Basic Roleplaying Central SEO progression

I have just bought a copy of vBSEO, and will record my SEO progression here in this thread. My website is a community fansite for a roleplaying game called Basic Roleplaying. It was lanched in August this year, but is allready the most visited basic roleplaying fansite, in main part due to the forum.

Starting stats November 11th 2007:
Google: #6, 82 pages indexes.
Yahoo!: #2, 1,167 pages indexed.
MSN: not among first 100, 1 page indexed.
AOL: #6, 17 pages indexed.

(The number of indexed pages where found by a search for "site:basicroleplaying.com", on the respective search engines, is that the right way to do it?)

My primarily goal is to become #1 on Google and Yahoo! for the search term "basic roleplaying". The site is listed in the Open Directory Project, and the most popular Basic Roleplaying message group is associated with it.

So far, neither vBSEO or a site map have been installed. I'll do a few other SEO tweaks first, and then install those next week.

More to come!

SGL.

Once you have vBSEO installed you should do your site: query and then add vbseo. Since our copyright notice is on your pages, you will be able to track only the vBSEO-enhanced pages that are getting indexed.

Installed vBSEO today. Got a bit nervous when the forum pages didn't want to show, but it fixed itself given some time. A rather painless procedure, was expecting more of a hassle.

SGL.

Site changes to Basic Roleplaying .com:
1) vBSEO and vBSEO Google/Yahoo sitemap have been installed (the sitemap is set to only index forum display and show thread pages). Worried a bit about the sitemap not showing my non-forum pages.
2) Installed Google Analytics. Not quite sure how to best use this tool though.
3) Consolidated four forums into one, with one subforum. Also increased threads to show in forum display from 20 to 40.
4) Did some SEO work on the layout of my index and links pages.

Week #1 stats - November 18th 2007:
Google: #6, (82->)165 pages indexes.
Yahoo!: #2, (82->)1,486 pages indexed.
MSN: (not among first 100>)#3!, 1 page indexed (Still???).
AOL: #6, (17->)18 pages indexed.

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So, Google is picking up more pages. MSN have me as #3 now, a huge jump from last week (still only indexing the frontpage though?). Otherwise minor changes. Google and AOL is showing the exact same order of websites in the search, are those SE connected somehow?

Anyhow, a clear improvement I would say!

SGL.

We are glad to hear that you are making progress.

FYI:
bruceclay.com - Search Engine Relationship Chart®

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

FYI:
bruceclay.com - Search Engine Relationship Chart®

Okay, I'll drop AOL from future reports then as there doesn't seem to be very much gained from listing that one too. Google and Yahoo! are my prime targets anyhow.

SGL.

Site changes to Basic Roleplaying Central:
1) Did some more SEO work on the index page, added some <h2> tags.
2) Updated my news section.
3) Vastly improved my link list.

Week #2 stats - November 18th 2007:
Google: #6, 195 pages indexes (+30).
Yahoo!: #2, 1,574 pages indexed (+88).
MSN: #3, 1 page indexed.

So, some more indexed pages, but not the greatest changes. How can I get MSN to index more of my pages though? Can I submit my sitmap to them too?

SGL.

vBSEO Sitemap 2.1 submits to Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, and MSN automatically.

A new version! Time for an update then!

SGL

Site changes to Basic Roleplaying Central:
Been lazy. Updated to sitemap 2.1, but haven't done much more than that.

Week #4 stats - December 8th 2007:
Google: #3! (from #6), 183 pages indexes (-12).
Yahoo!: #2, 1,626 pages indexed (+52).

Finally some movement towards my end goals of being #1 on Google & Yahoo! for the search term "basic roleplaying"!

Moved up 3 places on Googles ranking!! Yihaa!

SGL.

Site changes to Basic Roleplaying Central:
Updated the news section and added Downloads II. The forum activity have really started increase now. :-)

Week #4 stats - December 8th 2007:
Google: #3, 211 pages indexes (from 183).
Yahoo!: #2, 2,099 pages indexed (from 1,626).

SGL.

Site changes to Basic Roleplaying Central:
Added a reviews section to the site.

Week #9 stats - January 13th 2008:
Google: #3, 476 pages indexes (from 211).
Yahoo!: #2, 2,079 pages indexed (from 2,099).

So, somewhat more indexed pages in Google, but otherwise not much change SEO-wise. Number 1 on both Google and Yahoo! are understandable sites. I'm a bit unsatisfied with not being able to be #2 on Google though, as the site that's #2 now is relatively new and have much less visitors and content.

SGL.

Any changes in incoming traffic?

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

Any changes in incoming traffic?

It have increased by about 60% since compared to 5 weeks ago. (Was that what you meant?)

The site and the forum goes very well, I would just like Google to appreciate it too!

SGL.