Gaming Sites: Relevant SEO Optimisation Trends in 2024

Rosloto experts will tell you how to develop an effective SEO strategy for an online casino in 2024. From this article, you will also find out what ranking factors should be considered first of all.

SEO Marketing in the iGaming Niche

The technology is used to advertise gambling sites. It aims to make the ranking of pages higher.

When promoting a project, professionals are guided by the preferences of clients in a particular region. Thus, players from Russia and the CIS countries choose Google and Yandex to search for gambling locations, while users from Europe and the USA prefer Google and Yahoo!. As for the Asian region, the most popular options are Baidu and Bing.

Entrepreneurs can independently organise SEO optimisation or outsource this task.

Advantages of SEO

The described tool has the following strengths:

1. Increase in conversion. SEO is characterised by an integrated approach to the promotion of gambling establishments. Advanced algorithms not only bring users to the site (due to its high position in the ranking) but also turn them into regular customers (due to a convenient interface and good content).
2. Affordable price. The main goal is to attract free organic traffic. Of course, the work that is related to the internal optimisation and the placement of links on external sites costs some money but its amount is much less compared to other promotion methods.
3. Durability. The results of a marketing campaign stay the same for many months. There is no need for constant investment: it is enough to work on the internal elements of the platform. It includes the publication of links and useful content and the resolution of technical issues.
4. Improvement of image indicators. The constant presence of a digital casino in the top positions increases the level of confidence of gamblers. They are more likely to visit the platform, register, and make their first deposits.
5. Legality. The described promotion method is absolutely lawful. In the settings of Google and Yandex, you can filter the search results to restrict access to the site for customers from those countries that have an ambiguous attitude towards gambling.

Ways to Advertise a Gaming Site

There are 2 types of SEO promotion:

1. Internal. It aims to improve the usability of the platform and its information component. In 2024, only projects with good content can take top-ranking positions: there should be no spam texts and intrusive advertising but it is vital to have articles written by experts, as well as video and graphic materials. Technical characteristics of the casino are also important, for example, the level of security or age of the domain.
2. External. This type of optimisation is associated with the placement of relevant links on independent sites. These are thematic forums, news resources, and various communities. Business owners can also cooperate with influencers who publish “catchy” content on their pages on Twitter, Instagram, and personal blogs.

Online Casino Evaluation Criteria

Google and Yandex rank sites based on the specified criteria and search filters. The more accurately an iGaming project meets the rules of the system, the higher it is in search results, which directly affects the amount of online traffic that it will attract.

Managers of IT corporations are constantly updating the existing rules of assessment in order to improve customer service and protect gamblers against unfair operators.

Let us consider the factors of ranking that are currently relevant:

Compliance with the Google Algorithms as the Main Trend of 2024

This company is working on optimising the ranking criteria. In addition to the standard evaluation factors, new filters appear. They meet all modern requirements regarding security, ease of use, and quality of content.

Below, we will name the algorithms that SEO specialists are focused on:

Mobile First Index

At the end of the last year, Google presented an updated online resource approval rating. It states that the search service focuses on mobile versions, not desktop ones.

Changes are associated with the widespread use of gadgets. Thus, in 2021, about 70% of online traffic was driven from personal gadgets, while desktop PCs attracted only 30%.

It is worth changing the mobile casino (technical characteristics, content), including the transition from the m.site.com subdomain to a full-fledged domain name. Otherwise, operators will receive less organic traffic, and the position of their portals will be lowered in search engine results.

Entrepreneurs should pay attention to the following tasks:

• faster loading (remember that on smartphones, the internet connection speed is lower, which requires a reduction in the volume of files);
• adaptation of the design to the parameters of a particular gadget (size of the screen, extension, RAM);
• completion of the design (convenient arrangement of text blocks, buttons, and conversion elements);
• testing of mobile casino functionality.

Core Web Vitals

The main purpose of the implementation of the Google algorithm is to improve the quality of search results. The focus is on gamblers and their impressions from visiting the internet resource. Real customer information (Real User Monitoring) for the last month is taken as a basis.

The algorithm includes 3 site ranking parameters:

1. LCP (Largest Contentful Paint). It means the loading speed of texts, videos, and graphic elements. The search chatbot compares the playback speed of the main and additional materials and assigns a certain score to the casino platform. The optimal loading time is 2.5 seconds.
2. FID (First Input Delay). Waiting period before the interaction with an online platform starts. It includes both the convenience of scrolling the page and the location of indicators of the main actions (registration, deposition of funds, acquisition of bonuses, and the launch of a demo game). The shorter the waiting time, the more likely it is that a visit to the gambling site will turn into a conversion. The maximum waiting period is 100–300 milliseconds.
3. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift). It shows the layout stability. Google checks to see if elements “move” when scrolling through an online page, if they get larger when zoomed, if they are highlighted when clicked, etc.

