts, flights, stems and dart boards
Recommended Title:
Dart Supply Shop : Buy Darts DartBoards Dart Flights and Darting Supplies
During the phrase research, dart supply and darting supplies are very common and high volume terms. Even though the KEI is not higher than 1.0, these are good terms for the main page. We have used both of them very effectively!
Use of Keyword Meta-Tags
While the keyword tag is somewhat neglected by engines nowadays, I feel it is still very important to both include and optimize the tag. As I reviewed the tags on your main page, the first thing that I saw was that you have many of the keywords correct for the page! You have included a keyword for each of the categories your site is focused on. When you review the spreadsheet I sent, you will quickly find new categories and thus MORE keywords or phrases to include on your main page.
The second thing that caught my eye however was that you have all of your words or phrases separated with the pipe character ( | ) versus a comma. I honestly don’t know if that will help or hurt the way they are indexed by the search engines as I found nothing to reference! I do however know that the only separator specified as acceptable is a comma. I would recommend removing the pipe in all of your keyword meta sections and replacing it with a comma.
Current Keyword Meta:
<meta name=’keywords’ content=’tungsten darts|dart|darts|dart supplies|dart board|dart boards|dart flights|dart shafts|dart stems’ />
Recommended:
<meta name=’keywords’ content=’dart supply,tungsten darts,dart,darts,dartboard,dart boards,dart flights,dart shafts,dart stems,dart articles,dart links,dart trophies,trophy,darting supplies’ />
What you can see in that selection of keywords is that we have included each category or page you have in your main menu, as well as the terms supply and supplies.
Use of Description Meta-Tags
Looking through the meta-description tag on your main page you have done very well and could do even better with just a few slight changes. Since it is the main page versus a single product page, you can include general information about the entire site as well as the categories of products you are focused on!
With ANY information on your site pages, the first and last terms, words, phrases etc… will benefit you the most if they are targeted terms. In other words, if your site is about darts and the research tells you that a term like dart supply is a good target, you should include it as an opening statement if it makes sense to do so. In this case, research DOES tell us that dart supply is a good target and we can easily include that in our main page.
Current meta-description:
<meta name=’description’ content=’Buy your darts supplies here. We have cheap, high quality tungsten darts, dart stems and dart shafts’ />
Recommended:
<meta name=’description’ content=’Dart Supply from the Dart Shop. Our darting enthusiast website has darting articles and information as well as a full line of quality dart equipment and darting supplies‘ />
Essentially, we have given meta based search engines a good descriptive sentence in relation to what the site is about. We have also splattered several target phrases and words into the tag without too much spamming. If this was a product page, you would want the description tag focused ONLY on the product listed on that page versus a general overview of the entire website.
Use of Targeted Articles and Information
I am glad to see you have several informative articles or content pages that support your niche site. Again, you will find several subjects in the spreadsheet I have sent that will provide a few subjects you can choose for future article pages! I was actually surprised to see the term “how to play darts” listed so high in my research, just above “official dart rules”. The reason for the surprise is that hardly anyone is targeting the terms in relation to the number of searches!
If there is one quick thing to do within your articles, it is to include links to your product pages. This promotes good site linking as well as inviting the search engine spiders to dig deeper into the product pages. When you create your links you want to remember to use targeted anchor text based on what the search research tells you.
For this example, I will use your “Finding the Right Darts” article. It has quite a bit of info about how a user would want to select the exact type of dart for their own uses. Keyword research shows me that while the category of Tungsten Darts is not all too popular itself, there are a few high quality terms you can use. “B&W Tungsten Darts” and “Sportcraft Pro 8000 Tungsten Darts” are two semi-popular terms (I have not done extensive research on this, just a cursory glance) related to tungsten darts. In your first paragraph about choosing darts, you could easily include a few links to the resulting product pages in your site (assuming you have created one).
BANS Default Menu Optimization
Ahhhh… the bread and butter section! On the first tab of the spreadsheet, you will notice I have colored SEVERAL terms in the first column, orange. These are the higher volume terms associated with my initial research. I have to stress that I have not gone deep to get ALL of the target categories, but this is a good start and very similar to what you already have!
Within these categories, you have a wide selection of subcategory or product pages that will yield very good targeted traffic! The spreadsheet also includes the search results for ”dart board” and “dartboard” on the second tab (on the bottom). You can see by viewing this page that within the main category, you can add several product specific pages like:
Even though I have only shaded the 10 or higher quantity search phrases, you can essentially build out this category on as many of the terms as you desire. All of those smaller 5-10 quantity search phrases will add up to 50-100 visitors in the long-run! Besides, it is a BANS affiliate site and all you REALLY want to do is grab as many visitors as possible and get them over to eBay! The sheet has a total of more than 400 terms that contain either dart board, or dartboard.
As you complete your research (I still recommend wordtracker for this) you will find that there are literally hundreds of product level terms that will provide success in EACH main category. Conquering these phrases slowly will build the foundation of a strong performing affiliate website!
Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you may have.
Thanks, I hope you enjoyed!
Mark
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2 Responses to “Build a Niche Store Review - www.TheDartsShop.co.uk”
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Thanks for the review Mark (and for the keyword spreadsheets). I am busily working on your suggestions and i’ll keep you posted on the results.
I would recommend your review service to that anyone who (like me) is desperate for a few pointers to give their BANS site the best chance of success.
Hi Mark,
I recently read a post on key words tags, and it recommended no punctuation at all between the key words………no commas, no nothing, etc.
What do you think about this?
thanks,