Sometimes it can be frustrating when you are researching a niche market and find there is way too much competition when it comes to SEO.
When I check keyword after keyword and can’t seem to find anything that I think I can get to the top of Google with quickly, yet I know the niche is profitable, I get annoyed, I’m sure you know the feeling!
Thefore in this post I will be sharing a technique that I am starting to use more now for avoiding the masses yet still being able to profit in a great niche. The way I will be doing this is by targeting Google UK instead of Google USA. The UK get about 1/4 of the traffic that the USA gets, but that is still quite a large chuck of traffic and not something to be scoffed at.
UK Rankings
In order to rank your affiliate marketing sites in Google UK there are some things you need to do. The first and most important thing is to buy a .co.uk domain, or a .org.uk domain also, both rank well in the UK.
You can test this out for yourself, and you
will see that when looking at Google UK listings, that there are more .co.uk and .org.uk sites than .com.net.orgs, because Google wants to give the most relevant results to their UK searchers, which makes perfect sense.
The next thing you want to do is sign up with a UK hosting company, so that you site is hosted in the UK, which has an SEO advantage, most probably because the site will load faster, but Google probably like to see local hosting also I imagine.
I found this UK host the other day: http://www.dataflame.co.uk, I’m not sure if they are the best but they seem decent, and that no affiliate link either, I’m just sharing my research.
Keywords
Before you do anything you need to check out the search volume in the UK for the keywords you are considering. This is easy to do, just open the Google Keyword tool and when searching make sure you have the country location set to the UK.
The next thing you need to do is look at the keyword competition for Google UK, because this is where you will be targeting, so you have to check the sites out that rank there. I know that there are many ways to check SEO competition for a keyword, so I want go into that now, but the main things you need to look at are the backlinks the pages ranking in the top three spots in Google have and also their PR and title tags. I’ve included a quick video below to help with this:
So you can see that the UK has less competition for the same keywords, and that there are more UK domains ranking in Google UK. What this can mean is that you can get to the top of Google UK faster than you would for Google USA and essentially if you do everything else right, make money more easily! I have spent the last week looking at keywords in Google UK and am already planning a new site as a result.
That’s all for today’s update folks, hope you found that useful,
Matt Carter
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Keep in mind that to obtain a .com.au URL you must have a legitimate business.. either a company or other business having a ABN, and based in Australia.
Johnno - AdvancedAutoBlogging.info Reply:
April 15th, 2011 at 11:54 am
I’ve done this with a site targeted to Australia.
I used a COM domain name (NOT COM.AU):
xxxxxxxxxaustralia.com
I also told Webmaster Tools I was targetting australia and also use “australia” in all webpage subdirectory names.
This has worked well – I’ve got heaps of good search engine placements in Google.com.au
Johnno - AdvancedAutoBlogging.info Reply:
April 15th, 2011 at 11:57 am
PS
I DID NOT use Aussie hosting (most are expensive ripoffs).
I used good ol’ HostGator.
I think as long as you give Google enough on-page cues that you are targeting a particular country it will work.
Hello Matt
I purchased your Rapid Profit Formula package a month ago and have done a trial using an ‘info’ extension.
I found that my first four postings appeared at the top of the list when putting the post title (keywords) in a search box by week three of its use. I have not yet started doing any off page SEO work.
How do I check which country Google is using to show these positions so that I can target a specific country.
Regards
Derek
Hi Leigh/Matt,
I read this interesting reply from a Google employee:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=47f5a80425881a1b&hl=en
Quote:
So if you are using a ccTLD (like .fr) then you generally do not need to worry about the rest (outside of making sure that your users are happy :-)) because it’s pretty clear where the users you are targeting are going to be. If you are using a gTLD, you can either use the server location or the setting in Webmaster Tools to give us this information.
So in a nutshell, from what he is saying it appears that server location doesn’t enter into the SEO equation provided you already have the country specific TLD – but that if you don’t have the relevant TLD, then the server location is taken into account.
I’m not saying this is correct and definitive, but it appears to make some sense, as most large server companies tend to be US based and so it would be unreasonable to penalise a website just because it goes for a server there.
I don’t have any sites with a UK server, use Hostgator, although when doing some research I found Vidahost looked good and were responsive to enquiries.
Patrick
John,
I registered and set up a .com for what is a largely UK/European brand name, 9 months ago. Because it is a keyword domain it has been on first page of google.com for quite some time, the last few months in top 4.
However, it never reached the first page of google.co.uk for my keyword until I did some backlinking a week or so ago, it has been playing with positions 1 to 4 since then and the google.com has had positions 1 and 2!
The first page is dominated by .co.uk domains and so I’d say without a doubt that, all other things being equal, .co.uk will outperform .com in the UK.
