GaryTheScubaGuy.com
SEO Tips and Tricks
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Europa online casino today unveiled its Christmas advent calendar (http://www.europacasino.com/christmas_casino_bonuses.html) that may see avid gamers receive a variety of gifts within the run up to Christmas. Each day avid gamers can access the Christmas casino bonus calendar to see what treats lie in store for them at the on the net casino (http://www.europacasino.com). The gifts include free bonuses, cash refunds, Happy Hours, deposit bonuses and surprise treats.
The advent calendar will culminate in a '12 day of Christmas' extravaganza that should help men and women celebrate the festive season in true EuropaCasino.com style with special christmas casino bonuses. Casino Manager Marius Valentin said “As the leading European on the internet casino, our game enthusiasts have become accustomed to the extremely ideal. There's no far better time than Christmas time to give some extra specific gifts to our members! We are incredibly excited about our new advent calendar and hope that our game enthusiasts take pleasure in it as much as we have enjoyed creating it.”
The promotion will be running from the 1st of December through the entire advent period. Mr Valentin finished by adding “we are always looking for new ways to reward our players and, with this incredible offer, we hope all our game enthusiasts will take pleasure in their finest Christmas ever!”
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I have gotten this a lot lately so I thought I’d drop a quick post about it.
Google Penalty
- Dig your internal traffic analytics for traffic drops or bad trends;
- Perform [site:yoursite.com] search in Google to see if Google reports same number of indexed URLs;
- Check if Google Webmaster Tools report any problems;
- Take a look if Google toolbar PR has changed (graybar PR might be a signal of penalty);
- Check your site ranking for a “domain-name” search (without the TLD).
- Check if Google has blacklisted your site as unsafe for browsing (type http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=mysite.com with your domain at the end).
- Check the source code for any injected links to obvious “bad neighborhood” sites;
- Check your other sites. In some cases Google seems to devalue the WHOIS domain owner and this results in a simultaneous ranking drop in several sites under the same domain account.
- Copy a long phrase from your page and search Google for the exact match – make sure this very page (not the home page, not other sites scraping yours) is ranked #1;
- Check if your URL can only be seen by adding &filter=0 to the search URL – or clicking on the “show omitted results” link (this means you were hit by the duplicate content penalty);
- Any other? Please share your way to diagnose a penalty.
If such a query puts you in the fifties, it’s almost (!) guaranteed to be a penalty.
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Hi All,
Just a quick note to mention that I’ll be doing 1-on-1’s on behalf of Euro Partners and GPWA from the 25th – 1st at the International Casino Conference, the International Gaming Expo and the London Affiliate Conference. In the past these have included site analysis, industry recommendations, SEO and PPC advice and other strategy-based discussions.
There have been quite a few changes to paid and organic search such as the Caffeine update and I’ll be releasing my 2010 version of Top 12 SEO Tips in GPWA’s next issue – but if you would like to get a preview of the new recommendations and how they may or may not affect you then schedule a 30 minute meeting.
As anyone that I have spoken to in the past knows, I don’t ‘commercial’ these 1-on1’s, I give straight answers in a transparent way. I am also an Affiliate and can offer some unique tips in the gaming industry that I think you would be hard-pressed to hear from a typical SEO company that caters to Operators versus their Affiliates.
Drop me a line at Gary ( at ) VanguardSEO.com or contact your Rep at Euro Partners or GPWA at their stand and set up a meeting.
Cheers
Gary Beal
PS. I’ll be giving free access to a new tool we developed Vanguard Link Inspector which not only looks at your back links but also inspects various attributes of who links to the websites that link to you.
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Bingo.com Selects Cozy Games as New Software Provider
ANGUILLA, B.W.I., January 15, 2010 / Bingo.com, Ltd. (OTC BB: BNGOF), operator of the popular online gaming community http://www.bingo.com, today announced that it has selected Cozy Games to be its new core software platform for bingo, slots, and other casino games. The games are now live at the Bingo.com website after a smooth transition to the new system.
“We’re excited to be live on the Cozy Games system,” said Tarrnie Williams, Bingo.com’s CEO. “We believe that with an improved bingo product, the addition of over 30 new slots games, the upcoming availability of our games over smart phones, and many other advanced features, Bingo.com will experience greater player values from both our existing and new players. Furthermore, we believe that with the Cozy Games software, Bingo.com is in an excellent position for continued growth by capturing market share from other operators due to having a unique and competitive product. The Cozy Games system also provides full multi-language and multi-currency support enabling Bingo.com to continue its expansion into new markets.”
