iGB Affiliate 63 June/July | Page 14

TRAFFIC
Just 13 % of organic positions for pure generic keywords are occupied by affiliate sites Affiliates are almost completely excluded from some of bingo’ s highest volume keywords, with phrases such as‘ bingo games’ and‘ online bingo’ returning 87 % and 88 %, respectively, in favour of operator sites.
However, the situation does improve slightly as the pure keywords become more bonus-oriented. For the full breakdown, see Figure 1.
Affiliates dominate the SERPs of most modified generic keywords, but operators hold strong As you might expect, affiliate sites enjoy more organic success once modifying terms are added. The general rule appears to be that affiliate exposure widens as searcher intent narrows( see Figure 2).
Phrases such as‘ new bingo sites’ and‘ best bingo sites’ return the greatest proportion of affiliate results, which is both a blessing and a curse. With just a handful of high-volume generics to target and hundreds of affiliate sites fighting for traffic, organic competition is fierce and intense.
Figure 1: Affiliate and brand exposure to bonus-oriented generic keywords
PURE GENERIC KEYWORD
Affiliate exposure( top 100)
Brand exposure( top 100)
Desktop
Mobile
Desktop
Mobile
no deposit bingo
33 %
36 %
66 %
63 %
free bingo no deposit
27 %
26 %
73 %
74 %
mobile bingo
19 %
18 %
81 %
82 %
free bingo
14 %
19 %
82 %
80 %
free bingo games
11 %
12 %
77 %
81 %
bingo online
7 %
7 %
86 %
88 %
bingo mobile
5 %
6 %
95 %
94 %
bingo uk
5 %
7 %
87 %
84 %
online bingo
4 %
8 %
87 %
82 %
bingo games
3 %
3 %
88 %
87 %
bingo
0 %
0 %
87 %
81 %
12 %
13 %
83 %
81 %
Figure 2: Affiliate and brand exposure to modified keywords
MODIFIED KEYWORDS
Affiliates % in top 100
Brands % in top 100
Desktop
Mobile
Desktop
Mobile
new bingo sites
88 %
86 %
10 %
11 %
best bingo sites
75 %
74 %
19 %
20 %
no deposit bingo sites
55 %
58 %
37 %
39 %
online bingo sites
54 %
40 %
40 %
53 %
mobile bingo sites
51 %
45 %
47 %
45 %
best bingo
49 %
51 %
37 %
30 %
free bingo sites
48 %
50 %
51 %
47 %
best online bingo
42 %
41 %
53 %
54 %
bingo sites
42 %
42 %
54 %
54 %
56 %
54 %
39 %
39 %
Affiliate exposure is generally consistent across desktop and mobile, with exceptions Give or take a percentage point or two, there is very little difference between the exposure of affiliate sites for generic keywords on desktop and mobile( see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Difference in affiliate exposure on desktop and mobile
KEYWORD
MOBILE EXPOSURE
free bingo + 5 % online bingo + 4 % no deposit bingo + 3 % no deposit bingo sites + 3 % best bingo + 2 % free bingo sites + 2 % bingo uk + 2 % free bingo games + 1 % bingo mobile + 1 % bingo sites 0 % bingo online 0 % bingo games 0 % bingo 0 % best bingo sites-1 % best online bingo-1 % free bingo no deposit-1 % mobile bingo-1 % new bingo sites-2 % mobile bingo sites-6 % online bingo sites-14 %
10 iGB Affiliate Issue 63 JUN / JUL 2017