Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization or (SEO) “is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines.” See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization.
The process of optimizing your website can vary from very complicated to very simple depending on how much work your site needs. When I was asked to write an article about SEO for Lil’ Kicker franchisees I was a little concerned because of the technical nature of the work that goes into this process. But when I began to think about how difficult it can be to find a Sports-IT customer’s website, even searching by their company name and state, I realized that a few simple improvements would help their website move up the search result rankings. In short, while there are many people that make a career out of providing SEO services, you can optimize your own site without spending thousands of dollars if you follow a few simple rules.
Today’s Search Engine
Today’s search engines have adopted systems similar to the PageRank system created by Google. The order in which your page is listed is no longer based soley on what words are on your website but instead is based on complex algorithms that rank your website against others. Here’s Google’s description of their PageRank algorithm:
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.
The image below gives a good representation of how PageRank works and what you can do to move up in the search ranks. Lets pretend that company B = ESPN and company E = You. ESPN has a large PageRank because there are millions of sites linking to it – some of them with large PageRanks and some with small. Your company’s website has quite a few websites linking to it but most of the websites have a very small PageRank and thus your PageRank remains relatively small. The key here is to get quality PageRank sites to link back to your site. For example, company C only has one site linking to it but it’s ESPN and this makes its PageRank larger than yours. If your company was able to get ESPN to link to your site your PageRank would balloon above company C. Also note that every page on the web will contain a PageRank. For example, a local news website’s sports page will have a higher PageRank than their obituaries. Getting ESPN to link to your website might be a difficult challenge but it makes the point that you want quality sites linking to yours.
Enough of the theory, lets look at how your website can climb up in the search results.
Step #1, Build Your PageRank
Building your PageRank of your website is the continual process of getting other websites to link to your website. This is the most effective way of putting your website at the top of search engines.
Step #2, The Front Page!
Don’t fill the front page (aka home page) of your website with team schedules, flash and pictures. The front page of your website will likely have the highest PageRank on your site. Because of this you want words describing your facility, services and location on your front page. Use the words people use in search engines to find the products and services you provide. If you run indoor soccer and Lil’ Kickers try to use the words “indoor” “soccer” “child development” and so on. And don’t just stick a bunch a words up there, try to use readable, interesting content. The search engine will figure it out.
Step #3, Build A Search Friendly Website
Sometimes the best websites are the simple ones. Don’t put your important words into flash and keyword descriptions in flash or images. I’ve seen many sites built entirely with flash and most of them are really hard to find using Google search. Here’s a list of Google recommendations on building your site.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769#design
Information above was taken from the following resources:
Google PageRank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank
Search Engine Optimization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
If you follow the basic rules of Search Engine Optimization – important keywords in content on your homepage, get linked by bigger sites, and limit flash or image containers for keyword critical content – you should find your site moving up the ranks of Google search.
SAM 5.6.0 Release Notes
Sports-IT is excited to bring you some great new features in SAM 5.6.0. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release and going forward.
Release Notes
Automatic Class Prorating
MySAM and SAM now support prorating of classes (camps and house teams not supported).
- Automatic prorating of classes when turned on at the league level.
- Proration is calculated from the number of sessions left scheduled on the calendar.
- Proration is not calculated if the total number of sessions scheduled on the calendar is less than the number of sessions defined at the class level. This prevents the proration of classes before the entire schedule has been completed.
- Prorating for a particular class will go 10 minutes into the start time of the class. If users take the class and pay afterwards you’ll want to make sure to adjust the proration in the cart.
Financial Report Update Bonanza!
All the financial reports have been given a face-lift for consistency and added functionality. Financial reports are now located under the Reports->Financial menu. The following is a list of report updates:
Updated interface includes a multi-facility selector for all financial reports, new date range selector to quickly select commonly used dates and consistent layout of report fields.
Search for a particular payment type, dollar amount and export to excel.
List checks, check refunds, NSF check totals. Sort by check number, amount, etc..
Run other financial reports with the same report parameters, including links to run those reports for the prior year.
More fun features:
- Export the new daily sales & deposit report into excel.
- Sort report output by clicking on the columns.
- Totals now include check refunds for easier bank deposit reconciling.
Calendar Face Lift
Bright new colors and GUI enhancements improve your calendar day view.
Click the image below for a full calendar view.
- Click to view full calendar
Create events with a click of the mouse. Simply click on the calendar and select your event type.
Customize the width of your resources with the new calendar width slider. Have a lot of sub resources that are hard to see? Make the resource bigger. You can edit the width of the resource by clicking on the resource header on the calendar or by going into the Administration->Resources menu. Changes to the width of a resource will affect all users and requires manager authorization.
Lil’ Kicker Templates
Lil’ Kicker franchises now have the ability to use one of the five predefined templates (bring a friend, new session, parent’s week, Lil’ Kicker parties and picture week) for their broadcast emails. Click on the image on the right to see the full size image of what it will look like in your customers email box.
New Multi-Month Date Selectors
These improved date selectors throughout SAM have a cleaner user interface and display multiple months making it easier to pick your dates.
Season Export Tool
Season export tool has been updated to include more season and league fields such as the season team deposit amount, online sign up start and end dates, season and league descriptions, class prorating and online registration.
Additional Updates and Fixes
- Payments can be added to invoices by going to an invoice and entering a payment amount to add.
- Issue with min/max ages not being updated correctly when using the season export tool fixed.
- After taking a customer picture the image now reloads properly.
- SAM header now consistently continues across the browser page.
- Fixes for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3.
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Keeping up with the Indoor World- Adult Soccer Players Who “Don’t Know They’re Players…Yet” June 30, 2009 slperryjr@gmail.com
- US Indoor Coming to Vegas June 16, 2009 Don
- Reinvesting in tough times June 9, 2009 Don
- How Does Your Facility Compare? June 4, 2009 Don
- On The Road to Financing – Sausage Racing in Milwaukee June 1, 2009 Don
