Building a Niche Store around a Broad Category Structure
15 March 2008
10 Comments So Far, Join In!
As I started building my next store, I recalled that Cindy had asked how to build categories, based on specific high volume manufacturers or brands. For example, with Hybrid Golf Clubs, it is pretty basic… there are clubs, drivers, sets, irons, womens, mens, etc…
Well, what do you do when the popular terms are very specific to different manufacturers or designers? My newest site is about high priced, Fine Designer Shoes. The video walks through the first step of the process.
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- Creating a Niche Specific Category Structure – Part 2
- Creating a Niche Specific Category Structure – Part 1
- Category Structure – Possibly a bit Clearer
- Optimize your Main Niche Store Category Menu in 1 hour!
- The Foundation of Building a Niche Store Empire in 12 Weeks!
- Build a Niche Store Template Gone Wild!
- Build a Niche Store Empire – Marks Site Performance
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I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing.
Hey Mark,
This is another domain you registered with dashes (-) in the name. Is it part of an seo strategy, just a sampe for this series or can we talk about the difference between using dashes and not using them? Is it because of the long tail phrase, you decided to go with dashes instead of a .net domain?
Personally, I have always tried to stay away from them, unless it was an expired domain with an existing presence – and I only have 2.
Ok, your killing me, don’t say Christian Loobutan again. LOL. or Louie Vuttan. (those are misspelled). Though, not as bad as hearing my uncles say it who is from Texas.
IMO a .com is better than a .net and the dash is a way to still get your keywords. The search engines only see the keywords. When I first started blogging some bloogers thought it was better to have the dash anyway. Even if the domain was available w/no dash’s. This whole thing with the dash’s is still being debated. I too would love to hear Marks take on this. I have many – domains and never saw any difference in traffic. Users only see it in the address and most never read the address bar. There just glad they found what they are looking for. IMHO
I’d like to know Mark’s take on this, too.
Dashes used to be OK, according to the SEO pundits, then they went out of fashion again.
Dashes certainly improve URL readability and are good if you want to approximate an already-registered domain name.
What say you, Mark-The-All-Knowing (.com)? :-)
James
@ All -
Very good questions about hyphens in the url! The general rule I use for my own domains, is no more than 2 hyphens! More than 2, and it tends to look like a spam site…
I had to dig for quite a while to find the post over at mattcutts.com, but found the post I read a long time ago about hyphenated domain names. (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/)
For those who are unfamiliar with Matt Cutts, he is the infamous GoogleGuy, aka, one of earliest employees of Google, who blogs about the goings on at the giant!
have never noticed a difference between a hyphenated versus non-hyphenated domain. I have read both sides of the argument… The main argument AGAINST hyphens is that your name is not memorable and easy for people to tell a friend for typing into a browser.
With BANS, I am not targeting repeat visitors or word of mouth, I am targeting search engine results and planning to rank well for the terms on the page versus the domain itself.
All being said… if I have the choise for a non-hyphenated domain versus the opposite, I will go with non-hyphenated as long as it is very relative to the site.
Mark
Thanks for that Mark. Matt Cutts is the man for sure.
I have a question about the way we build out categories. I understand about not building out the site to fast to let it get indexed and make it look natural to the SE’s, But can doing it to fast hurt if you still have lots of sub-categories planned for the future.
Sometimes I get on a roll in Wordtracker and get a little carried away, but I try to save some for later. Whats the max pages 20-30-40?
I have also built sites super fast to catch a release of a product and the “Honeymoon” Period and haven’t really noticed a difference in the way the SE’s treat a site. My take on it was as long as the site changes every so often and has relevant content the SE’s are happy. Have I been thinking wrong ?
Thanks
Hi Mark & Bill,
Yes you are correct, .com is far better than .net.
As for the hyphens, yes again if you can get your desired domain name with out hyphens your streets ahead of the rest.
Unfortunately some of the top domain names for niches are gone, hence why I went for the hyphens for my golf carts store.
Bill,
You won’t get penalized for building your site to fast, in-fact this will work in your favor as SE’s love fresh content, so build away. What you have to be wary of is the traffic to your site.New Sites simply don’t get 200-400 unique visits each day unless you’ve set up a PPC or similar campaign. I’m not sure what the rule of thumb is but from experience my sites “organic traffic” starts picking up in 3-4 weeks. If anyone else has info on this I’d be interested.
Another great post Mark, always appreciated.
As for you southern drawl. You managed to say some of those name a whole lot better than this Canadian can, eh.
The first website I purchased I used dashes between each word, which I thought would be great for search engines but man when ever I tried to tell anyone what my site URL was it was a pain and still is.
That was my ebooks-with-reseller-rights site but I didn’t stop there, oh no. I had to buy another long domain name with dashes.
web-site-power-promoters.
Keep the great video content coming. I am always up for learning more and better ways to earn money.
Hi, I’ve been with BANS for about 3 weeks, and thanks to you Mark, I still is! I use almost the same phrases and words in my title meta tags as the keywords for each main categories and subcategories. (Different for each categori) I have a feeling that’s not a good ide. Some guidelines on this issue would have been great? Is the site going to be indexed without doing anything inside my google account?
Thanks from the norwegian newbie!
Point and Score.
Sometimes we get caught up in other things, that we forget why we are in this business – and that’s what it is – a business.
What Mark said “I am not targeting repeat visitors or word of mouth, I am targeting search engine results and planning to rank well for the terms on the page versus the domain itself.”
That is what I need to keep in mind. Though a good domain will help, I’m not focused on brand name awareness, but product sales and results.
This is the Business of Affiliate Marketing and that is to pass along customers to our business partners in the completion of the sale of a product. The importance of remembering the site url may not be as important as the importance of the sale and how they came to the site in the first place (search engine, link, ppc). Hopefully they will come back to the site – the same way they got their, by bookmarking or simply remembering it.
Just like we use long tail phrases in the sub pages, it seems like a dash or two in the url couldn’t hurt.
Thanks everyone for the opinion.
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