What can I do to help my site rank better?

[Stocks]

My new years resolution is to try and do something with my website OddsTracker.com

The site has been live for a year now and still ranks like shit in google, bing and yahoo are cool. The only term it ranks for in google is "oddstracker.com" and that's it, it don't even rank for the term Odds Tracker. The main search term was "Betting Odds" and it has ranked in 750th place for that term for atleast about 8 months maybe even longer but I know it's been atleast that long.

I've edited and changed the layout and design of the site because people said this was my problem or that was my problem and it did absolutely nothing except make my site look like a big piece of shit it did'nt even effect the ranking one spot.

I still think my site is sand boxed from the spam links I got early on but according to google links don't affect rankings negatively with I think is bs.

I don't have a lot of money to spend on this I don't really want to spend anything on it because I feel like any money I do spend will be just like throwing it straight in the garabage but I got to try something I have too much already invested and can't afford to site around another year hoping high and mighty google allows my site to rank well.

Any ideas on what can I do?

[leporello]

I'd start by improving the inner page articles. They are pretty thin and very similar. Expand those to become useful articles. Also, I'd consider removing the advertisements above the fold (for now). Improve content remove ads then file a reinclusion request. Explain everything you've done to rectify whatever grey hat stuff you did in the past.

I had a site with very little content that was penalized and after reworking some pages and removing odds scripts it immediately bounced back.

Also, sourcing some high quality links is probably a good idea. Find some sports blogs and offer to write guest posts with nfl previews, or nba or whatever sports you're interested in. Use branded links and increase awareness of your brand. Etc etc

GL

[PokerFelts]

Hi Stocks,

I think from an SEO point of view there are a couple of things that you would need to alter in order to optimize the site better, something which is vital if you want the SE's to take a liking to your site, like many of us, they hate to have to work too hard to understand something!

Without looking into the site too deeply i have seen that the content on the site is unique which is a good thing but it seems that you don't have a header 1 tag on your homepage, instead using a h2 tag for "Top 10 Online Sportsbooks".

I am a firm believe that if you want to make a site raise through the rankings then you need to provide a solid foundation in which the site should be built on, failing to have that will result in an unstable site as well as low rankings in Google.

I have not looked at the backlink profile as yet as i'm just waiting on the tool that i use to renew so i can have a more indepth look at the type and the place of links that you are placing into the site.

Leporello has it right on the money when it comes to guest posting, try to get a number of sites that are willing to accept guest articles and supply them with an article that contains one or two links, even if there is a fee to go with it on the bigger sites.

[Stocks]

Thanks for the sugestions guys I've done some of that.

I actually filed a reinclusion request a while back explaining things and they said there was nothing wrong with the site and google don't penalize sites for bad links. I think that's bullshit anyone with common sense can see there's some sort of penality.

I'll try adding more content and guest posts to see if that does anything but I still think there's a specific reason for the sites problems. Things like advertising or tags will problay help seo in general but I really can't see google just fucking a site this hard for this long for stuff like that.

[pokerworx]

If I was you I would get the blog posts on the front page and start targeting events, like I believe the NBA just started back up yet I see nothing on your site to stick that in my face. I really think you should follow Kevin's lead get a few guys that are good with sports and get them writing for you. eg: NBA Week 2 Odds & Previews - NFL Week 12 Odds & Previews.

Another thing you could do is try to start getting a mailing list, saying you will send odds for this weeks events or something. The site seems great its just that you stopped working on it. More writing targeting events would be my 1st thing to do, eventually google will figure out that your regularly updating your site and start ranking it again.

[parttimepoker]

If you think the site is cursed, start a new site and shift the good content / odds tool over there.

[Stocks]

If you think the site is cursed, start a new site and shift the good content / odds tool over there.

Trust me I've thought long and hard about doing this it's just the domain cost me $4500 and it's the perfect name for the site so I just can't bring myself to do it.

[PokerFelts]

Things like advertising or tags will problay help seo in general but I really can't see google just fucking a site this hard for this long for stuff like that.

I strongly disagree with your thoughts on this, i have seen sites rise and fall through poor optimization and aggressive advertising, i think that without providing a firm base on which to grow your site, you are never going to have a solid site that will hold strength within it's own right.

Adding in title tags, pushing a few links into the site and just generally keeping the site updated a little more frequently shouldn't be a major job and could clean up the rankings for you, i mean ranking in 750th for terms is worse than some of the rankings i have for sites with little more than a holding page on that are rotting the my portfolio.

I think that you will be surprised with the effect that a clean design, correctly used tags and some well thought out links can give the site.

But that is just my opinion, i guess the real question you have to ask yourself is am i really that bothered about the site, if so get the alterations made if not, put the content elsewhere, 301 into another site and forget about it until you are ready to start with a good foundation from the offset.

[Stocks]

Adding in title tags, pushing a few links into the site and just generally keeping the site updated a little more frequently shouldn't be a major job and could clean up the rankings for you, i mean ranking in 750th for terms is worse than some of the rankings i have for sites with little more than a holding page on that are rotting the my portfolio.

See this is the problem the site has a major penalty and nothing I have done has moved it one bit. tags, links, daily content I've done and it does nothing because of the penalty so untill I can figure out the reason for the penalty basicly eveything else is futile.

[parttimepoker]

Trust me I've thought long and hard about doing this it's just the domain cost me $4500 and it's the perfect name for the site so I just can't bring myself to do it.

How much more unrewarded work would you have to put into it before you'd be willing to change? You could have paid 20k for the domain, doesn't really matter - that money is gone. If you can't figure out what's wrong, at some point you have to start over.

The name is good, but not irreplaceable. A lot of phrases can mean the thing your site does. If the name is that good, you should be able to recoup a chunk of your purchase price by reselling it.