EveryPoker.com Case Study
 |
URL: www.EveryPoker.com |
| PR: 5 | |
| Est: 2004 |
Overview
EveryPoker.com is a mammoth in the world of online poker portals. The site’s conversion-orientated design and high volumes of traffic for top converting keywords means that it is easily one of the biggest earning poker websites on the net.
The site combines all the best features of what creates a great poker site, whilst having the ability to offer visitors the opportunity to download new poker sites without being overly ‘in your face’. This great balance has allowed the site to generate large amounts of income from poker affiliating, and it currently sits at the top of the pile when it comes to the best performing poker portals.
Design
EveryPoker.com has a very attractive design, which has made it a target for copy cat sites looking to get their hands on an equally attractive site themselves.
The site uses a textured background, which does well in adding a sense of grandeur and authority to the site. Normally a textured background is not recommended for websites as it can slow down the speed at which the page loads and distracts from the main content. However, it goes to show how a textured background can work well if used correctly.
In spite of this, it is always best to stick with a plain background if you are unsure about what you are doing. 90% of the time it is better to go with a plain background rather than a textured one.
There is a highly effective use of the “top rooms” side navigation if you look to the right hand side of the page. By having this side navigation accompany every page of the site, your visitors will only ever be one click away from reading a room review.
Therefore the opportunity is always there to convert that visitor, no matter which page of the site they are on. This is why a list of the top rooms in the navigation bar is becoming increasingly popular across poker portals, and is an effective way of converting passive visitors.
Content
Although the site has a solid amount of content, there are far fewer articles than you might expect for such an authoritative site. There are a fair amount of strategy articles and player profiles on the site, but these are not frequently updated, nor is there a rolling poker news section like on the pokertips.org site. The site’s main focus is around poker room reviews and poker bonus codes.
Whilst this is a perfectly viable strategy for a poker site a few years ago, it is a very competitive market to try and rank well in if you are just starting out. EveryPoker.com is a few years old, and so it has had time to develop links and rise up the search engines for such terms that were once far less competitive than they are now. So the site easily has the capital to stay near the top for these terms, which unfortunately a new poker affiliate will not normally have.
So although EveryPoker can afford to focus more on ranking well for competitive search terms, it is not an ideal strategy for anyone looking to build a new poker site in today’s market. The best way to achieve success with a site is to build as much quality content as possible, and SEO your pages as best you can as you go along. Lots of content equals lots of traffic, then from there on out you can start to work on converting that traffic.
SEO
As already mentioned, EveryPoker ranks exceptionally well for some of the highest converting poker search terms around. This is no mean feat, and just goes to show how a good knowledge of SEO in this industry can prove invaluable when it comes to developing a successful poker site.
Like many of the other poker website case studies, EveryPoker gets all of the basics right when it comes to SEO. All h1, title tags, meta tags and such are in place, allowing each page to rank to the best of their ability in the search engines. What sets EveryPoker apart from other poker portals is the high volume of links pointing to the site. The more quality links you have pointing to your site, the higher your site will rank in the search engines.
Summary
EveryPoker.com is easily one of the top poker sites on the net. Many new affiliates aspire to having a site of this calibre, which is not surprising seeing how beautifully designed and successful the site is. Just make sure not copy any aspect of the site when you create your own, as I am sure this is a major source of frustration for the webmaster.
The one thing you should remember is that you have to prepare to focus on building content rather than focusing solely on poker room reviews. This is because it is going to be very difficult to obtain traffic from the search engines if you only have poker room reviews and bonus code pages on your site. Just work on the content and the traffic will follow.