SEO Tracker: Competition growing as a ‘big four’ emerges in casino search results

Historically when we have looked at the online casino market, what we have seen is a very erratic search market where, in general, one or two brands tend to lead the way by some considerable margin, with the rest some way behind.

Often, the brands that are leading the way will change quite frequently. In a very competitive and erratic market such as online casino, it isn’t unusual to see a brand race towards the top of the search rankings relatively quickly off the back of strong rankings for high volume terms, only to fall back equally quickly as their SEO strategy gets found out. This is a search market that Google’s Search Quality Evaluators keep a close eye on, and they’ve been allied by a number of algorithm and policy updates recently.

It is one of the reasons why we have used this column to talk about the importance of sustainability in search marketing strategy, where brands seek to generate strong rankings across the full keyword set, rather than just those competitive, high volume but volatile keywords.

More recently, we have been seeing more of a consolidation in the online casino search results with what appears to be a cluster of brands asserting their dominance in the market, all of whom seem to be following that principle of broad keyword strategies.

A “big four” emerging

At the start of 2020, we can see a cluster of brands all leading the market, with relatively little difference in the visibility that they generate from organic, non-brand search.

Admiral Casino, 888casino, NetBet and 32Red have all emerged as strong brands in the search results, all generating more visibility in excess of 20,000. On previous occasions where we have analysed the market, there have usually been just two brands that have achieved this level of visibility.

This is because we are seeing a widening of the gap between the leading brands and the brands that follow. Between the fourth most visible brand, 32Red, and the fifth, Bgo.com, there is a difference of 7,370, and a difference of more than 6,000 between Bgo.com and Pink Casino.

Admiral Casino leads the search results in this market but, unusually for a top-ranking brand, ranks outside the top five for the biggest keyword in the market. The brand ranks in position six for the keyword term “casino” and third for the second-biggest term, “slots”, but makes up for this with position one rankings across a wide range of terms – most notably for “roulette” and “slots online”.

The brand ranking in position one for “casino” is NetBet, while 32Red is the top-ranking brand for “slots”.

Each of the “big four” is showing signs of an SEO strategy that considers the whole keyword set. We analysed the 353 biggest non-brand keywords in the casino market and three of the top four rank for more than three quarters of those keywords. While Admiral Casino’s keyword coverage is lower, it is still higher than all but one (Pink Casino) of the brands in position five to 10 in our analysis.

Mecca Bingo fell on casino terms throughout 2019

Mecca Bingo’s presence in the casino market is intriguing but there are signs that the brand is falling out of favour with the ranking algorithm for casino-related terms.

Twelve months ago, Mecca Bingo was the third most-visible brand in the casino market, generating a visibility of 19,249, despite ranking for just 59 keyword terms. Most of these rankings were for many of the brand’s bingo side games and, as a brand that isn’t specifically focused on casino, it is understandable that they wouldn’t have ranked for the full keyword set.

However, over the course of 2019, the brand has slipped in the rankings. By mid-2019, its visibility was 9,360 and in January 2020, it fell to 7,561.

As Google makes very public noises around how it wants to reward relevancy and subject expertise, it would be fair to suggest that it is only going to get harder for a bingo brand to compete in this casino market.

How can the smaller brands compete long-term?

It’s too early to suggest that the current state of the market is going to continue as a long-term trend, although it would be in keeping with other markets within the igaming sector.

Google has been very vocal about what it wants to deliver to search users – relevance, trust and user experience. Those principles naturally lend themselves to favouring larger brands in the search results, but it doesn’t necessarily exclude smaller operators from the search results.

Whether this situation goes on to be the norm or not, the principle that brands should build authority across the whole keyword set remains. Focus on the whole keyword set, identify the quick wins and build authority at a lower level, and set the foundations that allow you to better compete for those high-volume terms.