|
 Poker Pages
is the archetype of a poker information site. News, strategy, results, everything is here -- which of course is not
always to the site's benefit, as you simply can't cover everything in the word with the exact same excellence, and you
end up with one of the busiest home pages in the galaxy.
More importantly in examining the domain though, the key point to consider about Poker Pages is their decision a few
years ago to focus the power of the domain on promoting Pokerschoolonline.com and Bugsysclub.com as revenue generators
rather than Poker Pages alone as a portal.
Originally strictly an advertising supported information site (somewhere between the Two Plus Two ad-supported forum
and the Play Winning Poker ad-supported strategy site), the Poker Pages staff relocated to Gibraltar to launch the
partner school and cardroom sites. While about half of the top 25 highest visited poker information sites have related
sites (most obviously like Pokerlistings.com is related to Pokerlistings.de), Poker Pages relationship to Poker School
Online and Bugsy's Club is one where visitors are sent to the smaller sites while in exchange for drawing revenue
directly, rather than from third-party advertising.
This keep-it-mostly-in-house philosophy has impacted Poker Pages search results, as in addition to visitors, it sends a
lot of its domain authority to its smaller-focused partner sites. This is not good or bad, but it is a trade off. Poker
School Online and Bugsy's Club produce direct revenue, while Poker Pages search rankings have dropped quite a bit since
its heyday as being #1 for a one word "poker" search. Still, its reputation as a destination site keep its traffic
(circa May 2007) high: #3 on Hitwise, #4 on Compete.com and #5 on Quantcast.com |
|
