TRAFFIC
“Very often, operators don’t advertise their free bet
offers very well, and all it takes is an enterprising affiliate
to rank somewhere on the bottom half of page 1 for a
brand phrase. A user doesn’t care where the free money
comes from, as long as they get it.”
with Betfair, where we use their APIs to
contextualise odds that relate to a game or
sports event. Put simply, we were trying to
align a user’s primary goal, news on sport,
with a secondary goal, betting on an event.
Despite getting some nice traffic numbers
(1.5 million visits per month at peak), it’s
just not very transactional. And there’s not
a great deal I can do about that.
My online casino started out as a typical
casino. But like every other casino I’ve
seen, it had one massive fail: navigation. A
user wants to play games they love - fast.
And for some reason, no casino that I’ve
ever seen organises the hundreds of casino
games they have in the same way any good
e-commerce website would.
So with that big idea of user satisfaction
in mind, my answer is to build a casino site
around e-commerce principles. Whether
it really works are not, we will see, but the
point is that I am living by my principles. I
would rather create a truly satisfying casino
website and then work it on the marketing,
than the other way round.
What about you?
If you could wipe the slate clean and start
all over again, what would you do that
would satisfy the user within the context of
the most profitable key phrases?
I think the money is ‘in the money’,
i.e. free bets, casino offers, brand phrases.
What could you do to outcompete others in
the ‘user satisfaction’ stakes?
The second cycle is in continuous
revenue from a customer. So what can you
do to keep the money coming in from every
single sign-up?
My answers
I think navigation is huge. People use
search engines to navigate the Internet.
They love Google the most, because
Google helps them to get from a question
to an answer the quickest way possible.
So, build websites that get users to where
they want - quickly.
This is why freebets.com and
bigfreechiplist.com nail it. How could
you improve upon those websites? I think
it’s around:
●●better categorisation
●●easier sorting
●●better cross comparison between offers
●●genuine reviews of operators (optional)
This is where content marketing plays its
part. By helping users make better decisions
about where to bet, you will hopefully
increase their bet volume. That’s why years
ago, I founded a website called betting.
Betfair.com and explicitly steered the
editorial narrative around useful, actionable
information to make a bet with.
The catch with this kind of ongoing
content-driven customer relationship is
cost. If you’ve ever done your numbers,
you’ll know how expensive it is to produce
really good content people love.
That’s why I think big players like the
aforementioned OLBG will only push
further ahead, because they have the
community, editorial depth and resources
behind them.
Wrapping up
The iGaming SEO world has changed.
Since SEO is the lifeblood of so much
iGaming affiliation, it’s fair to say affiliation
is now very different from five years ago.
And this change is only going to get more
pronounced in the forthcoming years.
The new winners are sites that give what
users want. Ironically, these websites often
don’t look pretty; they just do what they’re
supposed to.
They probably make more money today
than ever before, because now they don’t
even need to buy links. Google ranks them
pretty much irrespective of link volume.
I think you will see the rise of a small
group of ‘end-to-end’ affiliates like OLBG
who can satisfy users throughout their
whole life cycle. And they will rank,
because Google likes ranking websites
users like.
I also think SEO is morphing from
gaming Google to helping Google, and
delivering the most satisfying websites
possible.
So if you want to do well in SEO, maybe
just start from scratch, forget about SEO
and build a website a user really wants. As
an afterthought, you could factor in some
on-site optimisation, perhaps get a few
good links that Panda hasn’t nuked and
you’ll be on your way.
Final comment
I seem to be one of the few people talking
about engagement and user satisfaction
driving rankings. Why? I put it down to
commercial interests getting in the way of
the inconvenient truth.
People listen to what they want to hear.
It’s far easier for an SEO agency to sell
you links and content marketing services
than the complexities of user experience,
conversion optimisation and nailing user
satisfaction.
If you get what I’m talking about,
move quickly before the pain of failure in
SEO drives other affiliates to change their
ways. User satisfaction isn’t some fluffy
marketing nonsense, it’s survival.
NICK GARNER is CEO and
founder of Oshi bitcoin
casino, and also owner
of the successful iGaming
SEO agency 90 Digital. He
was previously head of search
for Unibet and before that, search
manager for Betfair.
iGB Affiliate Issue 55 FEB/MAR 2016
13