Optimizing a website involves constantly monitoring changes in the search engine algorithm and trying to match the required criteria as best as possible. Regardless of the site’s niche, this is a goal that will never change. Therefore, the legitimate question is, do ranking factors vary between niches?

John Muller from Google tried to answer this question.

Do ranking factors vary between niches?

Based on a look at the best-ranked sites for certain niches, the idea arose that ranking factors differ by niche.

Studies published by some of the SEO tool websites measured the different qualities of top-ranking sites in different niches, to determine if ranking factors had different effects in the different niches being analyzed.

Studies have identified differences between types of content, different types of link quality, and other factors among top-ranking sites. The research identified clear patterns that in some niches, top-ranking sites have longer content or publish more videos. The bottom line is that in some specific niches , Google ranks sites with more content or more videos better.

However, those similarities and patterns don’t mean word count or videos are why Google ranks those sites within their niches. Those patterns are random or exist because user needs require longer content or video content. These types of studies are useful for understanding the content and marketing trends that follow different niches.

But trends do not reflect “ranking factors.”

What does Google say?

The person who asked the question wanted to confirm if Google applies different ranking algorithms specific to each niche.

The question is:

” Is it true that Google has different algorithms for indexing and ranking different niches?

We have two websites and we built them using the same process.

The only difference is that these two sites are from different niches and currently one is working while the other has lost all rankings. “

It’s not about the niche: it’s about the type of content

John answered the question and noted that the site’s niche, as he understood it, did not affect the ranking algorithm applied.

But he confirmed that content is treated differently.

” So I don’t think we have anything specific in terms of different niches.”

But it’s clear that different types of content are critical to our search results in different ways.

And if you look at something like our Quality Assessment Guidelines , we’re talking about things like YMYL sites , where we’re sort of… we’re working on having a little bit more critical algorithms involved in indexing and ranking.

But it’s not the case that you would say like… a bike store has completely different algorithms than a… I don’t know… a shoe store for example.

They are essentially both e-commerce type stores. “

Quality above all

Mueller then discussed the value of creating unique and valuable content.

I have seen some publishers focus on publishing content that is not plagiarized, with words that are unique, in an effort to create unique content.

But according to Roger Montti of Search Engine Journal , when Mueller says unique, he means that he is using the word in the sense of content that stands out from other pages published on the Internet because, for example, they are easier to understand, have useful research data , there are measurements that other sites forget to post, things like that.

Here is a continuation of John ‘s answer:

“But what you also mentioned in the question is that these are aggregator sites and they’re built by the same process.

And some of them work and some don’t.

To me it seems like it’s… kind of like… I don’t know your sites, it’s kind of like affiliate sites, where you just take feeds of content and post them.

And that’s something that usually doesn’t invest too much in our algorithms to make sure we can crawl and index all that content.

Because it’s basically the same content we’ve already seen elsewhere.

So from that point of view, if you think it could apply to your site, I would recommend focusing on creating fewer sites and improving them significantly.

So it’s not just about collecting content from other sources, it’s about actually providing something unique and valuable in the sense that if we didn’t index your site properly, then people on the internet would really be missing out on a resource that provides value to them.

Whereas if it’s really the case that if we didn’t index your website, people would just go to one of the other affiliate aggregators, then there’s no real reason to focus and invest in crawling and indexing your website.

So that’s something, but again I don’t know your site, but it’s something I’d pay more attention to, not just “oh, Google doesn’t like bike shops, they like shoe shops instead”.

Would people miss you if you were gone?

It’s useful to consider the scenario John presented where people would miss a particular site (and the information on it) if Google didn’t rank it in the search results (SERP).

“… you’re providing something unique and valuable in the sense that if we didn’t index your website properly, then people on the internet would really be missing out on a resource that provides them with value.” “

People do not miss the site because the words and content used in it are not plagiarized from other sites. People miss a site if it publishes content that is different in some way that makes it more useful than other sites.

For more news and interesting stories from digital marketing , visit our blog page or follow our Instagram profile.