Update on Best Online Poker Sites

It has been exactly a month since my last post on changing the url from PokerSplendor.com to BestOnlinePokerSites.com.

A day after my last post, both sites disappeared from the index. Best Online Poker Sites then showed up a day later (poker splendor was taken out of the index) but was on the second page for “poker sites” along with most of the other long tail keywords. After a  few days the sites position improved but didn’t have the exact same rankings as before but was holding on to the 10 spot on the first page for “poker sites”.

It stayed at the 10 position for a couple weeks until Friday (6/18/2010) which was the first time I think google put the site back into it’s original position at 7.

Overall the traffic hasn’t changed much from before and after the switch. A lot of the long tail keywords followed the same path as the poker sites keyword. I would definitely forward another site if I thought I had a much better domain for a site. It was a bit of a hassle to email linking sites about my url changing but it didn’t take long.

Interesting to note that Bing still shows Poker Splendor while Yahoo has updated it’s index and shows BOPS.  To be fair, I used google webmasters to let google know of the site being redirected (along with the htaccess 301) while with bing I didn’t use their webmaster center.

PokerSplendor.com is now BestOnlinePokerSites.com

I decided recently that I was going to move Poker Splendor to a new domain. When I created Poker Splendor I wanted to make it a bit more interesting then just another poker portal. I added a couple eye-catching pictures and made a couple sections that were different from the norm including the Las Vegas section.

Though, recently I decided that I liked the site but would rather have a domain that had keywords that I am targeting. So I purchased the domain Best Online Poker Sites and on Monday (5/17) switched the site to it via 301 redirects.

Google has already cached the new site and has 40 pages in the index. It also still has the Poker Splendor cache so I am still getting the same amount of traffic to the site. I have a feeling over the next couple days the Poker Splendor cache will disappear and hopefully my new domain will take it’s place. Though, I have heard that for a bit I may lose some of my serp positions as google makes the switch.

I will make another post in about a month with an update to how the 301 redirect went and if my traffic levels and serp positions changed.

Free SEO Gambling Traffic

There will always be a lot of discussion by affiliates about the percentage of traffic that they convert. I have found real money player conversions (from your site to real money players) has a lot to do with keywords. There are definitely other site factors including calls to action, programs you are promoting, banners used…etc. But in the end, I think if you have the best keywords (online poker, online casino) you will convert more traffic than the most optimized free casino/poker site.

I think most people realize that “free” is a really low converting keyword but there is a lot of traffic for it. So how bad can it really be?

I created a site to target a “free” (casino/poker) site and here are the stats so far:

Clicks: 719

Unique Downloads: 35

Sign-ups: 30

New Depositors: 0

Yep, no conversions…This doesn’t mean that later down the road there won’t be any real money conversions as this is a small sample size of time and players. Though, I can definitely say that “free” keywords aren’t a get rich quick type of keyword. Also, the program that I was sending the traffic through has done really well in the past with converting players so I don’t think it’s the program…Although, I may try sending the traffic to another program to see if I will get better results.

What Domain Would You Choose for SEO purposes?

Recently, I found a keyword that I wanted to target and decided I would check to see if the domain was available. Of course, the .com was taken but the .net and .org were available.  I don’t mind developing domain names with either of these extensions but since it was a two word keyword, I also searched to see if putting a dash between the keywords was available. The dash .com was also  available. The last domain name option would be to add another keyword to the domain to get the .com.

The basic problem with .net, .org and dash is you you may lose traffic to the .com.

Using a domain with an added  keyword  makes the domain harder to remember and you may not get as much search engine benefit of having the exact keyword match.

I have used all of the above domain buying options except using a dash. So I bought a dash domain name and will report on how it goes.  I may buy a couple more to get a general idea on whether the search engine benefit is as much as you would get as if you used .net/.org counterparts.

I run into this question quite often and haven’t decided which type of domain name I prefer. I usually end up picking one and then the next time I have the problem go with a different option…I figure it can’t hurt changing it up because long term no one knows how google will rank extensions and dash domains but if anyone has any evidence or thoughts on which is best currently…let me know.