What is SEO?
SEO is a set of techniques aimed at making websites more friendly for search engines. This involves optimizing keywords, content, links, and technical structure to ensure the site is relevant and easy to find. The goal is always to improve rankings in organic search results.
iGaming SEO vs. Traditional SEO
SEO is important in any niche, whether it's e-commerce, health, or food. In iGaming, elements such as fast loading, original content, quality keywords, and links remain fundamental. However, there are some peculiarities in this area:
1. Legal Regulations
When talking about iGaming, each country has its own laws and rules, which are constantly changing. This means that an SEO strategy that works well in one place may yield completely different results elsewhere. Additionally, if a game or brand is banned in a country, for example, the associated keywords will see a decrease in searches, impacting the site's visibility.
2. Keyword Volatility
Keywords in iGaming change constantly due to factors such as seasonality and new regulations. A good example is major sporting events, like NFL games, which generate a spike in searches during the season but lose relevance once it's over. Being aware of these variations is essential to keep the site competitive.
Reaching the top positions on Google takes time and effort, but in iGaming, maintaining that position can be even more difficult. The competition is fierce, and relevant keywords change rapidly.
3. High Investment
Due to the competitive nature of the sector, SEO for iGaming requires a significant budget. Large companies often invest heavily in valuable keywords and the purchase of strategic domains. According to Dmytro, using keywords in the domain name (like "igaming-online.com") can offer a competitive advantage, but the costs for this can be very high, reaching millions of dollars.
4. Specific Backlinks
Backlink strategies—links from one web page to another serving as references within the content—in iGaming follow the same rules as other sectors but often at a much higher cost. Placing a review or guest post on a relevant site can cost between $5,000 and $10,000 per quarter, underscoring the need for a more robust budget.
5. Unfair Competition
In iGaming, it’s common to encounter unfair tactics, such as posting false negative reviews to harm a brand's reputation. This requires constant monitoring of review sites and prompt responses to contest these false comments. Moreover, some competitors may charge to remove such reviews.
How to improve SEO for iGaming?
Some important strategies:
* Keyword Research
Studying and researching keywords is the first step in considering SEO strategies. Tools like Google Analytics and Semrush help identify the most relevant terms. Focusing on broad keywords like "online casino" is more difficult due to strong competition, so the advice is to seek more specific and medium-volume terms that are still relevant to the audience.
* Original Content
Content is the heart of SEO. Just like in other sectors, in iGaming, content should be informative, up-to-date, original, and relevant. Game reviews, match analyses, and news about regulations are some types of content that work well. Publishing frequently, 2 to 3 times a week, is important for achieving good rankings. Additionally, naturally integrating keywords into the text, titles, and images, and always linking to reliable sources are key strategies for iGaming SEO.
* Technical SEO
Beyond content, it's also important to ensure that the site loads quickly and functions well on mobile devices. Some valuable tips include:
-Compressing images to improve loading times;
-Cleaning up the site's code;
-Removing unnecessary plugins;
-Ensuring that "call-to-action" buttons are easy to click on smaller screens.
Practical example: SEO analysis in iGaming
To show how these strategies work in practice, our SEO expert Dmytro analyzed FanDuel, a fantasy sports platform. FanDuel is an example of a well-optimized SEO site with nearly 2 million organic monthly visits. However, they lost a significant portion of that traffic in 2023 due to a decline in referring domains and backlinks. This underscores the importance of maintaining a consistent and quality backlink strategy.
Conclusion: SEO strategies in iGaming
In summary:
* Specific Niche: iGaming SEO shares many practices with traditional SEO, but one must always be aware of local regulations, keyword volatility, and reputation management.
* High Costs: Competing in iGaming requires a significant investment, with quality backlinks costing thousands of dollars.
* Constant Effort: Even after achieving a good ranking on search engines, staying at the top requires continuous review and optimization of the site.
SEO for iGaming is a continuous and challenging task, but by applying the right strategies, it’s possible to stand out and achieve good results.
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Source: GMB
