Sep/090
SEO and your virtual pet site
We all know that SEO[search engine optimization] plays a huge role in the marketing of our pet games[what?]. Well, if you do not rank for highly-searched keywords, then how do you expect word of mouth growth? Let’s take neopets, powerpets and Adoptme.com as an example of this – they all rank high for adopt virtual pets.
How? Well, they grew via word of mouth and supplied a unique product in their respective audience – which means they also rank high for virtual pets, which means, when a user wants to adopt a virtual pet, they’d join Neopets, Powerpets or Adoptme.com for ranking so high – that means, they’re authoritative sites that provide unique updates to their users.
Which means, google and all the other search engines show them love because of their game play and uniqueness they bring to the table.
So, SEO means having meta descriptions and having content on your pages. Without content, do not expect people to care about your product – because well, content makes a pet game – and Neopets is a prime example of an entertainment site, they continue to add updates, which means, their downfall is their content – and quite frankly, the only one giving Neopets a run for their money now is Powerpets – because they’re pushing out content as well, and same for Pookapetz – they’re a huge content site.
So, how do you guys feel about SEO and pet games? Do you think new virtual pet site owners should focus more on content or art? You decide.
Aug/090
Virtual pet.com breaking Google terms?
If you haven’t heard about them, then you’re lost in the loop. They came before us, back in 1996, which means, they’re entitled to break Google’s terms? Their reach is 40,000 monthly unique visitors, but how come? They target the following keywords, which means, growth is easy for them.
* virtual pets,
* virtual pets.com,
* virtual games,
* virtual pet mouse,
* virtual pet game
See this chart as an example for what we’re talking about.
But you know what? They break the google rules, but they might be an exception to the rules.
Their vp links page is nothin but links and doesn’t provide a purpose for Google, which means, rules are broken.
From google webmaster tools:
# Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
# Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
# Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in images. If you must use images for textual content, consider using the “ALT” attribute to include a few words of descriptive text.
# Make sure that your
elements and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.</p> <p># Check for broken links and correct HTML.</p> <p># If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a “?” character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.</p> <p># Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).</p> <p># Review our image guidelines for best practices on publishing images. </p></blockquote> <p>How can one expect to compete against a cheater who choices to use header tags all over the page? Which means, cheating the system and not providing quality content. They are 13 years old and has never endured a hacking like we did, which means, their content is steady and continues to grow among its peers, but we do not cheat the system, so why are they an exception to the rules?</p> <div class="cat_tags clear"><div class="category">Filed under: <a href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com/blog/category/seo/" title="View all posts in SEO" rel="category tag">SEO</a></div> <div class="continue"><a class="nr_comm_spot" href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com/blog/2009/08/virtual-pet-com-breaking-google-terms/#respond">No Comments</a></div><div class="clear"></div></div><div class="cat_tags_close"></div> </div> <div class="post-138 post hentry category-seo" id="post-138"> <div class="comm_date"><span class="data"><span class="j">27</span><br/><span class="my">Jul/09</span></span><span class="nr_comm"><a class="nr_comm_spot" href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com/blog/2009/07/thedailyneopets-exposed-breaking-google-terms/#comments">0</a></span></div><div class="clear"></div> <h2><a title="Thedailyneopets exposed breaking google terms?" href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com/blog/2009/07/thedailyneopets-exposed-breaking-google-terms/" rel="bookmark">Thedailyneopets exposed breaking google terms?</a></h2> <p>You guys want to know how your friends on over, <a href="http://www.thedailyneopets.com" rel="nofollow">The daily neopets</a> ranked for “neopets”? Well, its simple. Ian from Marapets helped TDN’s owner rank by allowing “Ian” to purchase paid links via[Text-link-ads.com], which means, they broke the Google terms.</p> <p>What terms are you talking about?</p> <blockquote><p> # Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.</p></blockquote> <p>That means, TDN broke the google’s terms, they’ll go down like <a href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com/blog/2009/07/marapets-founder-returns/" title="marapets will">marapets will</a>.</p> <p>Also, very nice. Here’s more evidence for google via your <a href="http://www.thedailyneopets.com/tdn/affiliate/" rel="nofollow">affiliate page</a>:</p> <blockquote><p>NOTE : This is a link exchange with other Neopets sites in our class. If you’re looking to purchase a text link ad, see our advertising page. <img src='http://www.virtualpetlist.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p></blockquote> <p>We don’t start drama, but we will finish it. Remember when <a href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com/forum/showthread.php?t=600&highlight=thedailyneopets" title="the daily neopets">The daily neopets</a> turned their back on us? Well, game on them. They told us before “Ian helped us rank, we brought paid text links”, which isn’t cool. It doesn’t provide the community with quality content because well, you’re defeating the purpose of Google.</p> <p>Learn the rules, do not cheat the system. Frauds can get exposed too. Ian[tdn] has worked with Ian[marapets] on numerous occasions. They traded “money” just so one another could get ranked on Google. Well, when you’re successful, you learn to not attack those that helped you in the past.</p> <p>So, why TDN? Why turn your back on a community that helped build your brand? We did the content work on your site when Ian[marapets.com] wasn’t around, which means, you slapped us in our face when you dissed on us. Also, I bet Google will love to hear about you selling text links on your footer.</p> <blockquote><p> Neopets Links * Egg Cave<br /> * Buy a Text Link<br /> * Buy a Text Link<br /> * Buy a Text Link<br /> * Buy a Text Link<br /> * Buy a Text Link </p></blockquote> <p>Which means, you’re trying to game on Google. We don’t think so. Sorry, breaking trust that we’ve built isn’t cool. So, game on you.</p> <div class="cat_tags clear"><div class="category">Filed under: <a href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com/blog/category/seo/" title="View all posts in SEO" rel="category tag">SEO</a></div> <div class="continue"><a class="nr_comm_spot" href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com/blog/2009/07/thedailyneopets-exposed-breaking-google-terms/#respond">No Comments</a></div><div class="clear"></div></div><div class="cat_tags_close"></div> </div> <div class="newer_older"> <span class="newer"></span> <span class="older"></span> </div> </div> <div id="content-sidebar"> <div class="content-sidebar"> <div class="sidebar-box"><h3>Blogroll</h3> <ul class='xoxo blogroll'> <li><a href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com" rel="me" title="Vitual pet list" target="_blank">Virtual pet list</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="sidebar-box"> <h3>Recent Posts</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.virtualpetlist.com/blog/2009/11/virtualpetlist-interviews-ole-owner-of-palawind-com/" title="Virtualpetlist 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