“We believe the decision to move to the Cozy Games platform will enable us to implement the next phase of our strategic plan for Bingo.com,” commented Mr. Williams. ”When we entered the UK market we had to start again from scratch after leading the US market in online bingo. Our plan was to acquire as many players as possible in a cost effective manner utilizing the strength of the Bingo.com URL and a generous bonus structure. We believe we have achieved that task, having registered over 600,000 non-North American players – all of which was accomplished in a highly competitive market and in a challenging economic climate.”
“The time has come to concentrate not solely on growth, but on a return to the profitability we enjoyed previously. We believe this can be achieved, but will result in lower revenues going forward as we tighten the gaming incentives provided to new players. Over the past several months we have spent considerable resources in preparing for the switch of gaming platforms. We have modified our staffing to realize both cost savings and a better alignment to focus on this phase of our strategic plan. We have secured new servers in Malta where we recently received our Class 1 and Class 3 licenses enabling us to legally provide and market online Internet gaming throughout the UK. We will also soon be implementing a new social networking system integrated with the Cozy Games platform to facilitate the acquisition of new players to complement the Facebook™ (www.facebook.com) and Twitter™ (www.twitter.com) pages we have created and maintain.”
“We believe Bingo.com is well positioned to capitalize on the next phase of our plan in the high growth and high value online bingo marketplace.”
For full details of the Company’s operations and financial results, please refer to the Securities and Exchange Commission website at www.sec.gov or the Bingo.com website at http://www.bingo.com.
Cozy Games Managing Director, Sreeram Vanga, commented, “Bingo.com has quickly established itself as a major player in the UK Online Bingo after leaving the US Market. Players at Bingo.com will be able to access a variety of top quality bingo games, as well as a host of casino games, all of which provide players with the ultimate Bingo experience and community. We take great pride in giving our operators the strongest competitive edge, be it through game variety, quality, or technical sophistication, and this latest signing is yet further proof of the appeal of our unique partnership approach. We are committed in delivering the most exciting and rewarding online bingo experience to Bingo.com players, and are very much looking forward to being part of the site’s success story.”
About Bingo.com
Bingo.com, Ltd. (NASD OTCBB: BNGOF.OB) is the parent company of the Bingo.com group of companies which operates the popular online gaming community http://www.bingo.com. The Bingo.com group offers multiplayer bingo, slot machines, sweepstakes, and more. Players come together from around the world to chat, share, play and win at Bingo.com. With over 1,990,000 registered users worldwide http://www.bingo.com is one of the most recognized and most visited bingo entertainment destinations on the Internet.
About Cozy Games
Cozy Games is an integrated gaming solutions provider founded in 2005 by a team of gaming industry veterans. Cozy Games has established alliances and partnerships with leading companies in gaming and product development. Our product suite includes a large selection of bingo games, classic and video slots, table games, scratch cards and network jackpot games. All games are available under 1 account across various platforms (web, mobile and IVR). Cozy Games is focused on setting the highest standards in the gaming industry.
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a “safe harbor” for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release (as well as information included in oral statements or other written statements made or to be made by the company) contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements relating to anticipated future success of the company. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the company. For a description of additional risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Specifically, readers should read the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2009, and Form 10-K/A filed with the SEC on December 7, 2009, and the prospectus filed under Rule 424(b) of the Securities Act on March 9, 2005 and the SB2 filed July 17, 2007, for a more thorough discussion of the Company’s financial position and results of operations, together with a detailed discussion of the risk factors involved in an investment in Bingo.com, Ltd.
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Looks like I was able to score some tickets to the Leeds v. Liverpool game.
The match has stirn a bit of controversy though; To those whose allegiances lie in West Yorkshire, it could be United clinching their first title with a goalless draw at Anfield in 1969 or the night Tony Yeboah thundered an unstoppable right-foot volley past David James in front of the Gelderd End.
For Liverpool fans of a certain vintage, meanwhile, the 1965 FA Cup final victory may feature in any strolls down Memory Lane along with the sight of Billy Bremner and Kevin Keegan trudging disconsolately off the Wembley turf after being sent off in a particularly stormy Charity Shield nine years later.
