Sport drills - coaching/training site

[boron]

43Drills.com is a site about sport drills (http://43Drills.com), community of where coaches, players, and fans help, share, and learn from others. The idea is to post drills for all sports to help others.

SITE OPENS in 5 seconds on T1 connection, which is slow. Speed test (http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/wso.php?url=http://43drills.com) confirm this. On 99Kb large Home page, there are 33Kb of images, which itself doesn't seem critical. This loading test (http://r.netmechanic.com/toolbox/summary.cgi?f=f/112/064/0115/13-29517/&s=NetMechanic&fv=5&ft=3) points out few other problems but nothing big. Few spelling errors though.
DNS lookup doesn't show any major problems, but DNS timing (http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnstime.ch?name=43drills.com&type=A) shows that Hosting server may be slow. Hosting owner can probably explain the test.

1. FIRST THING I noticed (Linux/Mozilla) was a login box which is too close to the title text.

Second Thing: Why 43? What drills? It is obvious that it is a decent site though.

2.DESIGN: The title is the first important keyword. So it can be something like "Sport drills - basketball | footbal..." Exactly the same title will be shown in Google results. This is how Search engines spiders see the Home page (http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/se-bot-simulator.html?op=se-bot-simulator&go=1&pageurl=http%3A%2F%2F43drills.com&se=googlebot). Subtitle can simply list all kind of drills covered on the site. "Football | basketball | hockey | golf drills" - or other what is expected someone will search in Google. Do not repeat words from the title, separate words with "|" rather then "," since "|" enables spiders to understand all words as one keyword phrase, comma splits the text in many keywords which is not desired here. Login is already on the right, it can be emphasized, enlarged to be more visible and the top left login can be completely deleted (otherwise login, signup will be the very first keywords in page text...). The "coach's tablet" image is good. You can put an ALT tag: "coach tablet" (or whatewer is a proper term). The place on the right is perfect for short, clear explanation of the site. The site borders of the site are unique, must say, but they give a "dented" look. One idea is to have some playground border there...First letters of all words in all lists should be all capitalized or all small.

Site's look in: Firefox, Opera, Konqueror..browsers (http://browsershots.org/website/http://43drills.com/#success)

3. NAVIGATION:: Right column: My drills title can be "Sport drills forum", bolded and clickable. Login fields can be directly accessible and emphasized. Registering form has a messed title, can be simply deleted. The same in the Login form. Top sports and Spoprts directory are doubled - one category should be deleted completely. From the board - at least a half of links should be deleted. From the Coach will be edited probably. All More info links can go into the bottom menu. Only Sitemap should be somewhere on the top.
Articles: Rate this artcle << a word should be clickable, not the stars.
Forum Hot tag links - small words in links beside them are hard to read.

4.CONTENT: The site seems to be comprehensive. Drawings, Images, Photos, Videos can be added. Official rules of each sport can be explained. Appropriate sport equipment can be described.

5. PR = 3

6. INDEXED PAGES: in Google: 410 from 43drills.com (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3A43drills.com%2F) and 133 from www. 43drills.com (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Awww.43drills.com%2F)

7. BACKLINKS in Google: 15 (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=link%3A43drills.com%2F) , Yahoo: 330 to 43drills.com (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2F43drills.com%2F&bwm=i&bwms=p&bwmf=u&fr=fp-tab-web-t&fr2=seo-rd-se) and 628 to www.43drills.com (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.43drills.com%2F&bwm=i&bwmf=u). Backlinks come mostly from PR0 sites so they have low weight.

Anchor text used in backlinks: ( http://backlinkwatch.com/ ): almost only "43drills". This should be changed in "sport drills", coaching drills" whenever it's possible and used in the future. Two alternative keywords should be used, not always only one.

8. KEYWORDS: sport drills | coaching drills | basketball drills | baseball drills | fun basketball drills | football drills | soccer drills | sport tactics

Keyword analyzis (http://www.submitexpress.com/cgi-bin/analyzer/meta.pl?url=http://43drills.com) << Two/three words keyphrases are important. Meta tags are NOT important.

Source code (http://web-sniffer.net/?url=http%3A%2F%2F43drills.com%2F&submit=Submit&http=1.1&gzip=yes&type=GET&ua=Mozilla%2F4.0+%28compatible%3B+MSIE+7.0%3B+Wind ows+NT+5.2%3B+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322%3B+.NET+CLR+2.0.50 727%29+Web-Sniffer%2F1.0.24): title and H1 tag contain only 43drills. It should contain

Keywords suggestion:[B] sport training, sport exercises, sport manual, sport rules, sport videos, coach tablet

9. [B]COMPETITORS FOR "sport drills" in Google:

43drills.com is NOT among first 1,000 results in Google.

