SEO Tracker: a deep dive on recent poker performances

Simply by looking at the below graph and seeing the names of the leading brands, you’d be forgiven for thinking that very little has changed since the last time we analysed the organic search rankings in the poker market.

However, lower demand and a shift in consumer behaviour means that the organic traffic these sites receive has taken a significant hit.

Overall, across the 98 keywords we analyse, monthly searches have decreased from 128,880 in April 2023 to 75,400 in January 2024, representing a 41% decrease in search volume for the sector.

This means that while we still see PokerStars slightly ahead of 888poker, all of the sites among the top 10 brands are seeing considerably lower traffic than they received previously.

While this decrease in searches across the sector indicates lower consumer interest, when we look at individual keywords, what we see is a shift in consumer behaviour and search intent from those still engaging with the sector.

The majority of search terms in the sector are seeing a lower search volume, but the two keywords that have seen the most significant loss of searches are ‘poker games’ and ‘poker play’. These both received thousands of monthly searches and were the second and third largest keywords in the sector respectively, yet saw a huge loss in search interest.

On the other hand, searches for the broadest and most dominant term ‘poker’ remained roughly the same, as did some of the more specific searches such as ‘three card poker’.

This means that the enduring interest in the poker sector is for either broad (exploring the sector, seeking information) or super specific (consumers know what they want and search directly) terms, not medium-volume ones where the user has an idea of the action they want to take but the search is still very vague.

There’s a greater percentage of people interested in poker who either do or don’t know what they want and search accordingly, rather than those that have a rough idea. This means that the loss of interest is coming from consumers who are slightly down the funnel in terms of interest in playing, but don’t have a preferred game, or know the kind of poker they want to play.

Luckily for the brands, this means that the loss of traffic from consumers actively seeking a specific game to play (and therefore most likely to convert) hasn’t decreased as much as the overall market makes it seem.

This could be a result of wallets tightening through 2023, meaning that people who were less engaged have lost interest, while those who were already playing have continued to do so for the most part.

When it comes to the brands, as we mentioned at the start, PokerStars still leads the sector ahead of 888poker, with roughly the same gap as before between the two brands. 888poker remains the highest-ranking brand in the SERP results for ‘poker’, but has seen its average ranking position drop slightly, while PokerStars was able to maintain a very strong average ranking position of five.

Behind the leading two brands, 247freepoker has seen traffic decrease at a greater rate than competitors and is now the fifth most visible brand in the sector. Overtaking it as the third-most visible brand is partypoker, largely thanks to its average ranking position of seven across the 93 keywords that it ranks for.

While still lagging behind the two leading brands in terms of visibility and missing out to them in the rankings for the most impactful keywords, partypoker now finds itself as the best placed brand to challenge them. Any improvements in position for higher-volume keywords will see that gap get smaller and smaller.

Broadly, the sites in the top 10 have been similarly affected by the traffic decrease. As a result of the industry-wide traffic decrease hitting all brands, Upswing Poker is the only new brand in the top 10, replacing 247games.com.

Naturally, all of the brands in the sector will be hoping for a swift return to previous activity levels, but what this change shows us is how important it is for brands to rank solidly and be competitive for a range of terms. That way, if a whole industry is affected by changes in search demand, your brand won’t be disproportionately affected.

Overall, here are three key takeaways from what we have seen in the poker sector: 

1. It’s important to rank for keywords covering a range of customer intent, so if intent shifts, your brand is still visible.
2. Monitor shifts in search behaviour. You don’t need to change strategy at the slightest of shifts, but it’s important to be able to adapt to any macro trends.
3. Maintain a broad keyword profile across your sector so that you have a stronger position for any market-wide traffic changes.

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