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Vertical markets are an area where many SEO companies have managed to thrive. Writting, link building, and SEO in general is easier when you are familiar with an industry.

By focusing on a vertical market, an SEO company doesn’t have to conduct as much research as an SEO with clients who are in diverse markets,and efficiency also increases because the work that is done on each project can be used on future projects. They can determine their strengths and weaknesses and concentrate on improvement.

At Comit Technologies many of our clients are in the oil and gas industry. Anytime we get an oilfield client we know exactly how to handle their project because we have already researched the industry. Our writers and link builders only have to repeat what they have done before for the other oilfield companies. It is kind of like an SEO assembly line.

The vertical markets are great opportunities for SEO companies. Learning to identify and persue these markets will benefit any SEO professional.

I recently ran across several articles Here and other places about search engine conversion rates. Apparently AOL and MSN are converting more searches into sales than Google and Yahoo roughly 5%. Now why would the largest search engines have lower conversion rates?

Just think for one moment about the types of internet users who are likely to use each of these search engines. The search engines like AOL and MSN are probably favorites for people who are not computer savvy.

I can use my own father as an example. He rarely uses computers, much less the internet. If he is online, chances are that he’s either shopping or looking at a website that someone told him about. Given his lack of internet knowledge, would it be too much to assume that his home page is either MSN or AOL? He has never heard of Google or Yahoo. Why would he use another search engine when he has one on his home page? You will never catch him surfing the web just for fun.

It is because of people like my father that we see higher conversion rates for AOL and MSN. These individuals get online only to find a product or service and they use the first available search. Which will be the one on their homepage (because they probably don’t know how to even change their homepage).

Conversion rates are important, but they must be viewed with an open mind. It is wise to consider, as an SEO, who you are targeting with your website. Despite their higher conversion rates, AOL and MSN users are a small group, and they should not be your targeted market.

Business to business is a much better focus, and businesses know how to navigate the web. Optimizing for B2B is a win win situation because your focusing on important customers and increasing your overall traffic. One of the goals of advertising is to expose your company to as many people as possible. Why would you optimize for search engines with the least amount of traffic. That would be like putting a billboard on a country road instead of an interstate.

Search engines are constantly changing and SEO’s must use every tool that’s at their disposal in order to stay on top of their game. However, we should not let conversion rates and other such figures interfere with our tried and true methods.

Everyone knows that they shouldn’t jump off of a cliff because everyone else is doing it. Be an independent thinker and consider your options before making any changes based on a buzz.

Good Luck,
Paul Vidrine