#1 http://www.decatursports.com/soccerdrills.htm
TITLE: Ken Gamble's Soccer Drills, Tips, Exercises and Articles
SUBTITLE: The articles, drills, exercises and tips listed below are part of the most ... bullet, Sports Medicine Articles. bullet, Strategy &amp; Team Tactics ...
PR = 5
Google Backlinks: 117
Online Since: February 18th, 1999
Listed in DMOZ and Archive.org

#100: http://www.jes-soft.com/
TITLE: 10 Jes-Soft - Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, Volleyball, Football ...
SUBTITLE: Coaching software, plays and drills can be found at www.Jes-Soft.com, Plays, drills and software are available for the following sports : Basketball, ...
PR= 4
Backlinks in Google: 13.
Anchor text used on backlinks: Basketball playbook, Animated drills for any sport.
Online Since: September 2nd, 1999

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CONCLUSION:

1. Some png images should be removed to speed up site loading.
2. If AFTER that site will still load slow, hosting company can be changed.
3. Doubled links on Home page should be removed.

SEO PLAN:

1. Getting backlinks from high PR sites which have only few outgoing links.
2. KEYWORDS: In title, subtitle in anchor text of backlinks (and in on-page links also).
Getting into first 10 in Google can be a great challenge since there are some 8 old sites.

[sacredhoops]

Hello, I am interested more in what kind of specific plans could be used in this case study?

[boron]

If you agree, you can remove some links from the right column menus which are doubled. This will made that area a little clearer. Small icons don't always load fully - some load and some don't , am not sure if you're prepared to play with this though.

Next thing will be thinking about where you'll get content - I mean articles. You have to decide about how serious/professional ones you want.

For starting ranking higher you can look around for some backlinks, directories to submit your site. As I know submiting in ~100 directories is about $10, you can do it alone - it's time consumpting though.

Just tell a few toughts about your site, how do you see it, what are your plans...

[sacredhoops]

Well, I am very very serious about this website, and actually I had a pretty big time investor that pretty much canceled on me at the last minute. So since than, I will admit that my plan is or has been a little thrown.

I am confused about what is doubled?

Though, I know 100% that I need some good quality articles, and I have been looking for some, I have tried a few users on Digital Point (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76). But, I was not really impressed with their work and articles.

I have actually already started submitting to directories though...it was my mistake that I was using or trying to somewhat bran "43drills". Though, after talking to one of my friends, I now know that this usually does not work. It's better to actually target like what you were saying sport training, sport exercises, sport manual, sport rules, sport videos, coach tablet.

Needless to say we feel that this is a really targeted, unique, niche while their are some other sites and competitors. We felt that the whole new web 2.0 or community base feel for this would make this into something very unique.

[boron]

I am confused about what is doubled?

In the right column on the site you have Top sports and Sport directory categories. They both contain the same links, I was thinking you can just delete one whole category - that is - you merge both in one.


Though, I know 100% that I need some good quality articles, and I have been looking for some, I have tried a few users on Digital Point (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76). But, I was not really impressed with their work and articles.

I intended to say in the review already - some sportman or coach can be an ideal writer. You know your offline sources, online are big sport forums (http://www.big-boards.com/kw/sports/) and blogs.


I have actually already started submitting to directories though...it was my mistake that I was using or trying to somewhat bran "43drills". Though, after talking to one of my friends, I now know that this usually does not work. It's better to actually target like what you were saying sport training, sport exercises, sport manual, sport rules, sport videos, coach tablet.

If you can edit links with "43drills", do it. You can very well try to ask for backlinks in some .edu site. Google: "site:.edu sport" or "site:.gov sport". Links in signatures of sport forums won't hurt. You don't necessary need a lot of links but quality links from high PR and related/reputed (big) sport sites.

I can write a little link building guide just for this site.

[sacredhoops]

I would be more than interested to hear your thoughts on a little link building guide for this site! That would be awesome!

[boron]

First some "theory".

1. Backlinks help to rise Page Rank (PR) and also position of the site in search engines (SERPs = Search Engine Result Pages) .This aplies mainly for Google, maybe for Yahoo, but not for MSN though.

2. Good backlink (for getting PR) is the one which is placed on the site with
- high PR The higher is PR of the site with the backlink, more PR will deliver to backlink's site. By one theory you need only 4 backlinks from PR6 sites to get PR5 on the next update.
- few outgoing links (other backlinks) A backlink on a site with 200 other outgoing links worth much less then a backlink on a site with 10 links.
- quality/relevance/size/age of the site are disputable factors, not sure.

Good backlink to help your site rise in Google needs to have all above + it's important that it comes from quality/relevant/big (many pages)/old site.

Conclusion: Having a backlink on a PR0 site doesn't help much, you need hundreds of them to get any benefit from this. Having a backlink of sport site on a music site also don't help much.

