Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi Everyone,

Just found this forum, but seeing as I’m a start up and also a first time poster so no better place to start I think than in the website critique section!

I own an online poker rakeback website. Ok so competition in this area is tough, 5000+ websites, however 99% of these sites are generic. They have one home page with all the rakeback offers but no original regular content.

So I got a word press themed design for my website. I was very green when starting this out and didn’t and probably still don’t fully understand all about SEO so I’m sure my design may be lacking some vital components there.

My goal as stated is to have regular new content by using a regularly updated blog where I add poker articles, reviews off all things poker, posts directing readers to other sites where there are inspiring posts which may motivate my members /readers to play more and to play better and improve. I also do critiques of poker training videos which I find useful, poker blogposts which were motivating, podcasts where I have learnt some new strategy..

I hired a young designer to design site for me. I had a design doc which he used as blueprint. This design was based on the popular successful competitors out there.

I do feel however that this site which was supposed to offer new regular content, doesn’t seem to offer new regular content because you can’t actually see any new regular content unless you scroll down the page or check out the menu items. So in essence my site now looks like my generic competitors which I wanted to be different from.

So I know I have a product that will sell once I get enough virtual footfall, but I looking for a critique on

1. Design architecture and actual look (graphics, homepage webcopy)
2. SEO improvements for site

For SEO, I know I should really have planned out my keywords before I even designed the site, but didn’t realize that till well after I launched the site;-) .So let’s say one of my keywords that I want to rank high on goole is ‘poker tips’. Would it have been better for me to have one of my submenu items in my poker education menu called poker tips? Or will be ok to have articles under my ‘Poker Articles’s menu item with keyword  ‘poker tips’ in the actual header and keyword anchor text ‘poker tips’ in the main article body.

Thanks for your time and be as harsh as you want. I can take it!! I really like the look of this forum so hope to get involved with discussions as much as possible and hopefully offer some value with some decent questions and informative answers myself.

Cheers

rakeback (aka Paul)

http://rakebackreward.com

Hey Paul,

I think the site looks great. I was able to find my way around fairly easily and the graphics are professional. You had mentioned wanting the site to look updated when you land on the page. For this I would suggest making your blog the homepage and having your navigation going to the information you want your viewers to have access to.

There are a lot of SEO strategies out there but it just so happens that I received a free report from the guys over at SEO Networker. They have been in the SEO biz for more than 4 years now and I find their content extremely valuable.

I suggest starting with their free report Traffic Cipher. This report shows you how to quickly get a page ranked #1 in the search engines using an often overlooked strategy (good for you since you have such high competition).

Also, keep up with my blog at the Online Entrepreneur's Information Station. I will be releasing my Morse DeCode Marketing Manual very soon and it will be literally packed full of strategies to drive traffic to your site.

I hope this information has helped you. You can always hit me up on my site if you have more questions.

To Your Success,

Ernest Morse

http://www.ernestmorse.com/

Online Entrepreneur

thanks Ernest. I checked out your site. You have some good articles. cheers