SEO Tracker: PokerStars regains crown as leading poker brand

PokerStars has regained its position at the top of the organic search results, as partypoker saw big falls in what is a tough period for the sector as a result of falling search volume and the growth of free-to-play competitors making big dents in the online visibility of the major operators.

PokerStars sits at the top of the organic non-brand search results in the online poker sector, marginally ahead of the free-to-play Zynga Poker, despite a 34% reduction in traffic with a visibility of 8,419.

The fall in traffic from May 2021 is, however, more notable for partypoker, which led the rankings back in May but has since slipped to third in the market, following a 43% drop in organic search.

So, what is going on in the online poker market?

PokerStars leads – just

PokerStars marginally edges out the free-to-play Zynga poker and, despite the falls in traffic, has improved rankings in some key areas. The brand now ranks in position one for 16 of the 98 keywords in our analysis, including “online poker” and “poker online”, compared with 11 back in May. Only 888poker has more position one rankings, and these new position one rankings contribute an additional 1,780 clicks.

The improvements in rankings can be seen across the board for the brand, with improvements also evident for mid-volume terms such as “texas holdem”, but it is a position three ranking for the term “poker” that makes a big contribution to the brand’s visibility, contributing just under 31% of their total traffic. That does, however, show that the brand has a solid organic search strategy overall, and any increase in ranking for that high-volume keyword (assuming no other changes) would see the brand take a significant step in increasing its market lead.

Partypoker the biggest-hit from decline in search volumes

The fall in traffic seen by both PokerStars and other brands in the market is largely due to the general fall in search volume that we have seen across the market. Searches related to the online poker market have seen a notable decline in the last five months, dropping from a total of 112,100 across the 98 keywords analysed in May to 98,340 in October. In this same period, searches for two of the largest volume terms in the industry, ‘poker’ and ‘poker play’, have both gone down by 18%.

One brand hit significantly by that is partypoker, which has lost 43% of its organic traffic and has lost its position as market leader.

In May’s column we mentioned how partypoker had achieved its visibility thanks to position one rankings for sought-after terms such as “poker play”, “online poker” and “poker online” but when we look at the rankings now, the brand no longer holds any of these top positions. Instead, it now resides in position five, three and two respectively.

It means partypoker now receives just 1,541 estimated monthly clicks from these terms, a considerable drop from the 6,250 clicks it generated in May. While overall searches for these terms have also dropped by 16%, partypoker’s 75% decrease in traffic generated from them shows that the change in rankings has been far more damaging than the general loss of traffic that the market has experienced. Even moving up from position three to position two for the term “poker” hasn’t been enough to arrest that decline.

Zynga Poker shows strength of free-to-play sites

Another contributing factor to PokerStars and partypoker’s loss of traffic has been Zygna Poker, with the brand having increased its visibility by 12% in this five-month period, now sitting just behind PokerStars as the second most visible brand in the market. This suggests a growing draw of free-to-play poker to consumers at this moment in time, as overall interest in the market decreases and many who would previously have used other brands are now seemingly looking for a free provider.

This increase in visibility can be largely attributed to the brand moving from position three to position one for ‘poker games’, with the additional 2,639 estimated monthly clicks from this change more than enough to make up for lost traffic elsewhere.

However, it would be overly simplistic to say that its improved position for the industry’s second largest keyword is papering over losses on other keywords. Although Zynga ranks for fewer top three terms than in May, the brand is now receiving more traffic for top three ranking keywords than previously, even when ‘poker games’ is taken out of the equation.

What it shows instead is that the brand has managed to focus on ranking for higher quality keywords and improving its position for those that bring more traffic, also benefitting from increased consumer interest in the free service they are offering.