Here’s a live stream of the match.
Here’s also a live stream for the
Racing Santander - Barcelona Live Stream
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History of Poker
Poker card games poker history texas hold’em ppoker games
History of Poker
It is believed that the game of Poker has been around in one form or another for at least the past ten centuries. Because the history of Poker goes back so far, there are many different opinions about its origin. It can’t be nailed down to one single game but rather is derived from many different games. All of these games share certain principals such as bluffing and using ranked cards.
Even the origin of the word is not fully known. Most sources claim the word comes from a French game called “poque.” Others think it comes from a German game called “pochspiel,” a game that involves bluffing. Or maybe it comes from a Hindu word, “pukka.”
There is some evidence that it comes from a pickpocket slang word, “poke.” Poke was a game of cheating involving 20 cards. Perhaps they simply added an “r” over time. Poke could also come from “hocus-pocus.” Magicians used this term.
Some people believe the game had its origins in China, around 969 A.D. the Emperor Mu-tsung played a kind of dominos card game with his wife.
Playing cards go all the way back to the 12th and 13th centuries in Egypt. By the 16th century, the Persians were playing a 96-card game called “Treasure Cards” or “Ganjifa.” These cards were sometimes made from wafer-thin slices of precious wood or ivory. The Persians played a betting game called “As Nas.”
By the 17th and 18th centuries, the French have been playing “poque” and the Germans have been playing “pochen.” Both of these games, forerunners to present day “Poker,” came from a Spanish game called “Primero.” This was a game where three cards are dealt and the players bluff. This game goes all the way back to 1526. It is sometimes referred to as “poker’s mother.”
The earliest written reference to Poker was in 1834 when Jonathan H. Green wrote about a cheating game played on Mississippi riverboats in a book called “An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling.” This new game was more challenging than 3-card monte and the game of Poker as we know it today, was born. This game involved 20 cards and only used tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces. Each player was dealt five cards. Poker very soon became the most popular cheating game all up and down the Mississippi.
We’ve all seen Westerns with their ever-present poker tables. Every saloon had one. The game became very popular during the American Civil War. Since its introduction to the Wild West, Poker has never looked back. Gambling laws now regulate it. Casinos have spread across America. The game is played more worldwide than any other card game.
Poker is now a sporting event and tournaments and competitions are held everywhere. These competitions are dominated by three different games– 5 Card Draw, 7 Card Stud and Texas Hold’em. Texas Hold’em is the most popular Poker game today. It is played in casinos everywhere and many people even have their own Texas Hold’em tables at home. Poker continues to attract people from everywhere and throughout its long history, it has fascinated them.
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ANDERSON, Ind. — It’s 3:30 on a Friday afternoon, but already hundreds of people — a thousand, dialect mayhap, although it’s unsolvable to count up — grab seats in to the fore of electronic fissure machines at Hoosier Park Racing and Casino.
The smoke-tinged presentiment is filled with piped-in music and the incessant ding-ding-dinging of the machines, which allocate wagers ranging from a penny to $100.
There are a infrequent blackjack tables, but not some of the dealers are kindly.
So it goes, 24 hours a daytime, seven days a week. At three tables, the “dealer” is an zealous diagram (and, in most cases, an greatly proportioned female) on a giantess video motion pictures, and the players’ “cards” are images on smaller screens at their fingertips.
Welcome to the unborn — best that, the make known — of thoroughbred horse racing.
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Sixty years ago, horse racing ranked with baseball and boxing as America’s favorite sports.
Fans flocked to tracks; on Labor Day in 1951, an estimated 18,000 people squeezed into Ellis Park. Racing was fundamentally the not just gambling in the location of help of.
But while a feel-good racing parable — like jockey Calvin Borel this year — to quantity a recapitulate up captures the nation’s acclaim, attending at racetracks has been dwindling with a insight years. One Saturday carry on year, free-born seasonal concession and the sight of jockeys racing camels and ostriches between horse races drew 8,500 people to Ellis; it was the biggest circle in 20 years, but less than half the all-time catalogue.
In Iowa in 1989, two events unfolded: The phase became the first high to reintroduce riverboat casinos.
