Site started again from scratch, advice welcome!

[Online-casinos.co.uk]

Hi all,

My site www.online-casinos.co.uk has been around a long time but I didn't take as much care about it as I should have. It's a good domain name and I feel like I've wasted the last ten years with it. It was so neglected that my host actually closed it down for two months last year and I didn't even notice, it's fair to say my head has been elsewhere, personal problems and what have you.

So I've spent the last few months re-writing it from scratch, it was as much about trying to get a bit of structure and normality into my life (rather than chaos) than about making a decent casino site.

There were thousands of pages on the old site, almost all of them total crap written by cheap writers for whom English was clearly a second language. Despite these pages getting a bit of traffic I've deleted them all as, to be honest, I was embarrassed to be associated with them. Maybe when I first started traffic was everything but this time round I want to try and offer some quality as well.

I saved a few of the pages from the old site, there are about 100 on there now but I hope to produce some original and interesting articles at a good rate and hopefully Google will appreciate this. I've a few ideas for marketing as well, I think I really have to come up with some unique angles to have any chance of making a success of this.

The main focus of the site now is the 'top three in every category', i.e. top three blackjack casinos etc , I hope to expand these main pages to include lots more detail about the best places to play each specific game. Previously it was a bit of a generic 'casino guide' with a lack of focus which might once have been tenable, given the good domain name, but I think that approach is probably more or less a washout now.

The new pages have only recently been indexed in Google and traffic is, as expected, in the toilet. With some care and attention it can only get better. I'd really welcome any feedback as I haven't had anyone to bounce ideas, design and writing styles off.

Cheers,

Tristan.

[wonderpunter]

Imo you are just doing what everyone else is doing.. cookie cutter format top 3 pages with a little bit of text, you have quite a lot of optimized keywords on page which offer few variations "Best" you have history so you definitely have a head start to make this site great, you also have an easy to remember EMD, I would try and offer the visitor more. the design itself looks a little dated especially when things are moving into the mobile first which would future proof what you are doing now.

Hope it doesn't sound too harsh I just wanted to open your eyes to a third party opinion, there will be many here im sure

[JackTenSuited]

Imo you are just doing what everyone else is doing.. cookie cutter format top 3 pages with a little bit of text, you have quite a lot of optimized keywords on page which offer few variations "Best" you have history so you definitely have a head start to make this site great, you also have an easy to remember EMD, I would try and offer the visitor more. the design itself looks a little dated especially when things are moving into the mobile first which would future proof what you are doing now.

Hope it doesn't sound too harsh I just wanted to open your eyes to a third party opinion, there will be many here im sure

An EMD in this case doesn't offer an extra value in terms of SEO as there is no way he will rank the site for 'online casino'. Totally agree on the 'top 3' being a borign standard. You need to go super niche or find something unique to make your site stand out.

[wonderpunter]

An EMD in this case doesn't offer an extra value in terms of SEO as there is no way he will rank the site for 'online casino'. Totally agree on the 'top 3' being a borign standard. You need to go super niche or find something unique to make your site stand out.

I agree that's why i mentioned easy to remember EMD "For return visitors" most of the lucrative keywords I see come up via a mix of title or body text. usually online casino is held by the big brands themselves, the algo is getting tighter than ever on what the site actually represents which is a good thing, it means we need to find alternative methods for drawing traffic.

[Online-casinos.co.uk]

Thanks for the great feedback people

"Imo you are just doing what everyone else is doing.. cookie cutter format top 3 pages with a little bit of text, you have quite a lot of optimized keywords on page which offer few variations "Best" you have history so you definitely have a head start to make this site great, you also have an easy to remember EMD, I would try and offer the visitor more. the design itself looks a little dated especially when things are moving into the mobile first which would future proof what you are doing now.

Hope it doesn't sound too harsh I just wanted to open your eyes to a third party opinion, there will be many here im sure"


Honest feedback is appreciated I didn't pay a great deal of attention to what other sites were doing these days, I saw lots of 'top ten' sites with little information beyond bonuses and thought top three with some specific details depending on category might be a more original twist on it, I guess not! I do want to offer the visitors a lot more information on the 'top three' pages, that's where I'll be looking to improve things most.

The site does look dated but it is fully responsive and actually looks better on mobile, this was another reason for starting from scratch.

Regarding the EMD.. the site has ranked first page for 'online casinos' in the past and with the unpredictability of the google updates it's something I've hoped might happen again if I concentrate on good content and less spammyness. Obviously I'm not banking on that, just ranking somewhere that will give the other pages a boost would be more than enough as it's these pages that will provide the organic traffic, rather than the home page.

[Online-casinos.co.uk]

One thing that has been bugging me is whether or not to focus exclusively on the UK. It would seem a shame not to with the UK name but on the other hand my best converting traffic has always come from elsewhere, that's why for now I'm leaving it open.

[FruityJelena]

This is very interesting story, thanks for sharing with us

The first thing I noticed is of course big slider and I think that some images sliding there are not the best quality and the sharpest, for example Betfred's - so it might look that you didn't care too much. It's the biggest coverage and at least it has to be perfect IMO.

On the other hand, you have lots of game sections and top 3 places for each of them, but I think that some game rules for each are missing.
Also, I'd make their strategy part more visible and featured

ps. Would be cool to have a homepage or to make your logo clickable, leading to the homepage

pps. Arguments for top 3, especially for Top 3 Casinos Overall are not so convincing and reasoned - I'm looking through a player perspective..

And now I'm curious to know if you're writing your content now by yourself?

