TRAFFIC
So, what’ s happening and what can you do? Although it is almost impossible to give definitive reasons for why affiliate sites are excluded from the most profitable pure generic search phrases, I do believe that some or all of following factors may be influential.
1. Google is jealous If you ran the world’ s biggest search engine and had worked for decades to tailor your algorithms to provide the best search results, would you then want those results to include links to other search result pages?
Affiliate sites are just that. Every category on every affiliate site is effectively another search page. If Google assumes the intent of a user to be to search for a bingo site, Google wants to be the one providing the list of bingo sites for you to play on.
And, to be even more cynical: Google knows that unmodified generic keywords attract the highest AdWords bids. Why should it link to your list of adverts when it could instead profit from its own? Solution: Be more than just a list of sites. Support your site categories with helpful and relevant content for players. Consider reducing the use of phrases such as‘ directory’,‘ index’,‘ results’ and‘ database’ in your category copy in favour of more typical operator calls-toaction, such as‘ play’,‘ sign up’ and‘ join now’.
2. Affiliates are the cause of the problem Have you ever looked through the backlink profile of a gambling affiliate site? Russian link directories and unrelated forum comments are hardly signs of relevance or authority.
For every one good backlink an affiliate site acquires, there are at least another 100 that are worthless. Affiliates famously struggle to build relevant high quality links for reasons including industry taboo, a lack of nonaffiliate gaming publishers and poor branding.
The last five years have seen a continued improvement in Google’ s ability to distinguish high-quality earned backlinks from black hat link pyramids. As the
SEO impact of these schemes diminishes, affiliates are struggling to compete with what remains.
At the same time, affiliate sites are directly strengthening operators. Every link
to an operator from an affiliate is relevant, on-topic and fresh. While many of these links are nofollowed or blocked by robots, there are still hundreds that are not.
And, unfortunately, despite all of the advances Google has made, it is still miserably incompetent at differentiating a paid-for affiliate link from an earned natural link. Solution: Ensure that all outbound affiliate links from your site to operators are not followed or blocked by robots. Review your site’ s backlink profile to honestly and objectively determine which links are actually providing value. Do you need quality to balance quantity?
3. Operators scarcely target modified generic keywords The vast majority of white label bingo sites consist of a homepage and a series of templated networked sections. These usually include a simple overview of slot games, a list of current promotions and information about player rewards.
It is very difficult for a typical white label operator to target a broad range of generic keywords compared to an affiliate. As a result, only the broadest and all-encompassing search terms are realistic targets.
Conversely, affiliate sites are very good at providing narrowly focused categories for the best sites, the newest sites or the biggest offers, in ways that operators cannot. Affiliates are the jack of all trades, operators are the masters of one. Solution: Take a top-level look at your site structure and categories. Your affiliate site is full of relevant content about various strands of bingo, but lacks relevance to the topic as a whole. Utilise internal linking to signal topical relationships between the various sections of your site and expand outwards to the most general topic itself – bingo.
“ WhichBingo is the most dominant affiliate across all generic keyword groups and devices, followed by Bingoport, BestNewBingoSites. co. uk and OnlineBingo. co. uk”
Don’ t settle for 6 % I strongly believe that there is a place for affiliate sites in the results pages of even the most generic keywords. I see no reason to sit back and hand over hundreds of thousands of monthly searches to undeserving operators.
Google is not a person; it’ s an algorithm. Instead of accepting defeat and the loss of thousands of potential new visitors and millions of pounds in revenue, we should focus on identifying and overcoming the patterns leading to affiliate exclusion.
The value of affiliate sites for players is undeniable. We are not doing ourselves or our players justice by targeting the scraps of branded SERPs.
It’ s time to fight back.
Resources
● http:// www. igbaffiliate. com / articles / great-brand-phrase-goldmine-1
● Keyword reports generated by AWR Cloud on 17 May, 2017
● Full sample data available on request
PHIL BLACKWELL is head of SEO at Lindar and responsible for the organic growth of bingo affiliate site, OnlineBingo. co. uk. In previous agency roles, Phil devised and implemented SEO strategies for various multi-national clients including eBay UK, New Era, Mothercare and Carphone Warehouse.
12 iGB Affiliate Issue 63 JUN / JUL 2017