Today, there’s a product or service for every person and every situation!
Whether you need cooking utensils, digital currency, advice on getting pregant, or equipment to make your motorcycle faster, you’ll be able to find the answer to your problems.
However, there’s no denying that some of these products and services are a lot more niche than others.
While the likes of grocery stores target a wide range of people, fertility clinics, on the other hand, target a very specific demographic. They’re also dealing with a highly sensitive subject area, which requires a more thoughtful approach.
What this means is that everything you do needs to be considered with care, ensuring you’re helpful but empathetic to the situation, from branding materials to customer interactions. And yes, this even extends to SEO and the manner in which you market your business online.
Ultimately, if you operate in any sort of sensitive niche, a careful and considered approach is needed.
Below, we’ll discuss how to achieve this when it comes to SEO.
What is a sensitive niche
A sensitive niche is a specific industry, sector, or topic considered delicate or controversial.
A sensitive niche may deal with a subject that’s highly emotional, governed by very strict regulations, and/or evokes strong emotional responses from people.
What are some examples of sensitive niches
Cryptocurrency - Yes, cryptocurrency is much more mainstream nowadays. However, it’s still considered a sensitive topic due to a lack of regulation and the volatility associated with the market.
Health services - There are certain health topics that can be considered sensitive, for example, reproductive health, substance abuse recovery, and mental health. Such topics are sensitive because they involve personal and potentially traumatic experiences.
Controversial topics - Websites that focus on topics like religion or politics are often sensitive because of the emotional responses they trigger, which can even cause disagreements and arguments between others.
Challenges of working on SEO in a sensitive niche
All businesses have their own unique set of challenges. If you work in a sensitive niche, whether it’s adult content, financial services, or politics, there are a number of unique search engine optimization challenges you need to consider.
1. Strict regulatory environment - In many sensitive niches, there is a greater level of scrutiny and regulations that must be adhered to. So, why does this matter when talking about SEO? Well, firstly, it can can limit the pool of keywords you can target. It can also mean restrictions in terms of the content you can produce and the strategies you can use.
2. Credibility and trust - Building trust with your audience is key in a niche market. To achieve this, your content must be transparent, reliable, and factual. There can be serious consequences if you publish something that is inaccurate. In some cases, it can even mean legal action.
3. Link-building challenges - We’ll provide more detail on the importance of quality backlinks for SEO. However, it may be hard to get other websites to link to you, particularly if your niche is controversial or taboo.
4. Keyword limitations - Certain keywords in sensitive niches may trigger spam filters or other automatic checks in search engine algorithms, which can result in lower rankings.
5. Ever-changing guidelines - Search engines often update their guidelines and algorithms, especially when it comes to sensitive topics. This means you need to keep up-to-date with these changes and be able to adapt your strategy quickly.
Getting SEO right in a niche market
When it comes to SEO, what works for one business doesn’t always work for another.
If you operate in a niche space, we recommend following these steps to get started:
Start off by understanding search volume
As you have a niche business, you may assume that search volume is low. However, you need to use tools to get accurate figures.
How many people are looking for products and services like yours online?
What keywords are they using?
Tools like SEMrush, Keywords Everywhere, and Google Keyword Planner can be incredibly helpful here.
These tools enable you to see the exact search volume for queries relating to your business, as well as the competition for these keywords. This will help you to determine the most relevant and profitable keywords for your niche.
Use these keywords in the correct place
After you’ve created a list of keywords you wish to target, you need to ensure you incorporate them at least once into your content, headings, meta description, URL, and page title.
These are key places that Google will use to determine what your page is all about.
Make sure you avoid over-optimization and keyword stuffing. Also, keep your language natural.
Create original, helpful, and niche-specific content, such as explaining what Bitcoin is or signs of a mental health issue
We’re sure you’ve heard the phrase that content is king, right? Well, this is even more so the case for niche markets.
Often, when something is niche, it requires more explanation.
Moreover, content can help to dispel any of the doubts that people may have about your business and the industry you operate in.
Cryptocurrency is a good example here. While more and more people are open to using cryptocurrency, there are still a lot of people who are still skeptical about it.
Because of this, it’s a good idea to create a knowledge base where you answer questions such as what is Bitcoin, and provide helpful articles on buying cryptocurrency for the first time.
This will help ease any concerns people may have while also establishing you as the authority in your niche.
Produce a range of content to keep people interested. Examples include:
Make sure your content is easy to read, original, and exciting. Use relevant keywords effectively but make sure they’re incorporated in a natural manner.
Build backlinks from relevant websites with authority
A backlink is a link on another site that points back to yours. This is one of the most critical ranking factors that Google considers when deciding where to place your website in the search engine result pages.
After all, a backlink acts like a big thumbs up from another website, and this is something Google will certainly look on favorably.
However, it’s worth noting that not all backlinks are created equally.
Let’s say that you offer mental health services. A link from a health and well-being blog that has a high DR will certainly do wonders for your business.
On the flip side, a link from a fast food website that has a low DR will not help your business. Not only is the link from an irrelevant website, but the site itself doesn’t perform particularly well either.
This highlights why it is imperative to focus on quality over quantity when you’re building backlinks for your business.
Master technical SEO
When marketing your niche business, don’t forget about technical SEO.
Make sure your site is accessible and crawlable
- Your site should have a clear hierarchical structure and a well-defined navigation menu to ensure all pages are easy to find and understand.
- Use a Robots.txt file to instruct search engine robots which pages to crawl or not crawl on your website.
- Make sure every page on your website returns the correct HTTP status codes. For example, live pages should return 200, and permanently moved pages should return 301.
Optimize site speed and mobile responsiveness
- Use tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights to identify elements slowing down your site. This can involve optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, and minifying CSS, JavaScript, and HTML.
- Ensure your site is responsive and provides a good user experience on all devices. Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool can help you find any issues.
Implement schema markup for enhanced visibility
Schema markup is the language Google and other search engines use to read and understand the content on your website.
- There are a number of types of schema markup, from product and review schema for e-commerce sites to event and organization schema. Choose the correct one for your niche.
- Use Google's Structured Data Testing Tool to ensure your schema is implemented correctly.
Create an XML sitemap and submit it to the search engines
An XML sitemap is a list of your website's pages that allows search engines to find and understand your content.
- Generate a sitemap. There are various online tools and plugins available to help you create an XML sitemap.
- Once your sitemap is created, you should submit it to search engines like Google through their respective Search Console platforms.
- Whenever you add new content or make substantial updates, ensure your sitemap is updated and resubmitted.
Boost visibility with a careful SEO strategy for your niche business
All in all, a different approach is clearly needed when it comes to SEO for niche businesses.
We hope that you now have a good understanding of some of the nuances involved when optimizing a niche website.
It’s vital to conduct in-depth research, build quality backlinks, and regularly update your website with interesting, original, and engaging content.