INSIGHT
“ At this stage the most important thing is to work out whether you were lucky or on point. And if you were on point, what were the things you did right?”
If you believe that Google mostly ranks what its users want, then players must want thin affiliate sites. The only catch is that one thin igaming affiliate site is pretty much like another, so success will be had by presenting information in an optimal way and doing the other SEO components well( something I’ ll be writing about in the future).
The why of success So you’ ve got thin affiliate website that’ s doing well. Congratulations; you’ ve got something people want. But Google may try to direct you by noting that“ good affiliates add value, for example by offering original product reviews, ratings, navigation of products or categories and product comparisons”.
And this is where confusion creeps in. You’ re supposed to have amazing reviews, product comparisons and so on – and as a thin affiliate you might have these things – but do players actually read them? I doubt it. Those players are there because of the free money. Your reviews are probably not going to influence them that much.
You’ ve made money out of what you know works and now you want to grow your business. You’ re being influenced by: •Google telling you to do one thing, so by implication you will rank better if you follow their webmaster guidelines •the mega affiliates and their successful initiatives around player retention What do you do? At this stage the most important thing is to work out whether you were lucky or on point. And if you were on point, what were the things you did right? When you understand the why of success, it makes decisions on your future much easier.
The question of why opens up a huge subject and the answer varies massively depending on whether you get your traffic from organic search or emailers or black-hat PPC. I would say that 70 % of affiliate revenue originates from organic search, so that’ s what I’ ll focus on.
As I mentioned earlier, in my view Google ranks the websites its users want the most. This makes sense to me, because Google wants happy users coming back to Google again and again. Therefore, Google search results are essentially a popularity listing per key phrase, per country territory.
If you’ re ranking, it’ s because you are doing something better than your competitors. If someone ranks above you for a particular key phrase, it’ s because they are doing something better than you. Maybe they have a better domain name, superior layout, clearer information or a more impressive look and feel. Start analysing your competitors as if you were a player looking for free money and you’ ll begin to get some answers.
With the emergence of artificial intelligence around the turn of the decade, Google became progressively harder to game. Once you drop the idea that ranking is all about gaming Google, you’ ll start to rank.
Destination brands and retention There are advantages to becoming a destination affiliate brand. It’ s cost effective to retain players and have them jump from a mega-affiliate site into operators because it avoids the cost and uncertainty of reacquiring this traffic from organic search, mailers or other sources. That’ s why so many of these big sites have their own communities. But having analysed search results for many
44 iGB Affiliate Issue 71 OCT / NOV 2018