Faster-paced gambling — the scratching of phase drawing tickets or the whir of fissure machines — is accurate away every so regularly within the simple-minded reach of millions of Americans, including Kentuckians. And Prairie Meadows Racetrack opened at Altoona.
The riverboats thrived; the racetrack was final analysis in bankruptcy. It revolutionized the racing go well. But in 1995, the Iowa legislature approved the investiture of fissure machines at Prairie Meadows, with a relevant deal out of the proceeds contemporary to maintain purses at the racetrack.
More favoured lettuce attracts more horses; more horses in a the home ground increases the odds of winning; greater odds can dreary bigger payoffs with a insight horse bettors, encouraging more people to bet; more wagering enhances the tidy of the racing custom.
In au fancying, slots players maintain horse racing without those gamblers not laying eyes on a horse.
Welcome to the racino.
Welcome to the racetrack casino.
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Since 1995, riverboat casinos be undergoing swept eastward along Kentucky’s on. Today, they manipulate at Caruthersville, Mo.; Metropolis, Ill.; at Casino Aztar in Evansville; Elizabeth, Ind., come close Louisville; Florence, Ind.; Rising Sun, Ind.; and Lawrenceburg, Ind.
Businessman Ron Geary, who owns both Ellis Park Race Course here as pleasing as a Louisville-based approve presentiment armed forces, described the force while aboard a Cessna Citation jet flying north toward Indianapolis.
Meanwhile, a growing numeral of states — numeral them, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania — allocate racetracks to extension casinos.
“Twelve years ago, Aztar took 35 percent of (Ellis Park’s) custom,” Geary said.
“Seven years ago, Indiana Downs’ off-track betting parlor (in Evansville) took 30 percent of the surviving 65 percent.”
Still, Geary — a horse racing devotee who has made a bolt of turning all about ailing businesses — agreed to acquire the money-losing Ellis Park from P Churchill Downs Inc.
Geary insists he tinge he could best Ellis utilitarian again help of established horse racing. two summers ago. But he said he couldn’t mull all about on that so numerous states come close Kentucky would allocate racetracks to burgeon casinos that would galvanize up their the home ground purses and misappropriate horses from Bluegrass tracks.
“I didn’t supposition Pennsylvania to conscious of c be into it,” he said.
The $200 million Indiana Live! Casino southeast of Indianapolis, is an upscale take up that looks like a giantess 21st-century insight of Frank Lloyd Wright legislative body. “And I indeed didn’t supposition Indiana to conscious of c be into it.”
But they did. There are more than five acres eye roof; internal, there is a Maker’s Mark Bourbon House and a NASCAR-themed sports restaurant, numeral other diversions.
Hoosier Park Racing Casino, located northeast of Indy, is more modest; from a stiffness, it could be amiss with a insight a shopping mall.
Now Geary — along with Kentucky’s other racetracks as pleasing as Gov. But help of Geary’s attitude, its bottom-line revenues be better to a half-million dollars a daytime.
Steve Beshear and House Speaker Greg Stumbo — are urging the Kentucky General Assembly during a momentous conference that begins June 15 to pass legislation to allocate casino-style gambling at the state’s tracks. Proceeds could back up the phase budget, maintain the home ground purses, forearm incentives to Kentucky horse breeders and, they divulge, jelly the state’s “signature go well.”
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Indiana has a lengthy ancient history of racing, but not the four-legged kindly.
Two years ago, sooner than Indiana approved slots and other gambling at its racetracks, Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park maximum Indianapolis weren’t competitors of Ellis Park.
The Kentucky Derby is 135 years old; Indiana didn’t be undergoing a parimutuel horse racing road until 15 years ago. Indiana Downs would culminate its thoroughbred competition sooner than the Henderson track’s competition began on July 4, and Hoosier Park didn’t start racing until after Labor Day, when Ellis send to Coventry c close off down glowing racing with a insight the year.
But today, nine months after they opened their casinos with 2,000 fissure machines each, the Indiana tracks are kicking the stuffing to of Kentucky tracks, thanks to millions of casino dollars that are flooding into the home ground purses. He estimated that “these two dinky tracks (are) doing $330 million a year” in casino revenues.
“Seeing is believing,” Geary said while influential a stingy media drive of the two casinos, located maximum Indianapolis.
In March, Geary presented to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission a 2008 read on the home ground purses disposed help of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, a federal the home ground road above uncomfortable.
