Every one of the five million most popular domains, placed in the IAB taxonomy and profiled with domain age, authority and technologies. Find the young sites gaining fast, the ones already monetizing, and the niches nobody owns yet.
Niche research usually means opening hundreds of tabs. Here every site already carries the facts you would go looking for.
Tier 1 and Tier 2 IAB category, 440 in total. The niche the site lives in, in the language advertisers use.
Years since first registration. Separates newcomers from incumbents at a glance.
The site's link strength. A rough measure of how much the web vouches for it, and how hard it is to outrank.
The site's stack, including ad networks, CMS, email and analytics. It shows how the site earns and grows.
The approach grew out of Alpha Quantum's earlier SEO platform, launched in 2019, and has been extended to millions of domains since.
The IAB taxonomy is the standard advertisers, publishers and ad platforms use to describe what a site is about.
Researching in the same categories means your findings map directly onto ad buying, publisher outreach and content planning.
Each recipe is three filters or fewer. Swap the category for yours and run it. Recipes 02, 05 and 06 use technology filters, included in both plans.
Category: Pets. Domain age up to 5 years. Sort by authority.
Technology: an ad network. Category: Personal Finance. Young domains first.
Any category. Sort by authority, no age limit.
Old domains, modest authority, legacy tech.
Technology: an email platform. Any category.
Technology: a store platform. Content categories.
A Tier 2 category with few domains overall.
A Tier 2 category with many strong domains.
Neither number means much alone. Read them as a pair and four kinds of site appear, each with a different lesson for anyone entering the niche.
| Age | Authority | Type of site | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Young | High | Breakout | Something about it is working. Study it closely. |
| Old | High | Incumbent | Hard to beat head-on. Find the angle it ignores. |
| Old | Low | Stalled | A sign the niche can be won with better execution. |
| Young | Low | Newcomer | Too early to tell. Check again in six months. |
Young domains with high authority are usually riding something people talk about. They attract links faster than their age would predict.
Run these on a Tier 2 category before you commit months of work to it. If four or more answers look good, the niche deserves a deeper look.
The row count for the category. Too few may mean no audience; too many means crowding.
Sort by authority. If the top ten are all very strong, look for a narrower niche.
Filter to young domains. Several with good authority means the door is open.
Filter by ad network or store technology. Monetized sites prove a business model.
Look at the stacks. Legacy technology on leading sites signals an opening.
Cross-check related product groups for a rising 5-year trend.
A classified map of five million sites is useful far beyond picking a blog topic. Six groups use it every week, each starting from a different filter.
Pick a niche with proof of demand and room to compete.
Find sites worth buying before they are listed.
Build outreach lists of relevant sites in a niche.
Find publishers in the categories you want to appear in.
Recruit content partners in your product's niche.
Study how niches form and grow across the web.
A builder wants to enter personal finance and needs proof that small sites can still earn.
Each Tier 1 category behaves differently for a niche builder. These notes describe typical patterns to look for when you open one.
Breed and species niches go deep. Young sites with strong authority appear often.
Lucrative ads and affiliate offers, but trust and expertise matter more than anywhere.
Vegan diets and non-alcoholic drinks show how fast new sub-niches form.
Readers arrive with a task. How-to sites monetize through products and ads.
Broad travel is crowded. Specific destinations and travel styles are more open.
New software and devices create fresh niches every year. Old sites can stall quickly.
Medical topics favor established authorities. Wellness and fitness sub-niches are more open.
Crafts, collecting and games reward real expertise and steady publishing.
Each sport has its own calendar. Equipment niches pair well with stores.
Many sites sell directly. Content sites compete with brands for attention.
Niches by make, model and repair task can be very deep and loyal.
Specific exams and skills attract steady, motivated audiences.
The technology column shows how a site makes money. Use it to check which models work in your niche, and copy the model rather than the content.
| Model | Stack signal | Fits niches with | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display ads | Ad network scripts | High traffic, broad topics | Low rates in some categories |
| Affiliate | Affiliate link tools, comparison widgets | Product-heavy buying decisions | Program changes and commission cuts |
| Own store | Store platform, cart and payment tools | Clear product demand | Inventory and fulfilment work |
| Newsletter and sponsors | Email platform, sign-up forms | Loyal, repeat readers | Slow list growth at the start |
| Memberships | Paywall or membership tools | Deep expertise, community | Churn and content pressure |
| Lead generation | Forms, scheduling, chat | Local and B2B services | Lead quality disputes |
A six-step plan for content builders who have finished their research and want to publish with a clear edge from day one.
