Innovation

New Release: SEO Improvements, Admin Tools, and Downloadable PDF Waivers

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By LeagueApps
June 7, 2013
3 min

Hey LeagueApps MVPs! We wanted to share the details of our latest product release, which brings some helpful additions.

This one includes a number of Manager Console updates to help you manage your members and leagues, as well as some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) improvements which will bring more visitors to your website! Below is a summary of the updates.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Improvements

Attracting more visitors to your website is one way to boost registrations and increase the size of your membership. We made a few updates that will help your website pages rank higher in search results on Google and other search engines.

  • Keyword-rich Page Titles & Meta Descriptions. We made several key pages automatically include keyword rich page titles and meta descriptions. These items are used when search engines decide how to index your pages for inclusion into search results.
  • Keyword-rich Program URLs. We implemented verbose SEO-friendly program URLs which incorporate the full program name into the URL (e.g., http://playleagueapps.com/leagues/kickball/7593-big-boot-outdoor-co-ed-kickball). The URL is also used by search engines to decide how to index the page and deliver in search results. Having more keywords in the URLs will result in the page being available (and at a higher rank) in more searches.
  • XML Sitemap. We implemented an automatically generated XML sitemap. This is a special tool used by Google and other search engines that helps it crawl your site and properly index all relevant pages. Your sitemap is available at the URL /sitemap. For example: http://playleagueapps.com/sitemap

Admin Tools

We improved upon several areas in the manager console. These improvements were based on feedback we’ve received from our partners, and hopefully will serve to help you manage your programs and members more efficiently.

  • Added a feature that allows you to “login as” any member. Now, when a member of your organization has a question and you want to see their account first hand, you can easily login to your public website under their account without having to know (or change) their password. This secure feature is accessible from inside the Manager Console on the “Member Details” page for each member. See how to log in as any member here.
  • Expanded the “visibility” setting on custom member profile fields to include an “admin only” option. This allows admins to create and maintain custom fields for their members that ONLY admins can see and edit. This can be useful for storing and maintaining information on members that you don’t need/want the members themselves to see or edit.
  • The recently introduced birthdate field has been incorporated into three relevant sections of the manager console: a) the ‘Registrations Reporting’ tool, b) the ‘Manage Members’ listing page, and the ‘Program Players’ listing page. Now, the birthdate field is included as a data item in these views, and is also a sort option.
  • The ‘Transactions Reporting’ tool has been improved to address a few items that recently came to our attention. First, the date filters are now inclusive of start and end dates. Secondly, we resolved an issue in which certain transactions were being omitted from the report unexpectedly under certain filter settings.

Downloadable PDF Waivers

We added a feature that provides enhanced tracking and accountability for online waivers once they are accepted my members.

Now, once a waiver is accepted by a member, a PDF document version of that waiver is captured with an “approval signature” stamp included at the bottom. This “approval signature” captures the date, time and IP address at the moment the waiver was accepted. This PDF document of the accepted waiver is downloadable from the website by the members as well as the admins. Members can access the PDF waiver by clicking on the “Manage Registration Details” link for any registered program on their member dashboard. Admins can access the PDF waiver for any program participant by going to the “Program > Players” page for any program, then clicking the ‘info’ icon (to the left of any player’s name) and looking in the info slide-out panel.

We hope these updates help, and we’re here to answer any questions!