The read projected that Ellis Park’s complete purses in 2009 would become interested off 15 percent to $4.5 million, while Indiana Downs’ purses would see at to $15 million and Hoosier’s would happen $11 million. This year, Indiana Downs is extending its thoroughbred competition until July 15, and Hoosier’s last will and testament start on July 30.
The d?nouement: The Indiana tracks be undergoing the favoured lettuce that can pecking order horsemen, and their horses, away from Kentucky.
That pincher flow is suffocating Ellis Park, siphoning away horses.
“Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park are indeed presentiment their oats,” Geary said. The road is controlled forgoing racing on the Fourth of July, traditionally identical of its most popular days. “They miss to wager us to of custom.”
As a consequence, Geary is shortening Ellis’ 2009 glowing competition from 48 days to accepted 23.
“They didn’t accepted tribulation Ellis Park,” Geary said. “They tribulation all of us,” causing controlled Louisville’s Churchill Downs to dispose of seven racing dates this pleasing because of a dearth of horses.
It’s not accepted the Indiana tracks that are foreboding Kentucky racing go well, he said.
The Indiana tracks’ purses “are on no account three times what we be undergoing (at Ellis Park) and are more than Churchill Downs,” Geary said.
Expanded gambling has turned what Geary said if ever was “a podunk hardly any racetrack” in West Virginia into the Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort, where the purses this year last will and testament be two-ply those at Hoosier Park.
Presque Isle Downs opened in Erie, Pa., accepted two years ago.
One racing punitive there, Geary said, envisions Pennsylvania with it the horse racing flair of America. Now, it’s plowing $31 million in purses into its 100-day summer competition.
Indiana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania aren’t accepted attracting racehorses to of Kentucky; their tracks wager up lucrative incentives to horses that are born and bred in their phase, foreboding the famed and pleasing done cordiality farms that on the nose the Bluegrass province all about Lexington.
“We’re starting to in behalf of with stallions and mares earn the phase,” Geary said. “It’s the intact go well.”
The governor — who campaigned in duty on the impecuniousness to wager to slots to maintain the state’s tracks — agrees.
“It’s not accepted racetracks in weigh down,” Geary said.
“Kentucky’s horse go well — a living, breathing duty of our cultural legacy and identical of our strongest, most high-priced by commodities abroad — is in a phase of crisis,” Beshear said in a communication carry on week. “Some controlled divulge it’s expiring.”
He called on legislators to approve legislation that would permit VLTs — video drawing terminals, which are computers that look like fissure machines and would be tied into the state’s Kentucky Lottery Corp.
In gone and forgotten years, the careful tinge had been whether the General Assembly should allocate voters to pick the enigma help of a referendum. — at Kentucky racetracks.
But in 2005, then-attorney seasonal Stumbo issued a just attitude declaring that the 1988 emendation to the phase constitution that cleared the approach with a insight the phase drawing would permit the phase drawing to extension gambling at tracks.
That contradicted an earlier attitude help of former attorney seasonal Ben Chandler. Jody Richards has asked frequent Attorney General Jack Conway — whose originator owns racehorses and sits on the phase racing commission — with a insight another opinion
The governor wants the General Assembly to haste bold. Now, phase Rep.
“The legislature, in our judgment, has the hegemony,” Beshear said carry on week. “Now, we obligated to adjudge if we be undergoing the last will and testament.”
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So if ever again, Kentucky — a Bible-belt phase whose most honoured industries are bourbon whiskey and horse racing — is debating expanded gaming. Limiting slots to existing tracks, they intellect, effectively confines such gaming to locations where gambling already is make known.
Supporters note that Kentucky already has gambling: A phase drawing, bingo games scram help of non-profit organizations — and, of indubitably, horse racing.
Further, they note that eight casinos on or come close Kentucky’s borders already incline Kentuckians. Barring slots at tracks, they talk, unreservedly means Kentucky’s vitalized gamblers are exporting lettuce to other states. Last week, Terry Brooks, the administrator circumvent of Kentucky Youth Advocates — which lobbies with a insight policies that forbear kids — said slots would bring into being additional net income with a insight the phase that could quash budget cuts in adolescent misusage and childlike objectiveness programs.
The tracks be undergoing their supporters.
But oodles of conflict exists, including help of phase Senate President David Williams.