[Online-casinos.co.uk]

Hi Jelena, thanks for the insightful feedback Great point about the slider, I only turn it on sometimes - when I first made this thread it was off. I didn't notice the Betfred banner was a bit low res but now you mention it I see it, will have that sorted - thanks!

I was in two minds about having game rules, the way I conceived the audience was that they'd already know the rules because whatever they were looking for would already be their favourite game and they were looking for which casino had the best versions. On the other hand it would be useful for the baccarat and craps pages in particular and good for SEO (I think). I hope to make those pages pretty comprehensive so game rules is probably going to be one of the next things I add.

The strategy features definitely need expanding, there's really not a lot there at the moment, that will take a while to build up. Will examine how to make it more visible too, thanks.

"Would be cool to have a homepage or to make your logo clickable, leading to the homepage" Yeah I was in quite a mix up about what exactly the difference was between a homepage and the main casino page so I kind of fudged it and now it's a mixture of both - contents / homepage and top 3 casinos overall. This was already the weakest part of the site as it's the first one I wrote and I wasn't entirely focused. The idea at that point was just to get the basic framework then add and remove casinos as I uncovered better ones, the top 3 overall definitely need changing. I'll get the programmer on the case about making the logo clickable anyway, otherwise as you say it isn't clear how to get back.

I'm surprised you don't find some of the other pages' arguments convincing, I thought I'd researched them quite well to really find the best ones but there's always room for improvement. Maybe the arguments could be refined? I'll have another read through them.

I'm writing the content myself Jelena, some of the articles are from the old site but the main pages are new. Do you think I should get someone else in? A professional writer?

Thanks for the great feedback, this is all really useful, like I said I was pretty much in the dark.

[Miles_FTA]

I like the look and feel but have a few ideas for you.

I would Leave the Header , Raise the Top 3 - Casinos to a more prominent Part of the page maybe under the slider so its the first thing players see.. and then add more content under these after all you want players to download the casinos so your focus should be on driving players to the casinos ..more than anything else ..


Also with slider if the site is a .co.uk site maybe your home page and sliders should focus on GBP Casinos I see the sliders have lots of $ Symbols everywhere maybe these offers can stay on your US Page Instead?

[Online-casinos.co.uk]

Thanks for your feedback Miles Glad you like the look and feel.

I did keep shifting around the 'top 3 casinos' on the front page and the index boxes, couldn't quite decide which one should go first but yeah I take your point, having the casinos first then more content afterwards makes sense. I'll need to get the programmer to modify the banners so different ones appear on different pages, could affect load times though. I've taken the $ ones down for now while I analyse where the traffic is coming from, I think I'll end up putting them back up though because UK traffic is minimal at the moment.

[FruityJelena]

I'm really glad if I wrote any useful feedback

I didn't mean you need to have a homepage, just a button or clickable logo, 'cause as I said I couldn't find an option to go on the first/main page, but to click back in the browser or to delete the rest or the url that goes after co.uk.

Also, didn't mean that your arguments are bad or wrong, but in my opinion they need stronger base. For example, you one of the reasons why casino is in Top 3 is - best bonuses. Why their bonus is the best? Or "number one casino" - why, what criteria did you use?
Hope you understand what I mean Maybe my word choice wasn't the best, but some criteria explained is actually what's missing.

That's great that you write your own content, I'd always trust more in experienced texts rather then in ordered and paid. You're a webmaster and you need to know what are you talking and writing about. That's just what I think.
Other reason that I hoped that you're writing texts is that your top 3 categories seem like YOUR choice, therefore it was logical to me that you're a text (and top 3 lists) writer

Keep it up!

[Online-casinos.co.uk]

Thanks again Jelena It's great to get this feedback. The homepage top 3 casinos definitely needs work, it needs expanding and probably those casinos need replacing with you know, better ones

On a side note I was thinking how to make the site more original and was wondering how easy it would be to integrate a play casino into it and where I could get the software for this? I was thinking of having a weekly league for each featured game i.e. who won most on baccarat etc and featuring this on the 'top 3' pages. My only worry would be that then google wouldn't really know what the page was about. Anyway, if anyone can point me in the right direction for this idea regarding software then it would be very much appreciated!

[FruityJelena]

Thanks again Jelena It's great to get this feedback. The homepage top 3 casinos definitely needs work, it needs expanding and probably those casinos need replacing with you know, better ones

You're very welcome! Don't forget about Fruity Casa Casino when you get back on your feet

[vpp]

Unfortunately, there are many people claiming to be masters at online gambling and will state they can provide quality content. I have found that many of these people are from other countries where English is not the primary language. While you will want you save as much money as possible until commissions start rolling in, it is best to not scrape in this area. Find a well respected writer, one that has worked with other affiliates and can offer recommendations from previous affiliates. You may pay more initially, but you will receive top notch content that will appeal to players and instantly drive up traffic.

Too many affiliates look for the cheapest writers, only to have to rework the content themselves or hire someone else. Eliminate this mistake by carefully choosing a content writer with experience. Always ask for samples or request a sample page to be written and make use of CopyScape!

If you are only offering $0.01 per word or less, you will only attract low level writers, so extend this budget to get what you need to make the site successful and increase rankings and traffic.

[Online-casinos.co.uk]

Spot on, buy cheap buy twice as a wise man once said, or in this case, buy cheap and have to start over again from scratch

I've now got my sister writing some content, she is a breath of fresh air as she is new to the industry (but learning fast) and bringing some quality writing with a comical twist.