So, you are thinking about starting a horse racing website? – Good idea. It is a niche website that will be appealing to a specific audience, which is the only recipe for success in 2024.
The more specific you get, the better.
But what are some of the SEO strategies that will help you get more traffic?
Well, the weather in the SERPs is constantly changing, and you won’t only need an umbrella. You’ll need sunscreen, a wetsuit, boots, gloves, swimwear, and anything that will help you adapt to certain changes quickly.
Starting a website is the easy part, getting traffic in these competitive times is more difficult. But, there are certain SEO strategies that can help you gain exposure and boost your rankings which directly correlate to a boost in traffic.
Let’s discuss horse racing niche SEO.
Top SEO Tips for Horse Racing Website
Niche Audience
As we mentioned before, going for a specific topic is the right plan for success. Horse racing itself is niche, but you can go into more subcategories like specific types of races, specific types of horse breeds, horse racing gear, or something else.
You cannot expect to make a generic horse racing website about news and rank well in the SERPs.
Let’s take TwinSpires for example, one of the leading brands in horse racing, where you can check the updated Kentucky Derby results: https://www.twinspires.com/kentuckyderby/results/
Their domain authority (DA) is an impressive 72, which means that no matter how good your content is they will always outrank you in the search results if you talk about the same topics.
So, going more specific is a key SEO move in order to get organic traffic.
Speed and Mobile Friendliness
We cannot stress more about your website speed and its mobile-friendliness just so you know its impact on your SEO metrics.
A website that opens slowly and doesn’t come with a responsive user interface won’t rank well in the search results no matter how good your other SEO strategies are.
So, invest in speed and performance. Purchase a better hosting package, if you are on WordPress install plugins like WPRocket that can boost your performance, minimize the size of images, and do everything you need to do to speed up your site.
On top of that, Google values websites that work well on mobile. So, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly.
Content is KING
If I’m asked about the best SEO strategy to use, I’ll always say content quality! Nowadays, the SERPs are full of spammy websites, untrustworthy websites, AI-generated content, and more nonsense.
And you might think to yourself, why pay writers for my website when I can generate the entire content using ChatGPT?
Well, you might rank for a couple of months, and then see your website demolished by a Google update.
The best way to succeed in the website business is to make sure that the content you publish is always high-quality and brings some value to the readers.
In-Content SEO (On-page SEO)
There are a lot of strategies to use in order to improve your on-page SEO. The goal here is to make Google’s or any other search engine job easier on identifying your content and serving it to the right viewer.
How to do that?
Well, first of all, your content must follow a certain structure. Don’t write a large blob of text and slap it to a post.
It needs headings. Make sure you use H2 and H3 headings the most. Search engines love headings and they use this parameter to see what your content is about.
Important: Avoid using H1 since most WordPress websites set the title as H1 and duplicate H1s can lead to a drop in rankings due to spam.
Additionally, add as many pictures as possible. This won’t only improve the user experience on your website but also help you rank on the search engine image tab. Just make sure you put an Alt Description on every image explaining to search engines what is the image about.
Use bold words and italic words. This slows down your reader’s pace sharpens their attention and increases their time spent reading the article.
Add bullet points, tables, and more. The goal here is to make sure that your content is rich with different formats and that is made by humans for humans.
Tackle Specific Keywords
Once you’ve chosen your niche, it’s time to do some digging. Finding the best-performing keywords is crucial for getting traffic, especially in the early phase of your website.
The goal here is to find keywords that have low competition, and a moderate to small number of searches on Google. It might be tempting to cover keywords like “what is horse racing” that have more searches monthly, but it won’t do you any good since the first two pages of the SERPs will be filled with high-authority websites.
You’ll need to find smaller keywords (20-50 searches monthly), with low competition just so you can increase your chances of ranking on the first page.
Ingrid Maldine is a business writer, editor and management consultant with extensive experience writing and consulting for both start-ups and long established companies. She has ten years management and leadership experience gained at BSkyB in London and Viva Travel Guides in Quito, Ecuador, giving her a depth of insight into innovation in international business. With an MBA from the University of Hull and many years of experience running her own business consultancy, Ingrid’s background allows her to connect with a diverse range of clients, including cutting edge technology and web-based start-ups but also multinationals in need of assistance. Ingrid has played a defining role in shaping organizational strategy for a wide range of different organizations, including for-profit, NGOs and charities. Ingrid has also served on the Board of Directors for the South American Explorers Club in Quito, Ecuador.