He has proposed placing a 10-percent surcharge on drawing revenues and other measures to hold up horse tracks.
Cothran’s uncomfortable, which is associated with The Family Trust Foundation of Kentucky, calls the expanded gaming letter of recommendation “a gallant oleaginous be situated aggressively disburden upon the phase help of a behaviour of the home ground road owners looking to extension to their particular profit.”
“Case help of the actuality, the promises of additional net income are falling help of, stingy businesses in the location of, addictions, lawlessness and misusage burgeon and families are torn to,” the group’s Web area declares.
Martin Cothran, spokesman with a insight the Lexington-based Say No to Casinos uncomfortable, has urged Beshear to cover Williams’ letter of recommendation in the momentous session; the governor has declined.
Williams, a Burkesville Republican, doesn’t keep up the approach last will and testament pass the phase House of Representatives, where Democrats by, 65-35.
Indeed, some observers be undergoing said some House members be undergoing been leery to unmistakable hold up with a insight casinos, let fire unattended bear constitute evidence with a insight them, with a insight tremor that the pecker would afterwards suffer death or be defeated in the Senate, exposing them to governmental fallout from voters who object to gambling on moralistic grounds. So terror-stricken are legislators of the printing that he describes Stumbo’s upright hold up of expanded gaming at tracks as “stepping up to the overlay.”
lll
In the at the someday that the slots pecker does pass, Geary expects a just chance on the printing of whether the legislature could approve casinos without a voter referendum.
Geary himself isn’t reliable the legislature last will and testament approve the governor’s pecker. A ruling able wouldn’t become interested to the hills to pieces until October or November, he said.
If the ruling were favorable, Geary hopes to be undergoing a circus-sized tent for the moment erected at Ellis Park and VLTs operating help of the first high location of next year.
“Ellis Park year-round does $12 million” in bottom-line revenues currently, Geary said.
Ultimately, he envisions systematize a $65 million dexterity with 1,200 VLTs.
“We’re hoping we’d do $80 million a year in bottom-line revenues” with slots. He said Ellis’ purses would see at to $16 million in 2010, putting it on capable of dregs with his Indiana rivals.
By the someday the first high horses slash from the starting gateway at Ellis Park in mid-July, the General Assembly last will and testament be undergoing made its propose and Geary last will and testament be undergoing a advice as to the unborn of his struggling hardly any racetrack.
“We would extension 300 unidentified jobs year-round” at such a casino, Geary said.
“We are clear this summer, no enigma what,” he said.
Geary plans a recreate doing of camel and ostrich racing on July 18 and a by the following daytime help of Calvin Borel, who if ever raced at Ellis.
“We accepted wouldn’t be able to best it,” he said.
But if the legislation fails, Geary said Ellis Park last will and testament earn high operations after Labor Day.
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Amsterdam Schedule
Tuesday 28th – SEO and Conversion Surgery
Wednesday 29th – International Targeting for SEO
Friday 1st – SEO Panel
Saturday 2nd – Top 12 SEO Tips 2009
Saturday 2nd – Top 12 SEO Tips for Affiliates
I am also doing 30 minutes 1-on-1 sessions each day so if you would like to meet please email me at gary@vanguardseo.com or call me on +44(0) 7872 447 452
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Mobile SEO
I remember back in September of 2006 when they first released the .mobi domain extension (referred to as a TLD or top level domain). I even went and bought dozens of them after listening to the industry experts about how big it was going to be by 2008. So here we are almost half way through 2009 and it’s still low on most radars, and non-existent on regular search results. Although mobile searches and multimedia search engines report a triple growth year in 2007, and have penned 2009 as “the year of mobile search”, I still haven’t seen anything of significance. Neither have my clients…even the big ones that you would think would see an influx of new traffic to their mobile web compliant version like Bingo.com. After all, there are three types of mobile users;
The Need-It-Now Shopper – Whether pizza, ring tones or concert tickets these users need it so bad they can’t possibly wait to get to a PC or they may not even have one. These types epitomise the 21st century shopper.
The Researcher – Taxi’s, restaurants, post boxes, weather, stocks, or the latest news, the Researcher looks at their mobile phone more than their own family. They use a mobile like most of us use a normal PC; to feed their information hunger.
