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        Research on industries that are most competitive for SEO?

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        • Kevin_P
          Kevin_P last edited by

          I am trying to see if there is a reputable / research-backed source that can show which industries are most competitive for search engine optimization. In particularly, I'd be interested in reports / research related to the residential real estate industry, which I believe based on anecdotal experience to be extremely competitive.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
          • MiriamEllis
            MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

            For sure, Kevin! Real estate is definitely one of those verticals (like hotels) that has long since been chiefly taken over in the SERPs by directories and rich features. Hard-to-impossible to outrank TripAdvisor if you're marketing a hotel, or Zillow if you're a realtor. Likely, you'll just have to make sure you're listed on the directories, go after the longer tail organically, and then rely on social, WOMM, etc. to bring in those leads.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Kevin_P
              Kevin_P @MiriamEllis last edited by

              Thanks, Miriam. I'll look around. In the meantime, I thought it was interesting that, for the given example in the article you shared ("Glendale Homes for Sale"), Google's top ten results are all aggregators. That goes with my experience as well.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • MiriamEllis
                MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

                Hi Kevin!

                I'm so sorry, but I'm not aware of a preexisting study of this kind.

                I see things like: https://www.bruceclay.com/blog/real-estate-seo/

                But as to a study stating "It's gotten 10x harder to rank for 'house for sale' in San Francisco in the last two years" - no.

                If you're in the real estate market, Kevin, are there any bloggers in that space you follow? Any targeted publications? Maybe they would have some statistics that would prove/disprove your theory that real estate SEO is harder than it used to be?

                Kevin_P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Kevin_P
                  Kevin_P @MiriamEllis last edited by

                  Great to hear from you, Miriam! I understand what you mean about the difficulty. I'm particularly interested in data I can present that will show the increasing degree of competition in the area of residential real estate nationwide, but I could focus on a single city if that sort of research is available. Ideally, this would be a pre-existing report, as time constraints won't allow me to compile this research on my own.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • MiriamEllis
                    MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

                    Localizing this makes it a bit more difficult, Kevin, as competition varies so widely by geography. There are 41,000 Chinese restaurants in the US (sounds ultra competitive), 400 in San Francisco (ouch! competitive) but only 1 in Valley Springs, CA (zero competition).

                    Kevin_P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Kevin_P
                      Kevin_P @NickW816 last edited by

                      Thanks for your response. I had come across that link as well, but as you pointed out, the content is over a decade old, and, unfortunately, the link to the thread is also not working. Still on the lookout for a fresh source if one exists!

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • NickW816
                        NickW816 last edited by

                        This resource poll is a little dated (2005), but I believe it is still relevant & is from Barry Schwartz's Search Engine Roundtable, which is considered a credible source in the search industry- https://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002785.html.

                        Pulled directly from the SE Roundtable article, and in no order the most competitive industries for SEO are-

                        • Real Estate
                        • Mortgages
                        • Travel
                        • Web Site Design & Hosting
                        • Insurance
                        • Gifts & Gift Baskets
                        • Travel
                        • Pharma
                        • Porn & Sex Toys
                        • Any Popular Affiliate-Driven Industry In General

                        If I were to add one, I would say Home Remodeling/Construction has become fairly competitive in local SEO. Using Moz's Keyword Explorer can give more insight on this if you type in an industry term and then look at the difficulty score.

                        Nick White
                        SEO Services KC
                        https://seo-kansas-city.com/

                        Kevin_P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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