Niche Sites vs. Authority Sites

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In the world of internet marketing there are two broad types of sites that you can create: Niche sites and Authority sites.

In reality, both sites focus on niches but the difference is in terms of how they focus on the niches.

Niche Sites

These are generally quite small sites, from single page sites to around 5 pages (roughly, some sites can be bigger).

Their focus is normally extremely narrow, either on a group of products like HD TVs or even just a single model of HD TV.

The keyword focus of the sites is naturally just as narrow as you are only wanting traffic related to these particular products, you don’t want traffic about handheld TVs if your site is about 40 inch HD TVs.

The social aspect of niche sites is also quite basic. Mostly they will have Facebook like buttons, Google Plus +1 buttons and so on, but wont link to any social network accounts.

Finally, niche marketing sites tend to be “set ‘em and forget ‘em” type sites, where once the site structure is done and rankings gained you leave them alone except to periodically check their rankings, tweak or update articles and maybe add an extra product or two if it’s relevant.

Authority sites

This type of site is normally much bigger in scope. The niche tends to be wider for a start. Take for example this very site, it focuses on internet marketing as a niche, which is quite broad. If it was a Niche Site then it may have focused on PPC content (Pay Per Click) via Adsense.

Because of the larger scope, the number of articles on an authority site tends to be much larger and crossing various topics within the niche.

As such the keyword focus is often just as varied, as you would be targeting different visitors for different articles.

Authority sites are generally the type of site you need to create in order to starting forming a brand, and as such tend to have more in the way of social networking. Not only the Like and +1 style buttons but links to active social network profiles where visitors can actively converse with the site owner/staff.

This type of site needs constant work, as well it should as it could be the hub of your online business. It will need articles written for the site and off the site to keep it up to date and interesting. Social networks need to be created and nurtured and many other things.

Whilst it is recommended to look at an authority site in the long run, if you are just starting out creating a Niche site may be the better option so that you can get used to the website software, tools and general process of internet marketing.