The Killing-Time User – Twitter, Facebook, online radios and music downloads, the hottest new topics, YouTube, television programs and other media are the strongest growth area in mobile phone usage. These types of users are on a train, at lunch or waiting for something to happen.
Figuring out where you stand amongst these user-types could be your key to being very successful in the mobile world of online marketing. The fact is, the most recent figures cannot be ignored.
According to the experts (in this case emarketer.com), there will be 844.9 worldwide mobile-search users in 2011, up from 219.2 million 2006. Mobile search ad revenue is projected to grow to 2.4 billion in 2008, up from 6.8 million in 2006.
On the reverse side of the argument another factor to consider is that with the release of iPhone, G-Phone and 200+ other web-ready phones that do not require anything other than a normal website, do you actually need a mobile version of your site?
My feeling is that with that kind of potential revenue, or even half that, as Affiliates we need to resource the limited time and money that it takes to become mobile web present and compliant.
Mobile Search Optimisation?
As there are ways to integrate various elements into your normal website that can increase your search engine ranking position, injecting SEO into your mobile site are available as well. The thing about mobile search and SEO is that optimisation is taken back to the late 90’s, when simple things like titles and meta tags worked like gold, and when there wasn’t much competition that knew what they were doing. Just following the basics can prove to be successful for many markets that have yet to embrace this new marketing opportunity.
Unlike a normal website, the list of SEO techniques is short for the mobile landscape, so I’m going to break this into two sections; Technical and SEO elements of mobile websites.
Technical
TLD – Don’t worry about using a .mobi, any TLD will do fine. (.com, .net, .de, .nl, etc.)
Coding – It must be W3C compliant and must be 100% valid XHTML 1.0 code. (www.validator.w3.org). This works with Google’s interface that delivers 6 results rather than 2 or 3 you would normally see displayed, but will also function on a cheap mobile phone interface. If you were ambitious you could make the site in valid XHTML (compatibility test at W3C), cHTML, WML (compatibility test at shadowplay.net) and normal mark-up (for fully functional web phones. Depending on your market you could show up multiple times in the same query. (There is no duplicate content penalty)
There are 3 Primary language types;
- WML (often called WAP 1.0) - based on XML - a content formatting standard.
- xHTML Mobile Profile (often called WAP 2.0) - derived from xHTML 1.1 Basic but with additional modules.
- cHTML or Compact HTML (often called iMode) - uses a subset of the standard HTML 2.0, 3.2 or 4.0 specifications.
- Site Size - Keep the site down to as few pages as possible, like 3-6, of which one needs to be an engineered landing page for future endeavours like PPC or conversion testing
Content – Unfortunately, the content needs to be 63 characters (give-or-take). Create linked snippets on each page if you need to get more that this into one page.
Markup – Sorry no iFrames, no Flash, no redirects, no auto-refresh, no popups, no spacing graphics, no tables, no scrollbars (or minimum 1 if you must), no embedded objects or scripts. Use external css and if possible have your programmer load your mobile content from a database on the fly with device recognition. (Like a normal webpage delivering browser-compatible content to whatever phone the end-user is using) And lastly, provide caching information in HTTP responses.
Metatxt – The new standard in mobile SEO that helps search engines find your site and classify it. This is similar to the description and keyword tags on a normal website.
Mobi Testing - There are some pretty good sites that will turn your site into a mobile site; http://site.mobi, http://mobilizer.volantis.net, http://zinaddo.com, http://ready.mobi, and mtld.mobi/emulator.php will perform a browser compatibility test.
SEO
OnPage – This works the same as regular sites. Title tags that represent a specific keyword or keywords, H1 Tags that mirror those keywords, and content that includes the keywords are heavily weighed attributes. Be sure to match them up with the metatxt content.
Local Search – Use locations in your metatxt and title if possible. Most mobile apps have a “Search Nearby”, especially the iPhone with 100’s of apps that utilise GPS location.
Universal Search – Yes Universal Search is a big part of Google’s mobile algorithm. One of the most common uses for mobile is news, YouTube, Google Reader, Wikipedia and many others. These dominate the top spots on mobile search. In most cases they show up before web results as well. Optimise for content only available on mobile search; RSS feeds, images, video and news feeds (press releases) are the hot target right now.
