Best layout for articles

[thebookiesoffers]

managed to get some people to provide article for my site like a betting preview for different events. what would be the best layout, would it to have a main article page with a snippet and link that to the article on its own page?

[fisicx]

Snippet is good as you can provide lots of hooks to the various articles. Don't forget as well to use internal linking to and from the articles.

The actual article itself needs to be eyecatching and use headers, lists and images to create different zones to catch the eye. Colour can make a big difference so will using backgrounds and different styles for quotes, top tips and other in-article features.

If it's just a chunk of text then neither the punter or the search engines will be particularly interested.

[thebookiesoffers]

Snippet is good as you can provide lots of hooks to the various articles. Don't forget as well to use internal linking to and from the articles.

The actual article itself needs to be eyecatching and use headers, lists and images to create different zones to catch the eye. Colour can make a big difference so will using backgrounds and different styles for quotes, top tips and other in-article features.

If it's just a chunk of text then neither the punter or the search engines will be particularly interested.

heres the first that the lad wrote http://www.thebookiesoffers.co.uk/betting i added the links in the artcle aswell, thinking of using the first 4 or 5 lines for each one on the page then having the whole article on its own page. Is there a limit to how many snippets i have on the page before i put it to an archieve section?

[fisicx]

Not the greatest football fan but even if I were I'd struggle to read that article. There are no breaks, no images, no headers, just great chunks of copy.

The other problems is the actual topic. It is discussing an event that takes place today. Google won't even know about the article until long after the event which makes the whole thing redundant.

Sorry but this isn't the way to go for articles. You need something that is still going to be relevant in 6 months time. Stuff that is happening now needs to be in a blog or news feed or similar.

[thebookiesoffers]

Not the greatest football fan but even if I were I'd struggle to read that article. There are no breaks, no images, no headers, just great chunks of copy.

The other problems is the actual topic. It is discussing an event that takes place today. Google won't even know about the article until long after the event which makes the whole thing redundant.

Sorry but this isn't the way to go for articles. You need something that is still going to be relevant in 6 months time. Stuff that is happening now needs to be in a blog or news feed or similar.

its mine and the lad that wrote it's first attempt so it was never going to be perfect. He's wrote one for the wednesday england game which will be online soon aswell. I also have someone writing some horse racing articles aswell so there should be plenty of fresh stuff on there for google to keep coming back to read, which i am lead to believes what happens, the more updates the more google comes back? and I make sure i place it on places like digg aswell so google knows its there quite quickly. Cant i add some sort of feed think that people can sign up to and get emailed when theres a new story aswell?

[Kev Jaques]

That is one of the things I would help you with Aidan, should you know what ;)

[thebookiesoffers]

set it up like this now http://www.thebookiesoffers.co.uk/betting is this a better way to it?

[fisicx]

What incentive is ther for Google to visit? Agree that the SE likes new content but the format is also important. topical information needs to be in something like a blog. General permanent information needs to be an article.

Google isn't going to keep coming back unless you have something useful. A preview of a football match isn't much use after the event so it's not going to attract much interest or help your ranking.

If however you blogged every day about sporting events with your betting tips and then reported back on the success of those tips then you might be onto something.

Keyword here is 'blog' not article - it's a different medium.

The articles should be more long lasting - bettings hints, explanations, glossaries, betting taxes, the different types of bettings, types of poker, casino rules and regulations and so on.

But above all whatever you write needs to be easily read. The readability of black on blue is poor and because you don't use headers and images it just looks like a chunk of copy. Increasing the font size slightly and maybe adjust the line spacing will help and you could use different styles for the bettings tips but it's still just a huge 100 chunk of copy about an event that will already have passed before Google visits to index.

You need to move away from the pre-match reporting (unless they are in a blog) and start providing some useful betting articles - the sort of thing people will search for. If they are well written and are formatted with headers, lists, images and internal links then they could easily rank well and pick up some useful inbound links.

If you do blog about the footy then you can provide an RSS feed for people to get the info as you hinted - it doesn't work with a startic article page.

[thebookiesoffers]

how do i go about adding a blog then?

[fisicx]

Speak to your host. You will need a database setup ready for WP then all you need to do is download, unpack and upload. Follow the onscreen instruction and the blog will be live in 5 minutes.

Getting it to look pretty is a different game though. Ideally it should look like you current site - this means building a theme and then experimenting.

However, the football thing still isn't going to help. you are a betting site not a match reporting site. The relevancy is only slight. If however you reported on betting patterns, trends, results, payouts and so on then you really would have something special.

Basically you need to think about why you want to blog or write articles. If it's just to improve your ranking then it's not going to have much effect. If you want to provide a better experience for your visitors then that's good but you also need to consider than the sort of person who want to real up about the different types of horse betting may not be the sort of person who actually places a bet. You might get lots of visitors to your articles/blog but discover your conversions reduce.

[tomsk]

how do i go about adding a blog then?

Have you thought about sticking something like bbc sports rss on your site?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/help/rss/default.stm