SEO "packages" etc......

[Acorn]

I believe I have finally figured out the cause of the slow but steady decline in attendance to my forum over the past few months. We were in steady growth from our beginnings and especially last year, then around September this year I noticed us levelling off, now we're in a downward slope. This despite me doing ten times more advertising and affiliating {and we're gettig a larger precentage of our hits from those things than we used to.} For a while I thought the problem must be coming from within our site--less eye appeal, less fun in the game or neglect on some part, but nothing at all bears any of that out, and our Google rank is exactly where it was last year. But a search around the web turned up the answer for me. It's because another larger site in the same genre that didn't used to have a forum now has one, and they're draining our inflow of new members.

What the hell do I do??? It's going to kill our site if I don't do something soon. And NOTHING I've tried is working! I am in panic mode.

They come up first for the search term "Warrior Cats." We come up first for "Warrior Cats RPG" but that's a much narrower and less often used term.

I've tried to optimise my site, although I refuse to change its name; I've established a few affiliations with a couple larger sites though I cannot seem to get affiliated with other sites my size, not that I think that's even the solution...if it were, I wouldn't be writing this...

So in desperation I'm starting to look at those "SEO packages." Those ones that promise your site to be boosted up on Google for given keywords--do they work? Do I risk being sandboxed by them--as in, are they "illegal"{by google} cheats? If I choose to try these things, would it compromise my ranking as it currently stands?

 

[Watch Me Sink]

I'd say stick to what you're doing. SEO packages are mostly crap, unless it is from a good reputable company.

 

[Acorn]

Right. I don't want what is basically just "spam hits" to my site. I only care about increased visibility if it actually brings in visitors who have an interest in staying. 😛

The problem is that what I'm doing, isn't working...for a little while we were able to compensate for the slide, but now, we're losing ground in spite of it.

We were the biggest fan forum for Warriors until this place opened their board. They aren't a pure RPG like we are, but they include a roleplaying section, that despite being almost completely disorganised, not allowing any perks like signatures, your own avatar {they have to pick from a preselected gallery} and having a lot less staff presence, except for the fact that over there, all posts have to be pre-approved which means there's a delay in their posting--in spite of all this, they are thriving while we wilt.

 

[Acorn]

Sorry for the bump. But I'm at my wit's end. Look!!!

http://mostpopularwebsites.net/www.warr ... rds49.com/

That's my site's activity {scroll down to bottom for the graph of visitors}. What's going on and what am I doing wrong??? How do I turn this around before it gets even worse???

 

[Zenrer]

Looks like when you had a lot of visitors was in Winter, and less in Summer for the US, maybe thats why

 

[Acorn]

Yeah but last fall things really picked up and they aren't now. We're down SEVENFOLD from our peak. I don't see how ANY one thing could be just sucking our guest visits dry like that. {Google ranking remains the same.} But it's scary. I want to do something, but don't know what. I've got me and my staff all reaching out on other media:

Facebook
Youtube
Fanfiction.net
Still working on creating us a website.
Ads and affiliates galore

Nothing yet, no upward activity and not even a halt in our freefall. The members that DO join up seem to enjoy it as much as they ever did and do stick around--and from there they have few or no complaints. We even have a board where people can make comments and nothing has been mentioned other than the usual questions and stuff. No huge complaints that this or that is really turning them off. No one ever says "This site was better back in the old days." No rants {last one we got was back in June, by the hacker that we banned! lol we all just laughed at that one} and when I debuted the new default skin and graphics people loved them--except for a few who said the text was a little too pale {I then darkened it and they said it was fine then.} god, if there were somg glaring error or oversight on my part that would be preferable. THAT I could at least fix!

 

[Zenrer]

I suggest using Google Analytics to get the low down on all your stats.

 

[Sparkz]

Not every one who sees the ad knows about warriors. Try targeting your advertizeing on certian forums, videos and blogs.

 

[mikehawk]

Content is King! Try to think of some new features that would be useful to visitors to keep them coming back. I am continually adding features that match up to the keywords that are successfully driving in traffic from Google.

