Gambling with SEO

By Basil 5 years ago

Gambling websites have been known to face scrutiny in the past. In spite of a fair business model, as well as warnings and guides to safe online gambling, people (and search results) often discriminate against legal gambling websites and bookmakers, seeing them as annoying or shady. This is particularly tough on those who are just starting out in the gambling business, as big companies already have a recognizable brand presence. The gambling websites which are reliable, such as canadian-sports-betting.com, put a lot of effort into making sure their customers are safe while betting and that is why they keep flourishing and developing further.

For this reason, gambling websites often have to adjust their online marketing strategy, including modifying their SEO, in order to improve their search result rank and stand out from the crowd. This is how they do it.

Standard SEO

First thing’s first – you still have to follow standard SEO rules for a good ranking. What does this entail? In order to thrive, you have to have quality links (meaning links that lead to relevant sources), limit the number of said links in order not to appear as a shady website, and build authority – backlinks are a must.

In addition to this, your content must be relevant. Just having a few betting odds that are better than what people expect from our competitors does not automatically mean traffic. Follow sports news, or news relevant to your form of gambling. Write a blog, giving your two cents on what’s going to happen next in the world of sports or gambling regulation.

The website must be properly formatted, meaning that it has to have relevant images (with alt text for blind users), headings, clearly visible text, and serious (but not boring) design. Bottom line – your on-page SEO and off-page SEO game have to be on point.

SEO Tips and Tricks

With the standard practice out of the way, let us discuss the common ways people in the gambling industry increase their search result rank and appear inappropriate online queries.

  • Affiliates

Backlinks give your page (and website) authority over a certain subject. The more websites link to your pages and content, the higher your rank will become. Find affiliates and develop a cooperative relationship with them.

Outreach is something to keep an eye out for, so make sure you work on your networking skills. Authority begets authority. If a company with a higher rank says you’re okay, you are way better than you were when you started.

  • Competition

Study other websites that are in the same business as you. What methods do they use? What is the format of their website? Could their strategy work for you? Should you partner up with them? You need to answer all of these questions before you proceed.

Build a Network

PBN stands for Private Blog Network. Sometimes you need to use your websites to promote your main, money-making website. It is far from optimal, but if your websites are properly calibrated (good content, relevant links, etc.) you can expect the rank of your online gambling website to rise. Just make sure your network relies on quality rather than quantity.

If you are to use this one, exercise caution. It’s Gray Hat SEO practice, meaning it may not technically be illegal, but it goes against official guidelines, so it’s heavily frowned upon online, and penalized, especially by Google. It is literally a gamble. It can improve your traffic, or, if you’re caught, completely wipe out your website from the search engine registry, making it impossible for people to find you.