While we were performing our annual analysis of the toy market, yes, we did notice that many of the big brands have top spots for the best keywords. However, we also noticed they were missing out on a ton of easy keywords. So easy that they were being outranked by awful sites with spammy backlink profiles!

If these keywords are not being targeted by the big sites, this leaves a gap in the market for reputable, trustworthy brands to get in and fill that position. However, as you’ll see soon enough, it also leaves room for spammers to come in and profit as well…

In the following paragraphs, you’re going to discover the opportunities that exist in the toy market and how you can quickly snatch them up and reap the rewards that follow.

Niching Down on Age

The most prevalent opportunity found to meander round the big brands and authoritative competition was through targeting age ranges. Specifically, if you were to create an entire category or blog section on this topic, you’ll be ranking and profiting in no-time.

The biggest opportunity according to the data was in regard to toys for 9-year-old girls. When searching this keyword, it was clear none of the brands on the report were actively targeting this term. If they were, they were doing so poorly, either with a lack of pages or a mismatch in intent.

Many of the results on the first page were list-based articles, reviewing the top toys for 9-year-olds. Other were cheaply made, spam-filled sites that shouldn’t be ranking at all.

The above picture is of the backlink profile for one of the sites ranking for an age-related search term which received close to 3000 searches a month. Those domains are trash. This could be outranked with ease.

When looking at the rest of the SERPs, the general consensus is that any site with a DR of 20 can rank for these terms. If you own a toy brand and have a trustworthy, reputable website, these terms could be easily snatched up if you were to target them properly.

To drive this point home further, here is a snapshot from Ahrefs for the top 10 results for the main keyword we found:

Not only are there low DRs present in the top 10 but the number spot is held by a 30DR site. If you also look at the keywords these posts rank for, you’ll notice some appear for 300+ keywords, meaning there are even more low-hanging fruit opportunities to be found when digging into these keywords.

There are tons of similar keywords and there is often overlap when you throw gender into the mix as well. I will admit, there are some big brands atop these searches, but the majority are easy to grab opportunities that will significantly impact the bottom line.

Adding Modifiers to Searches for Even More Potential

Sure, you can make money by simply including more age-focused targeting for your category page. Just be aware this is only the beginning.

You can still add further modifiers to those searches to yield even more potential. For example, check out this keyword:

‘Imaginative toys for 6 year olds’

This is a pretty longtail search, yet it gets over 300 searches a month, not including the other longtail variants it will inevitably rank for.

The competition for this term is low and doesn’t feature any large brands, so smaller brands won’t have trouble getting in without being noticed.

Experiment with modifiers like the one mentioned above. If you dig deep enough, you can start to find lucrative, age-specific searches you didn’t even know existed.

Targeting by Childhood Disorder

The report also resulted in us stumbling across a toy keyword topic we hadn’t even thought of. There is a ton of search traffic revolving around toys for children with specific disorders, such as autism.

‘Toys for autistic children’ gets over 2000 searches a month and, once again, larger brands are failing to target this keyword. The only big brand present on the SERPs was The Entertainer, the rest were random brands we had never seen or specialist sites that sold products for this specific cohort.

More importantly, because there were hardly any large brands present, the competition was low. Here is a shot of the SERP playing field from a top 10 overview:

As you can see, there are a few low DR sites dotted around the top 10. What this could mean is, with some effective SEO and targeting, these keywords could be taken by a smaller toy brand.

Also look at the number of keyword variants these articles/sites rank for. There could be a ton of opportunities waiting to be found inside those additional rankings.

However, due to the nature of the search and audience, certain products may need checking/auditing before being put up for sale. I’m unaware of the checks that need to be made to confirm a toy is suitable for children with specific disorders. So please, do your diligence and don’t be unethical!

Doubling Down on Board Games

Brands like Zatu, also known as board-games.co.uk, have made a huge amount of money selling one specific product – board games. They had grown substantially year-on-year in the report and looking at them now in 2020, they’re still rocketing upwards.

Board games can be targeted to children specifically and they’re big business. Keywords for board games range in the thousands and the competition is pretty low on the SERPs.

For example, for the search term ‘board games for 6 year olds’, there is a site with a DR of 0 ranking in the top 10… yes, 0!

Not even Zatu ranks for this term, so you don’t even have to battle them on Google to get a slice of the pie. I’m generally surprised toy brands don’t target board game keywords more often.

When looking at board game keywords from a broader perspective, the competition is really small. For keyword difficulty ranging from 4 to 30;

Given that Zatu has been shooting up in visibility in the recent years, I suggest other toy brands start looking to expand this topic on their own sites so they can start reaping the rewards that come with these keywords.

Summary

To be honest, I could write the findings all day. There are so many opportunities toy brands are missing when it comes to SEO. Specifically, profitable keywords are lying out in the open and sites with trashy backlink profiles are picking up the pieces.

Big toy brands aren’t even trying to target these terms, meaning smaller brands should be making a move on them for that precious visibility boost.

If you haven’t had a chance to get the report yet, download it here. It’ll reveal a lot about your industry and will help you in the right direction.

There is a lot to uncover and this is just the beginning. So, if you’re eager to learn more and want an expert agency to hold your hand along the way, I suggest you get in touch for a free audit and a casual conversion!