 

[Acorn]

Good posts guys!

Google analytics, yeah can't hurt to check that one out. And you mean like roleplaying resources? The top keywords ppl use to find my site are "warrior cats rpg" and "warrior cats."

Which we pretty much are already about. We have lots of guides to roleplaying on our site, guides about the series etc. and I hope that by establishing accounts on other media we can expand our reach to others. Generally though only Warriors fans are going to be coming in--I was a very rare exception because I joined to roleplay cats, having never read the series at all. It was just the only place to roleplay cats that wasn't on the verge of dying out from inactivity. It turns out that the societal system established by the book series is an ideal one to set up a roleplay in, so much so that other types of animal RPs have co-opted it here and there.

My main issue is finding the time to set all this up, but I do a little bit each day. So far no break in the slide...this weekend was literally the lowest-activity one we've had since I started actually measuring our hits and activity at the end of August.

 

[AquaTeen]

I would say if you are looking to optomize a keyword use anchor text. Simple but amazing tool for getting a good google ranking. I've never once paid to get a high rank on google. And I've had sites in the top 5 for "gaming forum", "video gaming forum", "zombie forum", and now just started working on my latest project again for the first time in months.

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=11550
^^ A guide to anchor text

 

[Acorn]

That's a great guide, and yeah I currently already do that in my ads. I try to write a whole new ad every few months. They get stale quickly and I personally just get really sick of looking at them XD

Despite extensive advertising with anchor text well tuned to what I want to get picked up by search engines, nothing's changed..actually we're one ranking LOWER than we used to be for "warrior cats."

 

[Fergal]

You might ask your members to refer their friends. Perhaps even run a referral contest.

What about running other contests that encourage your existing members to return and post every day?

Have a good look at your competitor's site and ask yourself what are they doing that is more appealing for members. Then do it even better on your own site.

What about getting your own domain and hosting solution? Forums generally do better on their own domain.

Sorry that you are experiencing this decline in activity and I wish you the best of luck in picking it up.

 

[PcGuy]

as fergal said, im surprised your even on probaords with those stats, you definatly need to get a real domain and some real hosting, that always looks more professional and makes members feel more comfortable about your site 🙂

 

[Acorn]

I won't move our site. I would have no way to take the posts and our top rating in Google for "Warrior cats rpg" with me. I don't even think all the members would agree with the move, at least not at this time. So we're stuck there...at least we have no bandwidth issues. That's a big one. There is no bandwidth limit at all for Proboards, no matter how busy you get.

I've begun this stuff: Video contest--people post up their best efforts at a video promotion for our site on their youtube account and link back to us. Judging for a large prize {forum points, though everyone who entered gets points} is Thanksgiving weekend.

Fanfiction.net account where some of our stories are now being published, again with links back and inviting to join our board.

Facebook account

A sig-advertising programme {Points for advertising our site on another forum in your sig, this has brought in a few hits and members}

Deviantart account, where all members can join and post their fanart of our site.

I've signed up to create a website to accompany our game, though need more time to get started on it. I guess wait till the other stuff is more finished...

Also a word of mouth advertising programme--players get a bonus for inviting other members to join and stay, if the new members stay at least 3 weeks the player who referred them gets a bonus.

...as for the other warriors site, I honestly don't know. Their roleplaying is extremely messy and disorganised, I'd pretty much have to dismantle my game to have what they have, and when I put up a poll asking players whether clan organisation in the game should be loosened they only wanted it loosened slightly {which I did} and there was a strong sentiment against the sort of anything-goes roleplaying that this other site has.

This is the other site:

http://forums.warriorcats.com/

They have a loose roleplaying section in their Fan Clans board. They are not primarily an RPG like we are, but it's clear that its members love roleplaying.

They don't allow ads or even links to outside sites nor do they affiliate, or I'd have gladly made an exception to have done so.

This is just the kind of thing that makes me wonder...how can a forum get started without any advertising and just suddenly be huge?

And thanks for the well wishes, Fergal. 🙂