How does 2-3 niches per blog effect SEO?

[chardee42]

I run a blog for dogs and, so far, I have not picked a niche. I've been leaning toward "dog health", but also like to write about dog accessories and training. (These are easier to monetize.)

If it is organized in categories, does it hurt (SEO) to have 2 niches (maybe 3) as opposed to one?

Will it have a negative impact on my ranking?

[Nathan]

It could. Personally, with my rambling blog Experiment Garden I'm not seeing many problems. I cover many niches and get about 200 visits a day, that on a blog that is less than six months old.

However, there are definite benefits to covering only one niche.

[chardee42]

Thanks for the reply. I'm really torn on this because, at this time, I don't want to run multiple blogs (I'm really just getting this one going). However, I want to be able to blog about different topics regarding dogs.

[stephen todd]

Originally Posted by chardee42

I run a blog for dogs and, so far, I have not picked a niche. I've been leaning toward "dog health", but also like to write about dog accessories and training. (These are easier to monetize.)

If it is organized in categories, does it hurt (SEO) to have 2 niches (maybe 3) as opposed to one?

Will it have a negative impact on my ranking?

Unfortunately "dog health" is regarded by Google as being very specific to dog health and various dog diseases - the only other thing they semantically relate it to is "puppies"

Only option is to go higher up your search tree - before you got to "dog health", in order to have symantically related niches - the downside of this is you'll face competition from more tightly niched sites

these are the symantically related categories for a "dog health" site:

dog health
dog hip dysplasia
dog breeds health
dog health crates
dog lyme disease
dog heartworm disease
dog health vet
dog health diseases
puppies dog

[chardee42]

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get that info?

[MuttzNuttz]

I'd be interested in hearing the answer to that question too.

[stephen todd]

Originally Posted by chardee42

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get that info?

straight from the horse's mouth!

got it from google

2 different ways:

1/ direct search - i.e. using quotes "dog health" - this is the best method but if nothing comes back use #2

2/ dog health

what you do is goto google dot com and in the search box enter "dog health"
and look down at the bottom of the page - see those blue hyperlinked search phrases underneath the heading: Searches related to: "dog health"

in Google's opinion those are the most relevant symantic phrases directly related to "dog health"

for this particular search phrase you get back different phrases if you don't use the quotes - still important phrases in Google's eyes, but I always go with the direct search method

you can build up your whole site's structure by entering the returned phrases back into the search box

this is how I structure the framework of static LSI sites

[AMWhelan]

Great reply Stephen. Interesting to know.

[Rich-P]

I think you'll be fine covering a few topics so long as they are related. I find it's easier to build bigger sites covering multiple related areas than build lots of small sites each covering a separate niche.

[QuirkyMomma]

Wow! Stephen thanks for that detailed explanation of search terms! I will have to go through my tags.

Like you, Chardee, I am wondering if the focus of my blog is too spread for "niche" development.