Hey Zedek,

The answer, as with most things in life is, IT DEPENDS!!

Hahaha!! Sorry, not much help there.

Okay, every keyword and query has a specific "searcher intent" to it.

And Google will rank articles on page one if they feel it has answered this searcher intent for a specific keyword.

However, if you find lots of User Generated Content (Quora, Reddit, Forums, Social Media Sites, etc.) on page one of Google, this is typically an indication that this is an "easy ranking" keyword.

Basically, Google didn't deem any (or not many) NICHE-SPECIFIC or Authority websites to have good enough content to satisfy searcher intent for that keyword to rank them on page one.

HOWEVER

What you'll often find is that sometimes an authority website is ranked because they have mentioned that search query within a broader article.

So, using your example, the authority website has focused their article on

Top 10 Meat-Free Alternative Vegan Foods

And within their article they talk about vegan burgers, and then in about 100 words they have answered the query "What Are Vegan Burgers Made Of?"

So, they have "satisfied" searcher intent, which is why they are ranking.

BUT

You'll probably notice that even though they're an authority website, they aren't ranking at number one for that query, but usually further down the page.

Realistically, this is because they only have 100 words around the actual search query.

That same article is probably ranking number one for about 50 different keywords, but is only ranking at number 10 for "What are Vegan Burgers Made Of" because they've barely scraped the surface of this in their article.

So, ALWAYS READ THE AUTHORITY ARTICLE FIRST.

I actually did discuss this is one of my "alternative" keyword research blog posts.

So, you'll have to wade through the tutorial (although, I'm sure it's worth reading in its entirety, if you haven't read it before), but you'll see that I have also discussed this very topic of "authority websites ranking for not particularly relevant content" about three-quarters of the way through. And Now… For Something MIND-BLOWINGLY Completely Different (and OUT THERE) Plus, in my recent blog post about creating articles based on what's already ranking, I have actually given a couple of examples of this as well: What The &%$! Do You Want From Me? (A Journey Into Google’s Mind) Hope that helps.

Partha

The majority of the keywords I have scouted out are like this, the competition is not answering the question, but rather giving an overview of the general topic, for example, another keyword I scouted was "what are vegan leather jackets made of" None directly answer the question but instead they either talk about vegan leather as a whole, or they offer places to purchase them.

My personal opinion is it will not hurt to do it. Check all possible keywords. And continue to build your website and your own authority along the way.

Mel

Not when starting out, you would find it hard to rank and beat high authority websites. What is your metrics for the keyword?