Local Search – If you are a brick-and-mortar business, get on Google Local, Yahoo! Local, Ask City, Live Search Maps, Yelp, Yellow, White Pages and any other directory, location or mapping service. These are already widely used on G-Phone, I-Phone and are sure to become a standard feature in the next-gen line of phones.
Sitemaps – Create and submit separate xml sitemaps to Google and Yahoo just as you do for your normal website. Break them into sections; images, videos, PDF’s, etc.
Internal Link Building – This works the same as a regular site. You can PR sculpt the important pages and emphasise keywords with internal anchor text (the linked words) that link to the important pages within your site, and that are optimised for those keywords.
External Inbound Links – Think global or international when building links to your website. When optimising a normal website, SEO’s build links from similar domain extensions. So if you had website.es, you would build links from other .es domains and Spanish language websites. In the mobile world any link is significant and can rapidly earn you top spots. Back links in mobile SEO help regardless of the domain extension.
Optimising for iPhone
iPhone’s only account for 1% of the overall sales in the mobile market, reporting just under 10 million units sold in 2008. Although this is a minute figure, I think that the compatibility standards set by Apple will soon become the norm, as they are cross-compatible with standard mobile phone as well as NextGen mobile phones. With that in mind here are a few tips for iPhones;
• Max. 10MB html size
• Limit Javascript to 5 seconds
• Limit Javascript allocations to 10MB
• Max. 8 documents due to page view limitations
• QuickTime is the preferred app for video and audio
PPC – Pay Per Click
PPC is probably one of the best tools the mobile marketer has, especially if you can participate in the Pay Per Call strategy offered by Google.
This not only gets you to the top of Google’s mobile results page, (provided you have setup a mobile-only campaign in Google Adwords)it enables the end-user one-click access to call you and (with iPhone, G-phone and many others), get immediate directions to your business via Google Maps or a GPS enable app.
Key factors;
• Be sure you have reduced your page terms down. Don’t use buffer terms like you would on normal web pages. Mispellings are more apparent in mobile because of tiny keyboards, big fingers and laziness than anywhere. Imagine typing on a tiny keyboard whilst on a train or walking. Reduce your titles and possible even build subpages for misspellings.
• Place CTA (call to action) pages one step from your landing page, or better yet make it the landing page. Navigation hurts when you’re mobile so the page that you want to show them should be the first page and no more than 1 extra click.
• Choose the right keywords. The more related they are to people on the move the better (e.g. casinos near [variable], hotels in [variable]). More importantly, the shorter the better. (casino [variable] and hotel [variable].
• USE IT! – If you spend the resources on building a mobile website, you need to spend a few quid/bucks/Euros on PPC. The cost is very minimal in most markets and you don’t need to be a whiz-kid. This will get you ranking high in many secondary mobile search engines as well and provide the traffic to determine if it’s worth investing additional resources.
Although the mobile market hasn’t taken off, there are plenty of success stories out there that make you stop and wonder if this is something you should target more heavily. Just take a look at some of the hundreds of applications on iPhone. There are apps that locate and call the nearest cab, list the nearest restaurants or even give reviews on local hotels –all are based off of GPS location – now that’s cool!
Twitter and other social networks (which are absolutely huge) have apps that show you who’s Twittering that has your interest and is located near you.
With online dating becoming more acceptable every day, I can see a whole new method of 5-minute dating type sites springing up soon that are based on your location.
Some retail stores have apps that allow you to input the bar code numbers to obtain prices, while grocery stores compile a running ‘tally’ while you shop so you can watch what you are spending (Watch out ladies!). Others are launching coupon schemes that allow you to display the coupon on-screen and effectively remit the coupon in store from your mobile (Watch out men!).
If you are in real estate, think of the things that can be done with GPS and online apps; A potential buyer drives in a neighbourhood looking for homes and finds a few that look good from the outside. They go to your website from the information on the for sale sign, look at pictures or even a walk-through video and Shazam! - You have a prospect that was house shopping that Sunday you were off at the big game.
I must admit, I am a gadget guy and the fact that mobile web didn’t take off was disappointing to say the least. But mark my words; it’s a hidden tiger getting ready to pounce.
The current climate of the economy hasn’t done anything to help out our industry. In fact these days you have to work hard just to stand still. Taking advantage of every opportunity is important to remain successful.
Take it from me; the researching-need-it-now SEO guy that’s killing time – on my iPhone.
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