Which casino, poker and slots sites perform best?
Which gambling site performs best in Google across the most searched for terms in the poker, casino and slots sectors? And which perform badly?
Well surprisingly Wikipedia, YouTube and Google all feature, pointing to the fact that some of the main players are focussing their efforts on SEO as much as they could and that there is great opportunity to be had in social media and App search optimisation.
In the charts below we have broken down relevant gambling search terms into three of the biggest casino or vegas related groups so we can focus on particular areas rather than just the general. The Groups are:
1.Poker
2.Casino
3.Slots
The use of our SEO platform shows the best performance across 1000s of the most relevant searched terms in Google UK, showing our own Pi visibility score, percentage appearance in top 100 for the selected terms and the average position of the 10 biggest players.
Some of the websites that appear may be a surprise, but the ones that don’t appear may be more surprising still. What is clear is that all sites could do much better across all three categories with no real stand-out winner in any area.
1. The best Poker sites in search
The chart below shows the top 10 best performers across the most searched for “generic” poker terms which equates to over 300,000 searches per month. Pokerstars.com is our winner.
Chart 1.1) Top 10 most visible sites – Poker search terms Google UK
Who are the big winners?
As you can see from the chart above PokerStars.com has the best Pi visibility score of 61.8 out of 100, with an appearance rate of 85% of all the search terms in this project. Because of this it can only be assumed that Poker Stars are saving significant sums on their PPC spend.
Perhaps surprisingly Wikipedia performs best across the range of poker search terms appearing in 96% of all searches. Wikipedia are undoubtedly a major player in all sectors when it comes to SEO visibility, but maybe this is also down to the lack of content available on major Poker sites.
Who are the losers or not even there?
The absence of the well known high street brands such as Ladbrokes, William Hill, Bet 365 and Coral may come as a bit of surprise with more dedicated poker sites performing better.
The well known site and recent market leader, Party Poker also do not appear since their untimely demise earlier in the year due to a reported link penalty which they have yet to recover from.
The chart below shows the sites’ average position across the most searched for poker terms in Google UK.
Chart 1.2) Average poker search term position – Google UK
As you can see from the chart above Wikipedia has the best average Google UK position of 19 and games.com has the worse average position with a score of 57.2.
However, it needs to be stated that no single player is running away with this category this is either due to high competition across multiple players or indeed ubiquitous poor content.
Chart 1.3) Visibility Index Chart: Poker Sites – Poker Search Terms, Google UK
The chart below is showing the visibility index of multiple poker sites performance over time.
2. The best casino sites in search
The chart below shows the top 10 best performers across the most searched for “generic” casino search terms which equates to over 400,000 searches per month. PaddyPower is our winner
Chart 2.1) Top 10 Highest Visible Sites -Casino search terms Google UK
Who are the winners?
As you can see from the chart above a well known high street brand Paddy Power performed best across the range of casino search terms with a position score of 88% and a Pi visibility index score of 66.1. Ladbrokes isn’t far behind with a search term position score of 85%.
Well-known high street brands Paddy power, Ladbrokes, William Hill and Coral all appeared in Google UK for the generic casino search terms, whereas they didn’t appear in Google UK for the poker search terms.
Who are the losers?
Again, as with Poker, there are some major players who are absent. The scores, even for those in the top 10 are not that high compared with other sectors we look at. It just shows that there is still a lot of work to be done within the gambling sector as a whole.
The chart below shows the sites average position across the most searched for casino search terms in Google UK.
Chart 2.2) Average casino search term position – Google UK
As you can see from the chart above paddy power has the best average Google UK position with a score of 21.9 whereas casino euro has the worsed average position with a score of 61.9.
The chart below is showing the visibility index of multiple casino sites performance over time.
Chart 2.3) Visibility Index Chart: Casino Sites – Casino Search Terms, Google UK
3. The best slots and games sites in search
Now we move on to games and slots – a highly lucrative area for natural search, as users want to see the most relevant sites and ones with the best reviews before they spend their money on them. The chart below shows the top 10 best performers across the most searched for “generic” games and slots search terms which equates to over 250,000 searches per month.
Chart 3.1) Top 10 Highest Visible Sites –Games and Slots search terms Google UK
Who are the winners?
Remarkably, as you can see from the chart above YouTube performed best across the range of games and slots search terms with a position score of 89% and a Pi visibility index score of 50.5. Well-known high street brands Ladbrokes, Paddy power, Betfred and William hill all appeared in Google UK for the games and slots search terms. The games and slots search terms also returned YouTube, Google and Wikipedia.
Google’s appearance is down to its “Play” section, where it offers up particular apps to purchase. App search optimisation is therefore key for the players in this area. If we know that Google will perform well, then it’s an opportunity for the providers to perform well in the App search engine for their particular games.
Who are the losers?
The mere fact that YouTube, Wikipedia and Google all appear in the Top 10 for slots and games shows that the providers are not offering as much optimised content as perhaps they could. The 3 sites are obviously extremely strong in search across all searches, but ultimately they should not beat the corporate experts, for example Wikipedia would not appear in a top ten for financial or retail terms – so why do they for gambling terms?
Chart 3.2) Average games and slots search term position – Google UK
The chart below shows the sites average position across the most search for games and slots search terms in Google UK.
As you can see from the chart above Youtube remarkably has the best average position, again this is from people uploading their “How to videos” and thus a huge opportunity for the main Slot providers to integrate with social media and more traction for their site.
The chart below is showing the visibility index of multiple games and slots sites performance over time.
Chart 3.3) Visibility Index Chart: Games and Slots Sites and Keywords, Google UK