So you'll need to ask for backlinks on a PR3+ sport related sites with few outgoing links. The link has to be placed on the Home page - usualy in the side links area since inner pages of every site almost always have much lower PR.

Now how/where to look?

1. Google: "site:.edu forums" or "site.edu sport" will give you sport related edu sites. Your site is good enough that you can ask for backlink on some educational sport site. Contact the owner - ask for a link. Use "sport drills" in anchor text.
You can use this tool which shows PR of every site you find:
http://seochat.com/seo-tools/pagerank-search/
Just type about words in. Range sites by PR.

2. You can go in Big-boards.com directory and look for sport related forums (http://www.big-boards.com/kw/sports/). Register in one or two, invite members to visit your site, put the link with anchor text in the signature. Put links in all forums where you are active, here, on DP...

3. You can submit the link in free/paid directories. They are hundreds of them around, again try to submit in those with PR3+. Few good free directories (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=262260).

4. To get more links and other particular info you can PM me.

I can also write something about where to get writers.

[sacredhoops]

Wow, that's good information. Though as I feel like I am already doing this...it's still a good refreshing to review and come up with a better ideas of how to go about doing this. Though, I found it very hard to ever get a PR6 site to ever email me back led alone to get a PR6 homepage link. Do you have any suggestions for this one?

And I would be interested in hearing about where to get some writers...though one of my problems is I have a low budget for writers. And it seems as if my budget is always really low or too low. And/or the writing or work is not even worth my low budget. Any suggestions thoughts on this one?

Thanks!

[boron]

About links - I can contact you with my friend who is vigorously looking for links, he might help.

If you make a comment on this blog (and include link):
http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000309.html
you'll get a free PR6 link. I checked, it's valid, am not 100% sure at this moment, will check again.

Will post later about writers.

[sacredhoops]

Sounds great hit me up or pm with your friend! And I will for sure be checking into that one blog you have posted!

[boron]

Some sites to get writers from:

http://getafreelancer.com
http://guru.com
http://elance.com
http://scriptlance.com

These are freelance sites where each writer has his profile about what he can write. There are a lot of offers so prices are set low. You probably tried these sites before, anyway, I think some coaches will be the right ones to get articles.

Link: Since your site can be considered as a blog, check http://blogtagstic blog directory. You can get a permanent PR5 link for $9.5 from there.

[boron]

Sites where you can try to get sport writers:

http://freelancing.com

List of general directories: http://freespaces.com/freespace/DIRECTORIES.html You can use Iwebtool Visual PageRank tool (http://www.iwebtool.com/visual_pagerank) to check PRs of all categories. Results look like this (http://www.iwebtool.com/visual/?domain=search4i.com%2F&nofw=1&ex=1)

[sacredhoops]

Very nice work! I can no believe you doing all this work for free! Wow, I am so impressed! Thank you so much! I owe you man I really really do!

[sacredhoops]

Okay one quick question. When I got and try to get backlinks from other sites. What would you suggest everyone asks, what's your URL, title, and description. Now this is probably the most SEO importance is this not? And could you please give me a little information or how I could go about picking some of this.

Also, you suggest to place keywords In title, subtitle in anchor text of backlinks. What's an actual anchor text also? I keep hearing this and I thought I knew what this was, but than different people were calling it different things and now I am all confused.

Thanks again for all you work....I have another site that has done very well in the past, but has since been somewhat outdated. I might hit up on that one too if you don't mind.

[boron]

You can put in the other offer also, but I'm bit loaded now, after aweek or so...

Anchor text is this text you see "over" the link: http://43drills.com. It is description of the link or a title of a link or anchor text. Anchor - because it's connected firmly with the link. Google then consider this anchor text as a keyword. OK, suggested anchor text to your link is sport drills (http://43drills.com) or coach drills or basketball drills. This means - when someone will search for "sport drills" in Google (rather then 43drills....), all sites which have "sport drills" in a 1. domain or 2. title or 3. subtitle or 4. anchor text in backlink or 5. site content while show up in Gogle results. Now the point is who will be higher. If your site is on 759 place no one will ever find you. So the goal is to get "On the first page in Google" - among first 10 - or even higher. Now the problem is that it is very strong competition for "sport drills". Many old sites are listed now in Google for this keyword. The tactic is to find out a little more specific keyword (basketball is still not specific enough). Imagine what someone can type in Google when looking for info as you provide. It is just good if you decide for - I don't know - professional sport drills or "easy... or "important..." or "basic..." . The point is to find a keywiord phrase for which is easier to compete.

One way of chosing keywords:

Open Google keyword position tool: type in your URL and try with different keywords . You can write many of them one below other in this tool: Always set # of results to 1,000, When you'll find a keyword with which you are among 1,000 it means you can think to use it and compete with it. Finding appropriate keywords can be the first challenge now. But if you find an opportunity for free link, just put it there, no matter what anchor text you'll use.