News
English version of The Online Compendium is online
Trade exchange rates in The Settlers Online Compendium
A small change in code, can result in big changes in the product. An example of this, is the addition of trade exchange rates on every Resource page in The Settlers Online Compendium.
Such changes are the ones I like the most - add few lines of Perl here and there, run the script, and the work it being done by itself!
Ads on The Settlers Online Kompendium
Recently I completed an update on PL.TheSettlersOnlineCompendium.com. Among changes related to site design and content, I have enabled first ads on the site.
I have decided to start with Google's AdSense, as it's a solution I know well and have relatively high trust. For now, there are up to two ad units - one big horizontal banner and one big skyscraper. Skyscraper is always displayed bellow screenshots, while the banned is shown above the main content, and bellow the header, on some pages. I do not want the page to get cluttered with ads, after all :)
Read the full "release notes" on TSO Compendium (in Polish).
Now, I just have to push more content, engage the visitors with some interactive (JavaScript?) tools, and continue to improve search engine rankings.
With me luck, or say a prayer - according to your belief system!
Long tail getting longer at TSOC
I have made an update to The Settlers Online Compendium - added some icons here and there. Many pages look way better now. You can read (in polish, sorry) the note here.
At this point 129 out of 132 page URLs from the site - sent to Google via sitemap protocol - are crawled. This resulted in quick rise of organic long-tail search traffic. As I'm writing this, Google Webmaster Tools report almost 1K views and 35 clicks - 80% of which happened in last two report days available (remember, that GWT has a delay of two-to-three days).
For a niche website being two weeks old it is what I think is a normal start. Note, however, that all this is due to On-site SEO, as I have not started any link building yet.
By the way, you can read more about long-tail at Wikipedia.org.
MMOMS returns...
I completed the "Euro 2012 theme experiment" at my Online Minesweeper site. Having research projects is fun, and one can learn and practice a lot! Do you have a research project yourself?
You can read more or proceed directly to the board, and have a round - or two - of this free to play minesweeper clone!
On the first page of Google
Polish edition of The Settlers Online Compendium is ranking pretty well, considering that it is about a week old.
It started on first page of Google for phrases like silos settlers online, settlers online manufaktura recyklingowa and fragment mapy settlers.
I will have to improve the rankings for settlers online klejnoty for which the site ranks at third page. This terms is pretty important for me, considering that it would open a way for me to monetize the site. Gems - or "klejnoty" in Polish - are the premium currency in The Settlers Online, that can be obtained by buying them using "real" money.
Today I also updated descriptions of some of the building, related to the most popular search terms the site ranks for. I believe this will be the correct strategy to give good user experience for visitors. Buildings that ware updated: (please forgive me the use of their Polish names)
This would be all for now. Stay tuned for more updates :)
First ranking in Google
Three days after I lunched The Settlers Online Compendium and it is already ranking in Google!
As far as Google Webmaster Tools told me, the site ranks on position 8.0 for phrase "manufaktura recyklingowa settlers online" - which is really cool, since I have not yet started any serious off-site SEO effort. Nice.
A New Project
This post will be the first in a series, because I'm starting a new project. The site is called "The Settlers Online Compendium" - and it's a compilation of various info about the game. Polish edition is already on-line, under the domain http://pl.thesettlersonlinecompendium.com/. English version will follow soon.
I want to do this project in a more transparent way, basically sharing what I do and what is the effect of my work. I have learned a lot from similar blogs, so this is my way of paying the debt. Perhaps I even start a blog here?
MMO-Minesweeper v0.9.5 update is online
I have made first - in a set of four updates - to the MMO-Minesweeper.com. This one focuses on dialog boxes, and introduces ads in the game. They appear on dialog boxes only - thus the game experience itself remains ad-free.
There will be AdSense, Amazon and self-promotion - like: a call to invite friends - advertisements. In future I want also to display a selection of offers from partners programs, targeted at gamers and casual video game players.
Game runs smoothly after the update. Looks like a job well done!
Good start for Domy-Niepolomice.pl
My most recently lunched website, Domy-Niepolomice.pl, had quite a good start in Google's search results. It's dictionary page appears on first page for term: wibor wikipedia. Not a bad start at all :)
As with other websites, Pizza-Niepolomice.pl has added another 100 to the number of visitors. In last 30 days the site was visited by a little more then 400 (four hundred) unique visitors. And it still climbs in the SERPs...
Last, but not least - I want to mention the DNSTally.com website. It was one of my first major research projects, that suffered from Google's Panda update. Seems, that the recent Penguin update had positive effect on the number of times the site appears in SERPs. It starts to pick up some long-tail traffic. Perhaps, it is time to revive the project?
Drupal 7.14 released, with security fixes
Two days ago drupal.org released a new version: Drupal 7.14. This one is important, since it includes some security improvements, as well as usual bug fixes.
Obviously, I already have it up and running on my infrastructure. Note - it is not yet in Portage (Gentoo's package manager) repository, but if you are a seasoned admin, you should have no problem with working around this. Hint: rename ebuild for the 7.12 version.
You can read release notes and download what you need from this page: http://drupal.org/node/1558424. On a side note - what an SEO-unfriendly URL ;)
OpFront sites not affected by Google Penguin Update
Hello All! Just recently I found put that Google's "Unusual linking practices" update got a name: "Penguin Update". Today I checked it my sites ware affected, and I'm content to share with you - that they are all OK. To summarize - so far - all my sites are either where they ware in respect to rankings and traffic, or continue to "climb" and improve with their typical speed.
Since I do not use any of the shady (called "black hat") tactics, and focus purely on legitimate (called "white hat") methods, it was not a big surprise. Still, if you have a website - it's a good thing to check it - since Google is known to "hit", by mistake, even well managed sites.
Domy-Niepołomice.pl in Google
My most recently lunched site: Domy-Niepolomice.pl is already present in Google index and begun to show in search results.
For it's primary query: "domy niepołomice", it started at the third page of search results - as far as I can see - meaning a position of 21-30. Not a bad start. Let's see how quickly it will improve it's rankings. Because it will, right? ;)
Pizza-Niepołomice.pl hits 300 visitors mark!
Today I want to share with you, that Pizza-Niepołomice.pl has recently hit a 300 visitors mark (in 30 days window). This means, that - on average - during the last month 10 unique visitors entered the page every day!
4 reasons for MMO-Minesweeper
Check the blog on MMO-Minesweeper.com to learn four reasons why it is more than average clone.
Pages
