It’s no secret that SEO is becoming increasingly more complex, particularly as search engines like Google grow their database and develop their algorithms to anticipate how best to answer our need-to-know questions.
Google is one, if not the largest search engine in the world and presently has a major share in the world’s market when it comes to traffic generated by search engines. Their goal is to provide the best answer for your queries and questions. Google’s method and algorithm is jealously guarded, and the company itself publishes webmaster guidelines on how to create the best user driven content available.
Local ranking factors can have some influence on what results you might see at any given place or time. With that in mind, here are some of the most competitive markets across the world today.
Online casino and sports betting
Sports betting as well as online casinos are a relatively recent development. Many betting shops and traditional bookmakers only started establishing a presence online towards the back end of the noughties and early 2010s.
Since then a huge range of sites specifically operating online have come into existence over the last decade. Online casino remains one of the toughest markets to get into, but with sports betting becoming legal in an increasing number of markets betting sites as a search term has grown in popularity such is the wide range of options on offer. Having a discerning and effective expert comparison site has become a must in this market.
The ability in which to rank can differ hugely depending on which county you aim target but this SEO niche is definitely not dropping in popularity as trends look set to increase in a number of markets globally.
The adult entertainment industry
The internet has come a long way since the late 90s and early 2000s, when it still had a completely different reputation. Internet usage according to our World In Data has been on the rise ever since the turn of the millennium and continues to grow.
With that upsurge in usage came the proliferation of intent and in a wider array of businesses looking to establish a presence and project their brand online. However the search for adult entertainment and related keywords still remains one of the most competitive SEO markets out there today.
Weight loss (and fitness)
Seemingly a perennial problem in the modern age and one of the biggest consumer driven markets in the world is of course weight loss. The weight loss industry, and by proxy the wider fitness industry, was huge before it made it on to the world wide web. With over 500,000 searches per month for the core keyword in the United States alone it is no surprise why it has been one of the traditionally more difficult markets in which to make an impact.
This market sector is perhaps one of the more evergreen niches to be found in terms of SEO competition, with enough worldwide and local traffic consistent on an annual basis to keep it competitive year round. Monthly searches stabilize at around 500,000 per month but peak in the first quarter of the year at over 600,000 and look on the upward trend.
Finance and loan comparison
Much like online gambling with a market driven by intense competition and minimal product differentiation, loans of a number of varieties are particularly hard to rank for and largely require expert consultation to get the best deal possible.
That being said, loans come in all shapes and sizes and it can be difficult to bring this whole industry in line with a single SEO driven niche. Strictly when it comes to loan comparison and finance, particularly in the US, it’s tricky to find a more difficult market to break into.
Hotels and travel
Maybe it should be considered cheating by including two slightly different (though related) niches and markets into one category. Generally speaking, any type of price comparison niche is fundamentally competitive due to its role as lead generation and operators who know their SEO fundamentals.
SERP results for a catch-all term such as “hotels” is one of the most dense and varied out there. Sponsored ads, additional, on-page search engines, and detailed, annotated maps which offer distinctive product comparison make this serious business.
A catch-all query such as “hotels” remains one of the single hardest and most numerous search terms you’ll find on the internet, commanding an impressive 60 million searches at the time of writing.
