FEATURE
Figure 4: Brand search volumes
“ Which Bingo has a bounce rate of just 51.4 % and an average time on site of 3:10, in a market where no brand other than Bingo Lobby achieves a time on site in excess of two minutes”
So what we have here is a clash of strategies. On the one hand, we have brands pushing large quantities of content at a very fast rate, and this is naturally going to raise questions as to just how relevant, just how considered and just how good that content is. On the other hand, we see a brand such as Which Bingo which is producing much less content, at a much lower rate, but the content that is being produced appears to be delivering enough value to the user to hold their attention for more than three minutes. So what can we learn from this? What affiliates need to remember is that it is important to focus on their own proposition, and not just that of the operators that they are directing traffic to. It simply isn’ t enough to simply act as a springboard for Google users to then bounce off to their chosen operator( while pocketing the commission in the process). Google will simply see that as an additional click that is detracting from the user experience that it provides.
Instead, affiliates should focus on carving out their own niche or proposition that makes them stand out against not only their competing affiliates, but the operators as well. Before we make a judgement on whether Google hates affiliates, let’ s make a judgement on whether affiliates are genuinely offering a meaningful USP.
And this doesn’ t have to be particularly difficult. Sure, it’ s not easy, but creating great content depth and relevance is clearly an area where affiliates can steal a march over their slower-moving operator competitors, which may be constrained by clunky content management systems and the resource issues and internal politics that are rife within big brands. The fact that they can also have broader content opportunities, by virtue of speaking to multiple sites and operators, is a key distinction that affiliates should be looking to leverage.
When it comes to content, less is often more – and relevancy matters.
Remember that Google loves brand We’ ve seen in Google algorithm updates over recent years that brand is becoming more and more important in search and, yes, this can put affiliates at a disadvantage in the igaming sectors. Affiliates don’ t tend to have the big brand campaigns, the high-profile sponsorship slots for popular soap operas and the carefully calculated PR operations.
But if Google loves brand, then we need to look at brand recall within the sector, because it again could point to key opportunities to redress the skew in Google search that currently favours the operators, rather than the affiliates.
We’ ve reviewed brand recall by analysing brand search volumes from google. co. uk and we can see again that the only two brands making an impact are Bingo Port and Which Bingo( see Figure 4).
We know that Google likes brand, and the frequency with which people are seeking these brand names in their search engines is a key trust signal – this is where affiliates have a massive shortfall versus the operators for the reasons we suggested above.
But while brand is a challenge for affiliates, brand search volume is
iGB Affiliate Issue 64 AUG / SEP 2017 29