It is well known that the thematic niche of online casinos and gambling sites has very specific features. Firstly, it is a market with special geographical restrictions, as many countries of the world and some states of the USA have completely banned online gambling with bets. Secondly, search algorithms are very sensitive to explicit attempts to circumvent them to promote content on such topics. Our expert Jeff Vertes at BestCasinosInCanada.net website offer expert assistance in promoting sites that specialize in the gambling niche.
Nowadays, players don’t look for the nearest casino as often as they used to. Due to the pandemic, online casinos have come out on top in searches because they offer real money in a single click. So, in this article, we share some important tips to help professional gambling businesses expand their influence on the Web.
Why is it so difficult to promote a site operating in the gambling niche?
As we have already noted, the online casino and gambling niche requires a long-term strategy.
It takes time and patience for a business to grow from an unknown online casino and rank on the first page of Google for high frequency keywords. Don’t expect organic traffic to grow in a few days or weeks, for example. It will take a fair amount of time, but once achievable goals are set, you can go for it.
Organic traffic is an essential part of any online business. According to a 2022 study, 65% of the world’s traffic comes from direct website clicks and 29% is generated through online search. This underscores the importance that search platforms have in distributing and directing user traffic.
So if you want your site to grow and have enough customers, you should never discount the importance of an SEO planning strategy. This is why choosing an SEO agency is crucial. The integrity of the company won’t be compromised, you won’t waste money.
What to keep in mind when promoting a site in the gambling niche
If you put your SEO strategy in the hands of inexperienced professionals, the risks that the site may be blocked by Google or other search engines are too high. In particular, Google’s algorithms track a specific list of keywords related to the gambling niche, as they may randomly show up in queries such as those of children.
SEO for online casinos and other similar sites is expensive in the West. To get backlinks from authoritative sources (for example, from information portals or blogs with a serious volume of traffic), it is necessary to spend more money for publication than in other niches. The owners of such resources are aware of the specifics of the business, the high competition, and some of them refuse to add to the pages of their sites any hyperlinks related to gambling.
And one more tip: avoid PBN (private closed network of blogs that refer to a promoted resource). Developing such a network may seem like an easy way to attract traffic, and some agencies may offer it. Basically, people create several sites and try to fill them with content, but unfortunately, not always of high quality.
We strongly advise against doing this because it would be a waste of time and money. On the one hand, this is an easy way to create backlinks. However, these web resources will have low authority, so you will have to work hard to improve their ranking. There is a danger that Google’s algorithms will track them down, since PBNs are easily detected by search engine robots. So, just like in a quick-enrichment scheme, all the money and effort spent can disappear in an instant.
Here are 10 tips on how to improve regular search results related to online casinos.
1. Work out your keywords
Keys are essential in any niche, and when promoting gambling sites, there are even more reasons to research them in depth. It’s easiest to gather keywords using popular services like Google Analytics, AhRefs and SEMRush. Doing this kind of work is a real step forward to improving rankings.
Pay attention to medium- and low-frequency queries, because HF keywords like “casino” or “betting” are likely to be out of reach for beginners at first. It’s best to focus on long keywords that are appropriate for your specific target audience.
A fragment of examples of AhRefs keywords related to casino online. Pay attention to the fact that poker near me has a large amount of traffic and low difficulty to promote, but with the query casino online it is harder to work.
In the long term, because of the unstable status of the online search, it is important to aim at working through the most popular keywords in the niche. This is necessary because customer preferences change quite often. New sites emerge, and the competition for a place on the first page of Google search results is sometimes aggressive.
Since the topic of gambling makes Google and other search engines be suspicious of the promotion of such resources, do not add keywords related to betting in articles. When placing backlinks, try to make them as natural as possible and add URLs and brand names if possible.
2. Optimize content
Many SEO experts argue that it’s more important to spend time updating old articles and keeping them relevant than creating new content. The field of online casinos and gambling is constantly in flux: betting odds change, games are updated. Therefore, it is important to supplement your articles with new information. SERP will scan the site and notice that it has been updated, then its ranking will increase.
You can also update old material with hyperlinks to new articles that have recently been created, to services or products that have been added. Make sure there are no links in the articles that lead nowhere, no inconvenient pages for users. The easier it will be to move between articles, the more likely that people will linger on the pages and come back to the site later.
3. Develop your resource
In addition to daily content optimization, you should prepare a content plan to develop your site. This means determining how often new articles will be published. Regular updating of materials will be a signal to visitors that the business is developing. If there aren’t many resources for daily publication of articles, choose the optimal interval, indicating that the site is up to date.
Remember that quality is more important than quantity. Search engines prefer original, informative content that is different from everything else. Do not try to increase the volume through “empty words”. If the texts will offer information on the essence, in the long run it will be more useful for ranking.
