Competing against big dogs.

Hi..what do you think about competing against big dogs like amazon, epinions, nextag etc?? I am thinking about starting a website competing all these..most of the SERPS are dominated by such biggies. The pagerank of these sites are 3-4 but the backlinks to these pages are hardly more 5..and they dont even have any links from .gov or .edu sites..

Little addition: I am targeting 4-5 word phrases..like say Sony 32 inch high definition LCD tv


So, whats your opinion??

 

Good luck.

Individual pages may have relatively low PR and IBL counts, but they are supported by the shear mass of the main site - not to mention the by now well established brand.

You could no doubt beat them on any number of long tail terms, but without millions of dollars and a staff of thousands you will be unsuccessful in head on competition.

 

1) You need millions of pages.
2) You need free media coverage. You can't be paying for all advertisements.
3) You need a lot of people keep talking about you.
4) You need a huge bandwidth.
5) Then you can allow millions of users creating content for you.

Doable, but before you reach there, sell it.

 

and an nice office in Silicon Valley

 

Competing with the big dogs in 4-5 word phrases is not that difficult. Most often they get top ranking for these long-tails with sub-pages simply because of the authority they have incurred over the years for related keywords.

 

go ahead, targeting quality keywords can get you results

 

If you're going to target keywords that the top dogs aren't because they're relying on their brand and resting on their laurels, go right ahead.

But I do suggest you test the waters with some PPC marketing for those keywords to see if you can get converting traffic to your sites/pages first though. If you're getting clicks (at the very least -- preferably conversions so you're not just throwing your money away), then go hog wild on the organic listings.

 

Thanks Dan, and thanks everyone who were cooperative..i personally think that they are domainating the listings because of On-Site SEO rather than off-site SEO..

 

Nice sharing thanks

 

@rome9t9 You're pretty much on target regarding the onfactor seo being the main reason why they are listed. Don't underestimate their domain trust. It's definately a factor. However, with some effective off page work, it should easily counteract amazon's "default" serp. Question is, how many of these long tail terms are you going for? If it's a lot, you may want to rethink your strategy.

 

You may have a chance when you are targeting long-tail keyphrases with little competition. But these sites are getting higher placement in serp's because of their sheer size, age and brand recognition factor and perceived utility value.

 

That's a bold endeavor and one you may not get a complete answer from here. You need more of a brand/marketing strategy than an SEO answer. Amazon was built from affiliates and reputation. They are branded "Offering everything from A to Z".

I like to target popular niche's and link back to Amazon just to make side change and while it's very lucrative but if you're goal is to take them all on then again I suggest develop a true brand and marketing strategy.

 

Best of luck! They are very big and reputed companies.