Patrick
Aaron,
I posted a reply a bit further back to John, with my experience of a .com not performing as well in the UK as it did in the US, I didn’t have a .com/.uk comparison, but the performance indicated strongly that a .co.uk would be far better for the UK.
I avoid GoDaddy like the plague, don’t trust them at all, also it is usually cheaper to buy .co.uk through UK registrars – such as Vidahost who also do hosting on cPanel.
Patrick
I think it is the .com that is making the difference here, from my experience. If the site is product or local market based then I believe the TLD makes a difference, if it was for some universal information for instance then I think less so.
Patrick
Matt,
Thanks for another interesting article. I have been focussing more on my local UK market recently, because as you say less competition quite often … until now 🙂
Patrick
Matt
In my experience a .com or .org hosted in the uk will be able to compete directly in the UK results.
The advantage I find is that they will also compete on a global scale against other ,com’s or .org’s.
A .co.uk hosted outside the UK will still be able to rank well in the UK results
I use a great hosting company for my UK clients http://www.krystal.co.uk/web-hosting/
They have been really reliable and support is fantastic.
Rich
Yes, the same goes for any other country and Google likes the local searching and get people websites with the country ending.
This will work as long as you are promoting digital product, however if you are promoting physical products, then make sure seller ships to UK.
If you are going to use different hosting and interlink your own sites, make sure you DO NOT claim those sites in Google Webmaster Tools and give yourself away. You might also consider using different whois info for the domains, if possible.
Thanks for the great info. I’ve thought about this and will probably give it a spin soon. You always deliver good stuff here.
Speaking of spin, those who want to put up duplicate sites on .com and co.uk might do better to just rewrite the content for the second site and change the look a bit. That’s still not as much work as building a different niche, and you’ve already done the research and have a clue what works.
Nice ideas Matt , I have even been thinking of countries like Spain and Italy , lots of web users there as well.
Hi Matt
That’s really interesting because when I set up my first website, I was told to get a .com not co.uk because a com domain will have more respect and is not limited to geo-location!
Also informed that USA will not buy from a co.uk site?
I’ve had lots of no.1 pages in all top 3 search engines in the USA and upon checking out UK they have mostly been more or less the same.
So doesn’t seem to make much difference to my site – told to go after the bigger USA market, my host server is UK based.
German Shepherd Dogs-Don’t You Just Love Them!
Hi again Matt
Forgot to mention – anyone who is looking at different countries to market to, then I would reccomend Mark Ling’s Traffic Travis tool.
A click of the button will show how your keywords are ranking in different countries, you pre-load all your keywords and store in memory, then you just save, load project (your site) and will show how your keyword pages are ranking, also ‘on page’ SEO (great for beginners) and this tool is FREE although I have the pro version. This tool is amazing!!
Go get it – invaluable for seo and page ranking and PPC stuff.
jason lee Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
i wouldnt just rely on traffic travis, a few times it says a niche was easy to rank but upon further inspection it was definitely to hard to rank for, its always best to cross reference with another keyword tool just to make sure.
r.e. co.uk, if your targeting the UK, a .com is as good as a .co.uk, it don’t make no difference, all .co.uk does is just tells the user that the company is uk based. im from the the uk and most my sites are .com with some .co.uk which pretty much ranks the same
Matt certainly does deliver his bonuses. I recieved mine when I purchased google sniper.
Peggy Reply:
April 13th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Guys:
Let me say yes! Matt does deliver his bonuses. I have purchased almost every product Matt has promoted, and have purchased all of the products Matt has created.
I also purchased Rank Builder ( and everyone that is serious about backlinks should buy the program) and received the bonus the next am. I purchased the program late in the evening.
I would suggest you check that you emailed the information to the correct address, and in addition you included a copy of your receipt .
Waiting for Bonuses: If you have received the link from Matt, all the information is listed one right after the other.
If you are waiting for a bonus from Rank Builder they are located in the members area under the tab “bonuses”, just click and download.
I hope this helps, I know sometimes it is frustrating figuring out the links. However, regarding the Rank Builder bonuses the downloads are really straight forward.
Hope this helps?
And in closing, I want to say I have been on Matt’s list for a while now. It is true, the man is honest and has integrity. Matt is one guru you can trust. If he says a product is good, you can bet the product is good. If he tells us the product will take us to the next level, trust what the man says, it will take your business to the next level.
Wishing all much success.
Waiting4Bonuses Reply:
April 13th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Hi, Peggy!
Did you get Bonus # 5 (Auto Content Cash) from Rankbuilder support
as Matt directed in his bonus download e-mail?
I don’t see how anybody can miss a product in the Rankbuilder
bonus page. But that’s where Rankbuilder support told me to find ACC.