4. Pay attention to reviews
There is one thing that sets the online casino and gambling niche apart from others, and that is the importance of user reviews on websites. Just like in the hotel and restaurant business, reviews will influence consumers to choose your brand among several with similar ratings.
Putting company reviews on the home page will give an indication of the quality of service and help the site owner see what suggestions and critiques the CA had when they viewed the content.
5. Respond quickly to user queries
There are 3 types of keyword queries: informational, navigational and transactional. The first provide answers to the question “What is it?”, the second is “Where can I find it?”, and the third provides solutions to the questions “How much does it cost?” and “How do I purchase/use a service?”
Search engines handle the queries most often searched for, and it’s easy to get that information. If you go to the home page of Google and type in “online casino,” for example, you’ll immediately see a list of questions that people are asking in that niche.
An easy and straightforward way to answer the most frequently asked questions about the topic niche and the services/products offered is to fill out the F.A.Q. page. Frequently asked questions might include, for example: “At what age can you sign up for an online gaming site”, “Can you play online for real money”. All this increases the chances to appear on the first pages of search results.
6. Make the site accessible to search results
Before you perform any of the steps mentioned in this article, you need to make sure that the site is available for indexing by search engines. Every day Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines crawl the internet looking for new content.
If the site has only recently been created, it will take some time for it to be indexed. We offer some tips on how to quickly index a web resource:
- First, you should update the “About Us” and “Contact Us” pages. Placing contact and professional information on the site is a sign to search engines that you are not a robot, that the site is functioning legally;
- Second, try placing a link to your resource on a reputable page that already appears in Google’s search engine results. For example, have a site with a significant amount of traffic. Using it to post a backlink will increase the credibility of your resource, and it will be indexed faster.
In addition, get access to Google Analytics and Google Search Console tools. You can use them to analyze data about the number of visitors and when the resource was last crawled.
7. Improve CPR and focus on KPIs
CPR (Content Performance Rate) and KPI (Key Performance Indicators) are two basic tools for evaluating how a site is performing. The first measures content quality by taking into account the hierarchy of headlines, meta descriptions and alternate text for images. KPI focuses on numbers and statistics that help assess the effectiveness of a web resource. It includes several indicators, such as traffic status, bounce rate, conversions.
It is very important to monitor these indicators using modern services offered by Google Analytics, AhRefs, SEMRush and many others. You can install the WordPress Monster Insights plugin if your blog runs on WP.
In a 2021 survey of search engine optimization (SEO) professionals around the world, 24.6% said that content accuracy was one of the most important factors influencing search rankings that year. 32.8% of respondents emphasized the importance of meta tags – titles and descriptions – putting them at the top of the list.
8. Reduce page load time
In the highly competitive market of online gambling, reducing loading time is one of the key factors for promotion.
More than half of users leave a website if it takes too long to load. People prefer to leave for a competitor rather than just wait. That is why it is important to control this indicator.
We recommend installing Page Speed Insights. This is another app from Google. The tool helps you estimate load times and offers tips on what you can do to reduce them.
Another tip: Upload mp4 videos and JPEG images. These formats are lighter and reduce download time. Also, make sure to remove unnecessary cache, which can slow down the site.
9. Use affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to promote an online casino. Essentially, you spread the word about your business to other high profile resources, with each party receiving a percentage.
In practice, thanks to this revenue sharing, everyone involved benefits in terms of profits. As with all transactions, this system is run by the customer. How? When a consumer clicks on a link and makes a purchase, the affiliate promoter and the original source get shares.
Because of the “sensitive” nature of casino and betting sites, affiliate marketing is one of the most interesting ways to increase your customer base. By partnering with other trusted resources that have a large number of subscribers and steady traffic, you increase your chances of making a name for yourself and building brand credibility.
10. Make sure the site is mobile-friendly
Currently, most traffic comes from mobile devices. In the second quarter of 2021, 61% of global traffic came from cell phones, tablets and other gadgets.
This means that ignoring mobile compatibility on a web resource will cause you to lose a large portion of the audience that could have been yours.
Make sure the site has all the necessary mobile settings. Test it on Android and iOS devices before launching it. Make sure that all pages and links work properly.
In addition to adapting for mobile devices, it’s important that gambling niche sites are coordinated with apps that allow users to comfortably view odds, current results, games and other resources. Developing an accessible app that gives the customer the ability to place bets will increase brand loyalty and traffic to the web resource.
Conclusion
If you want to develop your gambling project, you should know what distinguishes this niche from the rest. In addition to competition, search engines are suspicious of online gambling, so you should think carefully about your intentions to develop your business in this market.