TRAFFIC
some authors that say this is better than
follow buttons but I personally disagree.
If you have a user on the site and they are
a Facebook user as well, they are probably
already signed into Facebook so if they
have a choice of a Facebook icon which
they might know will take them to your
Facebook page or a like button, which
one would they click on and what would
happen? If they want to ‘like’ you then the
‘like’ button is the easiest way to get that
like, and they are still on your website. If
the user clicks on the Facebook page and
goes to your fan page, they might forget
about your site and do other Facebook
activities like chat with friends or play other
ridiculous games like Candy Crush or
FarmVille.
Geotargeting
The old site didn’t have geotargeting, but
this is too important to ignore these days.
If you are a WordPress user, there is a
geotargeting plug-in which you can get at
epikmedia.com (user code gaffg for $10
off). So, for all you WordPress users, you
should have some plug-in to make sure
24
iGB Affiliate FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
you are sending the right pages, offers,
and links to match it up with the country
of your users. Here, we obviously match
up casinos with users to let them know if
that casino is accepted for players of their
country and location.
Unique selling point (USP)
Does the site have any value to users?
Is this the type of site they would consider
liking on social media, bookmarking
to come back to it, sharing it with their
friends or even emailing it because of the
value it provides? A redesign is one thing,
but having a good solid USP was very
important both in terms of a domain name,
logo and the message it sends when users
get to the page.
People should know what they are
getting into when they find your site and
the old site did a poor job of relaying that
message as a casino guide. The new site is
fairly clear as to what it is about when users
visit the homepage, or indeed any page.
As the site grows, provides more value
and gets more traffic, this is where it
can shine in terms of getting more users
following the site, people linking back
naturally and getting social media
shares or even email shares.
When your site provides good value, you
will see people sharing your site in many
ways. When you start to add this up, this
is one way of becoming less dependent
on Google’s search traffic; but, of course,
in being this good, this is one way of
generating natural links and demonstrating
to Google you are a legitimate site with
value that deserves a high ranking.
John Wright is an SEO
and design consultant at
horseshoeagency.com, and is
also the editor and affiliate coach
of Gaffg.com. He has been in the
online gambling industry for over
ten years. He can be reached at
[email protected].