The iGaming niche is a notorious one to rank in. The costs to do so are often huge, but the rewards are even larger. So, what does it take to rank in the iGaming niche?
Who better to answer the question than some of the best SEOs in the game. We asked 7 SEOs with experience in casino SEO what it takes to move the needle – the answers are below.
Konstantin Rabin of Bicoincasinosreviews.com
Over the course of the last few years we’ve been helping out quite a few affiliates and operators within the iGaming space to get links, and some 2 years ago we started with our own affiliate casino and betting websites.
One of the key tricks for us was a careful sub-niche selection. It goes without saying that the iGaming niche is super competitive, expensive, and hard to rank. Hence, instead of trying to rank for such queries as “casino reviews”, we instead grabbed a matching domain and ranked it for “bitcoin casino reviews”. Same goes for queries like “football betting” and “crypto football betting”. Also, crypto sub-niche of iGaming is only expected to grow (imo) since more and more regulation and payment bans are getting introduced.
Another idea that was widely used for our other crypto betting project is the issuance of awards that are given to the operators to acknowledge their excellence. Often operators will embed the award on their homepage and link it to our site’s announcement, giving us a powerful (often DF) homepage link.
John Wright of Statsdrone.com
Industry knowledge helps. I think for the core keywords that everybody knows about, it is a little too competitive. Otherwise I think it helps if you have solid content writers that look as real as possible and not ghost writers. I rarely see sites ranking with sub standard content. I see many sites that rank with this strategy without any link building at all.
Kyle Campbell of Sitetrain.net
The #1 most important thing when making any new SEO sites, in my opinion, is niche/keyword research.
So with iGaming you want to pick a specific COUNTRY and/or LANGUAGE(that will cover multiple countries) that you think you can make a dent in, with your budget.
And because of the amount of money in this space, it seems to me that SEO professionals are more willing to deal with the hassle building sites in languages that are foreign to them.
The #2 thing I feel like mentioning is that greyhat tactics / backlinks work well in this space.
PBNs are very alive and well in this space.
If you just monitor the domains that sell at GoDaddy or other auctions sites, you’ll see that a lot of them end up being used as a money site or PBN in this space.
And lately it’s often for Indonesian or Vietnamese sites.
#3 – something that often goes unmentioned about iGaming is the common need for custom site design/the need for a WordPress developer to do some custom work.
Fortunately this doesn’t have to be that expensive because its not actually a massive task.
But I think you should learn how to instruct a dev on how to create custom database tables and fields in phpmyadmin, that will hold all of the entries for different online casino sites that you review.
That way you can put all of the different attributes of these sites into fields and they can be dynamically pulled on to different pages of your site, and easily updated in one spot.
For example, you may want to have pages that are themed differently, like “best slot sites”, and “best poker sites”, etc.
And then you may want to have an individual review page like “Red Dog Slots Review”.
And then any time you want to update different info related to the “red dog slots” entity in your custom database table, like “minimum play amounts”, “games offered”, etc., the info will update on all pages where the “red dog slots” entity is mentioned.
Davis Johnson of Casinos.us
– Analyze your competitors and do everything they do – but better
– Write your content for the user
– Get creative with marketing campaigns to attract unique and natural PR
Nathan Whelan of online-gambling.com/us
It feels like a combination of science and magic but honestly, providing high-quality content that is both relevant and practical to the user is key. Apply the likes of Gandhi’s advice and be the content you wish to read in the world.
Lisa Spencer of Betting.us
It’s all about providing accurate information that aligns with the intent of your visitors’ search. Develop a strategy with your target audience at the core, not Google, and offer comprehensive content that you as a consumer would trust.
Garrett Graff of Reachcreator.com
Authority and thinking outside the box. Very few affiliates and operators use well-rounded linkbaits, leaving themselves with the same standard paid-links that everyone else is acquiring. At that point the only thing left is who has more budget for links.
Manuela Reyes of Online-Gambling.io
In the competitive iGaming niche, a strategic approach is essential. Focusing on sub-niches, such as “bitcoin casino reviews” or “crypto football betting,” can provide a competitive edge. Industry expertise ensures credible, user-centric content that aligns with search intent. Custom site design enhances user experience, and thinking innovatively helps differentiate your site in the iGaming industry. Success in this field hinges on understanding user intent and delivering valuable, authentic content.