I’ll resolve this one way or the other by Noon New York tme today!
Thank you for your time, everybody.
Hi Matt,
Thanks so much for that simple tip. Just to let you know why you were having trouble with your lawn mowers for sale search, you actually typed a “v” instead of “w” (movers).
Great information.
Jackie Stenhouse
Hey Matt,k
This is a great post. I actually bought your affilio jet pack about a month and a half ago. I have made great progress and I am getting my pages to move up quickly in the rankings. One of my issues was finding the niche markets with low competition. This post is a great idea and I will be looking into that today!
Thanks for everything
Hi, Annette!
Could you please help me out… where did you find bonus #5?
I’m still doing the run around for it between Matt and
Rankbuilder support which seems to have no clue about its location.
I don’t see it even among the e-mail grabbing so called bonuses.
Just give me some general direction if you don’t mind.
Thanks!
Hi Matt,
good tip.
I think you couldnt find ‘Lawn Mowers For Sale’ phrase in Google any higher because you actually spelt it ‘Lawn Movers For Sale’ .
Enjoy learning off a local person!
Cheers
Chris
Chris Ross
Melbourne
Australia
I already bought 5 domains, the downside of CO.UK domain is that you can only register them for 2 years.
I knew having the country domain was a good idea but I had never realized that hosting that domain in that country was important. Good information, thanks a lot!
Hi Matt,
This is a very good idea. But…
You say the UK traffic is 1/4? And competition? Is it 1/4 too? If it’s so, we have the same ratio: low competition – low traffic. Note: we have that ratio at home too! Is it worth going over ocean to change an awl for hole?
Great Idea for getting around the competition. Also, don’t forget to submit your sites to Google Uk after everything is up and running.
Great value once again Matt, also this may be off topic but i’m loving the way you blended the video in with this blog post, very nice!
I don’t buy the local hosting argument. I have an Aussie targeted site hosted in the US and it does fine in Google.com.au.
I would like to see some hard evidence that locally hosted sites rank higher
Jonny Reply:
July 19th, 2011 at 1:05 am
I see the thinking behind hosting locally but in my experience a country specific TLD does the trick.
I have had a .co.uk website that uses Hostgator and i rank very well on Google UK.
I also have pretty good rankings on google.com as well, just not as good.
I am still going to try a UK based host to test as i need another hosting company.
Matt, did you try Host9 as someone recommended? Just looking at them now.
thank you once again for solid content and helpful stuff
if i had 2 sites one .com. and .co.uk would you advice be to forward the .com onto the .co.uk as my business is in uk?
thanks
Steve
Great idea Matt, internet marketers in the UK (and other countries except the US) have been doing this in reverse to target the US markets for years. I am from the UK and I can tell you that people trust a .co.uk more than a .org.uk (which most assume is a non-profit organisation) and that people in continental European countries tend to get .com results.
Sharron
This is a great method. Remember that Google is trying to provide relevant search results. A result from the same TLD and IP address area would probably be more relevant than one from a TLD and IP address from another country.
When I search to buy, I go to advanced search and restrict the results to only my country (.au). You need to consider the behavior of people as well as the search engines. I would prefer to buy from an Australian store, all other things being equal.
It’s a relief to read this. I live in the UK and everyone else seems to say you have to target the USA no matter where you live. I’m just starting out and was considering the UK market, this has made up my mind. Thanks Matt.
Mick
WOW this is great info Matt. I never thought about using the U.K search engines to my advantage & I LIVE HERE!!! 😛
Great stuff, I’m away to do some crazy assed testing!
Cheers,
Robbie Griffiths
Scottish Web Designers
Thanks Matt,
I am just getting started and this gives me some great ideas. I appreciate that you have these ideas posted. I was just reading how some search engines are more popular in other countries. It makes sense.
Randy
…Matt i can’t believe how much value you bring to us…Becouse of you i made some money now and becouse of you i will make some really great money in the future….:) i know…:)!
Thank you very much again Marr.
Bye
Marcus
Matt Carter Reply:
July 18th, 2011 at 7:31 pm
great to hear Marcus and you are very welcome my friend!
Matt
Great idea Matt. I will try that on my next site. Thanks for the information.
Klarissa
Aren’t there strict rules when buying AU domain names? ie you must have a AU business registered?
Hi Matt thank you for the information and thank you for all your previous free videos as well .Ta!
Hi Matt, am from the uk, and have just taken your course RPD, so far it’s been great and can’t believe the things you are teaching, you have completeley over delivered, hope is ok to leave my first backlink on your blog l.o.l
Tony
percolator reviews
Good advice thanks Matt.
Additional benefit is you can use these UK based sites to link back to other sites you may have. Better quality linking rather than from the one hosting company.