SEO Tracker: 888casino takes control of online casino rankings

It was February when we last looked at the organic search results in online casino and, while we noted how Grosvenor Casino was the clear market leader at the time, we pointed out how it was leaving a significant amount of traffic on the table.

Now, that traffic has been picked up by its rivals – not least by 888casino, which has climbed to the top of an intriguing organic search market. The new market leader has more than tripled its traffic since that time, so let’s take a closer look at what’s going on in the world of casino search results.

888casino’s 230% increase in traffic puts the brand in an even more dominant position than Grosvenor Casino was in February, with a greater number of monthly clicks (43,397) and a larger gap to the second most visible brand (14,600), despite ranking for fewer keywords.

This increase in estimated monthly clicks is astronomical, so it is perhaps of little surprise that the majority of the 30,258 extra clicks (20,394 to be precise) have come from the keyword ‘casino’. Receiving 110,000 monthly searches, this is by far the most searched term in the sector, and as such can have a disproportionate impact on organic rankings. This is of course demonstrated by the 20,394 extra monthly clicks that 888casino now receives for ranking in position one rather than position five as it did previously.

High-volume terms impact Grosvenor Casino

Previous leader Grosvenor Casino has seen a previously dominant lead turn into a position as the second most visible brand in the sector, with Gambling.com breathing down its neck. This comes even though it still ranks for a greater number of keywords than 888casino and maintains a better average ranking than the top brand.

What Grosvenor Casino’s 11,888 click decrease in monthly organic traffic shows us once again is the importance of holding on to the positions which generate a high volume of traffic for a brand.

Two keywords contributed heavily to the change in overall visibility experienced by the brand, the first of course being its ranking for ‘casino’. Beyond position one there is still a huge volume of traffic up for grabs, meaning that Grosvenor Casino slipping from position three to position seven lost the brand 6,985 monthly clicks, over half of the total traffic lost in this timeframe.

The second key term is a coming together of a lower position and decreasing search interest, as previously, ranking in position one for 27,100 search volume term ‘online casino’ brought an estimated 6,539 clicks to the site. Whereas come August, ranking in position five for the term, which now has a monthly search volume of 8,100, only provides 452 monthly clicks.

This loss of 6,087 monthly clicks combined with the 6,985 lost on the term ‘casino’, undoes what would otherwise have been a net gain in organic traffic from the brand. While such a drop in traffic may have had alarm bells ringing, when we assess these search terms as being key factors and look beyond them, we see that the foundations of Grosvenor Casino’s keyword profile are strong.

With the potential to move back up the rankings for these two terms, as well as clear opportunities for greater traffic from other high-volume terms such as ‘casino online uk’ (position five) and ‘slots’ (position six), we may well see the brand bounce back with even stronger organic traffic.

Big changes beyond top two brands

Behind the two brands that we have focused on so far there are more changes in the composition of the 10 most visible brands. The most notable absentee is Casino.com, which was previously the second most visible brand but now drops out of the top 10.

We won’t dwell on the analysis of this change as the brand was, and still is, heavily reliant on the keyword ‘casino’, for which it now ranks in position five rather than position one, as we’ve already hammered home how important this term is in the sector.

Moving in the opposite direction is Gambling.com, which has seen a considerable increase in the number of position one rankings it has (30 in January to 48 now), including a plethora of medium volume search terms. This improvement isn’t isolated to position one terms either, with a 122% increase in the number of terms the brand ranks in the top three positions for.

An average weighted rank of 31 suggests there is a lot of room for the brand to improve, but the spread of medium volume keywords in the top positions gives Gambling.com the perfect platform to build from without needing to worry too much about fluctuations from the highest volume keywords. In fact, the brand doesn’t rank at all for ‘casino’ and receives no traffic for its rankings across ‘slots’, ‘online slots’ and ‘blackjack’.

With 4,001 clicks separating Gambling.com and Grosvenor Casino, and arguably the largest potential to improve in the sector if they can improve rankings for the highest-volume terms, Gambling.com could well be a brand to keep an eye on.

A division in the rankings

If we refer back to the chart at the top of the article, we can see that a lot of brands rank for almost all KWs in the sector – all bunched at the right. Of those, Gambling.com clearly still has room to rank for a greater number and increase its traffic in doing so.

Brands on the left, on the other hand, have an opportunity to increase traffic simply by ranking for these additional keywords. This is noticeably different to the graph in February when the top 10 brands were spread out and there was no real divide. It will be interesting to see in the coming months if we return to having a greater spread in terms of the keywords ranked for, with that middle ground being occupied by brands on the right who take this opportunity to expand their footprint.