SEO Tracker: A new surprise leader at the top of the bingo search results
In this month's SEO Tracker, Stickyeyes analyses trends in the online bingo search market
In recent years, the organic rankings of the bingo sector have been somewhat predictable, with Mecca Bingo holding a commanding lead over the brand in second place, which has been either Gala Bingo or Foxy Bingo.
Seeing an entirely new name ranking as the most visible brand is not something that we would have expected from the bingo sector, but BJ’s Bingo has shaken up the search results.
A clear outlier on the left of our now familiar “bubble chart”, BJ’s Bingo has managed to become the most visible brand in the sector thanks to the power that the keyword ‘bingo’ wields, but it’s a presence that is naturally very volatile.
Online bingo, much like the online poker market, is a search market where one keyword in the market, in this case “bingo”, has the potential to single-handedly make a brand the most visible in the market. That one keyword has a monthly search volume of approximately 74,000, generating a potential 17,856 monthly clicks for the site in first position, which is more than now second most visible brand Mecca Bingo generates across the 295 keywords it ranks for (16,085 clicks).
This has enabled BJ’s Bingo to come somewhat out of nowhere to be the most visible brand in the sector, which is evident from the fact that the brand only ranks for 75 keywords. Only receiving 172 organic monthly clicks when we last analysed the sector in March, the brand was a long way from the top 10 sites, never mind anything more.
Although the brand has improved rankings in general to bring in more organic traffic across its ranking keywords, it still only has nine first page rankings and ‘bingo’ generates 96% of its organic traffic, leaving the brand susceptible to large changes in visibility based on its ranking for this one keyword.
Mecca Bingo no longer top of the search results
Mecca Bingo has lost considerable traffic despite ranking for more keywords than it did back in March. Unsurprisingly given the influence we have just discussed, ‘bingo’ is the keyword responsible for a disproportionate amount of the traffic lost and with Mecca Bingo now ranking in position three for ‘bingo’ instead of position one, the brand has lost 7,531 estimated monthly clicks on this keyword alone. This is despite searches for ‘bingo’ increasing from 60,500 to 74,000 per month.
However, while the change in position for this keyword has had a large effect on Mecca Bingo’s visibility, the brand now has more rankings on the first page and in the top three. Traffic has increased in other areas, meaning that if the brand had maintained its position one ranking for ‘bingo’, it would have extended its lead at the top of the rankings rather than falling to second most visible.
This means that, along with Gala Bingo which ranks in position two for ‘bingo’, Mecca Bingo would gain a lot of traffic (and regain its position as most visible brand in the sector) from any change in BJ’s Bingo’s ranking.
Speaking of Gala Bingo, the position two ranking for ‘bingo’ has helped the brand overtake Foxy Bingo, which previously received over 5,000 more monthly clicks than Gala Bingo.
Gala Bingo saw a 62% increase in organic traffic since March, which can be attributed to an improvement from position five to position two for ‘bingo’ which has brought in 5,772 additional estimated clicks. Gala Bingo actually lost a small amount of traffic elsewhere in its keyword rankings, but this improvement for ‘bingo’ was enough to see a considerable increase in visibility.
This also resulted in a double blow for Foxy Bingo, as Gala Bingo overtook the brand both in terms of overall visibility, but also the rankings for ‘bingo’.
Growing demand and competition
The dramatic increase in searches for ‘bingo’ is indicative of wider interest across the sector, as overall searches across the industry have increased by 17% in the last six months.
Not only is demand within the industry greater than before, it is also more competitive as a whole. The average number of ranking KWs across the top 10 sites has gone up from 234 to 238 despite the presence of BJ’s Bingo as an outlier, the average traffic for a site in the top 10 has gone up from 8,601 to 9,786, and the traffic required to be 10th most visible has gone from 3,847 to 4,780.
Yet while a more competitive market is great for consumers, especially in a growing market, the fact remains that success in the organic rankings hinges on one keyword. It is no surprise that the top four ranking sites in the sector mirror the sites taking the top four positions for ‘bingo’, and therefore success here is crucial to any brand in the space.