Page Experience

This algorithm prioritises sites that provide a high level of customer service.

The updated system includes several metrics:

1. Safe Browsing. The system evaluates the security of the platform: does it contain malware (for example, phishing programs), unauthorised downloads, etc.
2. HTTPS connection. This metric shows the security of user data during its transfer from point A (personal device) to point B (online casino server). The algorithm checks whether the administrator has an SSL certificate (for data encryption) and operates under the international HTTPS protocol.
3. Mobile-friendliness. The program evaluates the optimisation of a gaming site for the following launch on personal gadgets. Google has a special Search Console report that reveals weaknesses in the mobile version.
4. Core Web Vitals. It involves the check of the speed of loading pages, the layout stability, and the waiting time on the gambling platform.

The Latest SEO Marketing Trends

Among the solutions that affect the ranking of sites on Google, we can name:

E-A-T Concept

Its main task is the expertise of the posted text materials, so as not to mislead the audience. This means that, for example, an article for a medical portal should be written by a person with the appropriate education and practice. Google may request documents confirming the specialist’s qualification.

News sites, as well as health care, law, and finance-themed resources, must use E-A-T. For the casino industry, this concept is advisory.

At the same time, operators need to:

• create a special information section and a page with feedback;
• increase the number of links and cross-references;
• specify data on the specialists who wrote the articles for the iGaming portal;
• generate positive news about digital casinos on thematic resources.

Voice Search

At the end of 2021, 27% of gamblers made requests to Google through special audio programs (Siri, Google Assistant) or voice typing on the numeric keypad of gadgets. This year, the number of players using this type of search only increased.

SEO promotion of gaming sites should also consider the conversational style of queries. They are longer (from 5 words), and in this case, other word forms and conjunctions are used.

Players often prefer the questions “Where?”, “How?”, “How much?” when looking for an online casino. A good idea would be to create an FAQ section with detailed answers to frequently asked questions.

Schema and Open Graph Micromarking

The gaming site structuring is a factor that affects the high position in the Google search engine.

Ordered data provides a better ranking of online casinos and is responsible for the formation of a positive snippet: a piece of text that is most relevant to the gambler's query. It is placed right below the link to the site (in Zero-click results).

To make the platform’s structuring possible, Schema and Open Graph programs are used.

SEO specialists distinguish the following microformats on the casino pages:

• product — a game or a bonus offer;
• review — feedback;
• FAQ — questions that are usually asked by players;
• blogposting — publications in personal blogs, etc.

The presence of micro-marking is the first step on the way to good search results. It is also necessary to take into account the quality of published texts, the availability of relevant queries and LSI phrases, and many other factors.

YATI: a New Yandex Algorithm

In 2021, Yandex finalised the site evaluation system, which is still relevant in 2024.

YATI (Yet Another Transformer with Improvements) was created using artificial intelligence and powerful neural network architecture. Thanks to this, the system “understands” the meaning of search queries of users and the content of documents on gaming sites.

The program cannot index spam texts and pages with too much advertising. Structured resources with useful materials, on the contrary, occupy higher positions in Yandex search results.

SEO optimisation based on YATI consists of:

• publication of high-quality content that meets the demands and needs of players;
• focus on voluminous but well-structured texts (with subheadings, the division into sections, and the presence of graphic elements);
• increasing the relevance of anchors for the transferring to casino sites;
• smooth inclusion of low-frequency queries and LSI phrases into the text.

The Main Things about the SEO Promotion of iGaming Projects

• Among the advantages of the tool, we can name its effectiveness, good price, pleasant results, legality, and improvement of the image of the casino.
• Systems evaluate gaming sites according to traffic, behavioural, commercial, and textual criteria. It is worth noting that popular search engines constantly improve their ranking algorithms.
• In 2024, it is very important to adjust iGaming projects to the requirements of Google. The priority is to optimise the mobile version of the site, publish expert materials, and improve security.
• Other trends include voice search, the use of micro-marking, and the introduction of AI.

The Rosloto studio provides professional marketing services, such as:

• promotion of an internet casino (using SEO, SMM, and other effective tools);
• development of a proprietary loyalty system (for retaining customers and increasing the operator's income);
• installation of reliable partner networks.

From us, you can buy a turnkey online casino or an iGaming project under the White Label scheme. We also offer the development of an individual site design and HTML5 games.