SEO Tracker: Bingo sector sees growing organic competition

The past year the bingo sector has seen Buzz Bingo go from part of a two-horse race to outright leader in the sector, with a healthy lead over its nearest rivals. Its 25.4% increase in organic visibility helped it regain its position as market leader from Gala Bingo.

This comes as the entire sector sees increased interest, with monthly searches increasing by 10.1% compared to this time last year.

Unlike what we have seen in some sectors, the increased search interest has increased visibility for the majority of brands in the top 10, increasing competition among these brands and highlighting that customers are becoming more selective with the brands that they use.

Previous leaders see differing performance

When we assessed the bingo sector in January 2024, Buzz Bingo and Gala Bingo were competing to have the most visibility in the sector, but the brands have seen contrasting fortunes in the organic rankings since then.

A key reason Buzz Bingo has reclaimed the top spot in the sector is an improvement in its ranking position for ‘bingo’, naturally the most highly-searched term in the market. This improvement has also been amplified by monthly searches for ‘bingo’ increasing from 74,000 to 90,500.

This term alone is now generating an additional 12,684 estimated monthly clicks for Buzz Bingo, but this is where we start to see some cracks.

Despite this huge increase in clicks from one keyword, Buzz Bingo only saw traffic increase by 5,266 monthly clicks, meaning that the brand lost 7,418 estimated monthly clicks elsewhere.

A look at Buzz Bingo’s keyword profile shows us that it has lost out on a number of high-ranking positions, increasing from 33 keywords ranking in positions one to three last January to nine keywords now.

This will undoubtedly be of concern for Buzz Bingo as, while its site is seeing increased organic traffic, it is now heavily reliant on ‘bingo’ to provide this traffic, leaving it susceptible to any changes in rankings for that term.

However, there have been developments in Buzz Bingo’s favour over the past year. Primarily that it is now ranking for a far greater number of keywords, and that its average ranking position is holding firm.

When brands start ranking for a greater number of keywords, we often see these new, lower-ranking keywords bring down the brand’s average ranking position. However, the fact that in this case Buzz Bingo has maintained the same average ranking position shows that while it has fewer keywords ranking at the sharp end of the results page, its rankings haven’t fallen off a cliff.

If it can regain these rankings and continue to improve those new keywords, then we could well see the brand strengthen its position as sector leader.

Buzz Bingo doesn’t have to look far to see the impact of losing the position one ranking for ‘bingo’, as previous leader Gala Bingo’s slip from position one to three for the term mirrors its overall visibility in the sector.

Now sitting behind Buzz Bingo and Foxy Bingo, Gala Bingo has seen a 46.1% decrease in traffic, over half of which has come from its ranking change for ‘bingo’. While this has had an outsized impact on organic visibility, Gala Bingo has seen the same decrease in other top rankings as Buzz Bingo.

While its decrease from position 31 to 22, isn’t as severe as Buzz Bingo’s, it still represents an area that the brand will need to improve quickly to avoid any further loss of visibility.

Foxy Bingo and Mecca Bingo demonstrate increased competition

The two previously dominant leaders losing so many high rankings shows that the sector as a whole is becoming more competitive, and there are a few brands in particular that have capitalised on this.

Foxy Bingo is now the second most visible brand in the sector in terms of organic traffic thanks to a 73.4% increase in estimated monthly clicks, while Mecca Bingo is nipping at Gala Bingo’s heels after a 128.3% increase in clicks.

Both brands have seen such significant improvements as a result of increasing the number of keywords they rank for (16.1% for Foxy Bingo and 13.2% for Mecca Bingo), while also improving their average ranking positions at the same time.

The combination of ranking for more keywords and improving ranking position across the board is always going to produce a favourable change in visibility.

This is also shown by the bubble chart looking more similar to what we would expect, with a correlation between the number of keywords ranked for and overall visibility, suggesting that the best way for a brand like Paddy Power to compete for visibility with the leading brands will be to rank for a larger number of keywords.

Ranking improvements are especially important in a sector that is seeing growing competition, with the visibility gap between the first and tenth placed brands shrinking by 6.3% and a closely matched group of three brands behind the sector leader.

The average number of ranking keywords and ranking position across the top 10 have also seen slight improvements, again showing that there is more competition in the bingo sector than there was last year.

Another sign of the increased competition and consumer selectiveness is the greater presence of three aggregator sites in the top 10, with top-rated bingo sites the most visible.

Position one rankings for broad terms ‘bingo sites’, ‘online bingo sites’ and ‘bingo sites UK’ shows the importance of these websites at the consideration stage of a user’s search journey, when they’re not entirely sure what they want and are seeking more general information and guidance.

That these sites are so important shows that users are coming into the sector and actively seeking more information before they decide to commit to a particular provider, meaning that a lot of custom from these searches is up for grabs.

Overall, here are three key takeaways from what we have seen in the bingo market: 

1. Even the most visible brands need to continue strengthening. A brand may hold position one for the most searched for term in the sector, but losing rankings elsewhere could cause problems down the line.
2. While some brands may seem to dominate a sector, others can still gain ground by increasing the number of keywords that they rank for and improving existing rankings.
3. Rising costs mean that consumers are becoming more discerning, making sure that your brand is widely visible, trustworthy and providing value gives you the best chance of winning consumers who are undecided on a provider.

To find out more about how Stickyeyes could help your brand to establish and maintain organic growth in the bingo market and beyond, please reach out to William Conboy, director of igaming for Stickyeyes, at William.conboy@stickyeyes.com.