The one that scored best on the six questions. Resist the urge to cover two.
Export the young, strong sites. These are your real competitors and teachers.
Note what they cover well and what they skip. Gaps are your first articles.
Use the monetization model that works for them. Write everything yourself.
Use low-difficulty product groups for your first buying guides.
Run the same filters again. New breakouts show where the niche is heading.
Most failed niche sites were picked on passion or a single keyword. The data catches these early, before months of writing go into a niche that was never going to work.
Big categories have the strongest incumbents. Go one tier down, where 440 categories give you far more room.
Traffic without a way to earn is a hobby. Check who already makes money, and how, before you write a word.
One breakout site is a story. Several in the same niche is a pattern worth following.
Old, strong domains hold rankings for years. Plan for a long game or go narrower.
What leading sites run tells you how they earn and how they grow.
Niches shift. Re-run your filters every quarter and compare the top 20 with last time.
Most niche questions reduce to a category, an age band, an authority sort and sometimes a technology.
| Question | Filters | Sort |
|---|---|---|
| Which dog sites grew fastest recently? | Pets / Dogs, age up to 5 years | Authority |
| Who leads the personal investing niche? | Personal Finance / Personal Investing | Authority |
| Do small travel sites still earn from ads? | Travel, ad network technology | Age, youngest first |
| Which recipe niches are under-served? | Food & Drink Tier 2 categories | Row count, lowest first |
| Which hobby sites sell their own products? | Hobbies, store platform technology | Authority |
| Where are old leaders stalling? | Any category, old domains | Authority, lowest first |
| Which sites build email lists? | Any category, email platform technology | Authority |
| Which tech blogs are newest and strongest? | Technology & Computing, young domains | Authority |
| Who should I pitch for guest posts? | Your category, mid authority band | Authority |
| Which niches should I avoid? | Tier 2 categories with very strong top sites | Authority, highest first |
The five million most popular domains worldwide, plus more than a million online stores in the store database. Together they cover almost every niche with real traffic.
The IAB taxonomy in two tiers, 440 categories in total. It is the standard used across digital advertising.
The link strength of a domain: how much other sites link to and vouch for it. Higher authority usually means easier ranking.
Both plans, from $999 per year, including technology filters.
Pick a category, set maximum domain age to five years, and sort by authority, highest first. The top rows are the sites gaining links fastest for their age.
Yes. Filter by an ad network technology on both plans. See ad-monetized websites.
Yes, to CSV, Excel or PDF. Many users continue the analysis in spreadsheets or Python, adding their own notes and scores per site.
Yes. Filter a niche by authority band to build relevant outreach lists quickly. Relevance by category tends to lift reply rates compared with generic lists.
The five million domains are global. Categories apply to sites in every language, so you can study the same niche across markets.
Many domains, very strong top sites and few young sites with good authority. Go one tier more specific, or pick an audience the leaders ignore.
Investors use the young, strong and monetized filters to build shortlists, then approach owners directly. Many good sites are never publicly listed for sale.
Yes. Each query and each page of results counts as a search. Advanced includes 10,000 per month, which covers a thorough study of many niches.
Tier 1 is the broad vertical, such as Pets. Tier 2 is the specific niche inside it, such as Dogs or Fish and Aquariums.
Most niche decisions should be made at Tier 2.
Combine a category with keyword search or technology filters to narrow further. Exports let you segment by your own labels too.
Filter content categories by a store platform technology. These sites mix publishing with commerce.
No. Most young domains have low authority. Only the ones with unusually high authority for their age are breakouts.
Yes. Map the client's niche, list the breakout competitors, and build the content plan around their gaps.
Quarterly. New breakout sites and fading incumbents both show up within a few months, and early movers get the best of both.
440 categories, domain age, authority and technologies. Included in both plans, from $999 per year.