SEO Tracker: PokerStars holds on but competitors are raising the stakes

PokerStars continues to be the most visible brand in the online poker search results but its leadership and once-dominant position has come under threat from a number of competitors.

When we last looked at the market back in April, PokerStars enjoyed a lead of 6,708 monthly clicks over its closest competitor but, since then, it has lost 34% of its traffic from organic non-brand keyword searches. That loss, along with the rise of Arkadium to become the second most visible brand in the space, means the brand is seeing just 454 clicks more than its nearest competitor, creating the most competitive poker market we have seen for some time.

Since April, searches for the keywords analysed in this data set have increased by 16%, which of course adds further incentive for brands to improve their visibility in organic rankings. With the top three brands so close in terms of visibility, any changes in keyword rankings can have a significant impact.

The most notable changes from April centre around the two most visible brands in the poker sector. For PokerStars, losing traffic while increasing the number of ranking keywords and seeing a lower average ranking position suggests that the traffic loss has come from higher ranking keywords. The most obvious example of this is with ‘poker’. The most searched-for term in the sector, slipping from position one to position six has cost the brand 5,506 monthly clicks.

However, while the brand ranks on the first page for fewer queries than in April, it actually ranks in the top three positions for more searches. So, although the average ranking is weaker, the change has come from results lower down the first page rather than in the crucial first positions.

This means that looking beyond ‘poker’, PokerStars actually gained visibility in the last six months. While the potential to regain position one for the most important term in the market is not a quick fix, any improvement here could see that gap at the top start to open again.

Arkadium wins big

Arkadium is undoubtedly the big winner of the last six months in the poker market as it has seen a 159% increase in traffic to become the second most visible brand. Often, when a brand experiences a traffic increase like this, it can be a result of a sudden improvement in the rankings for one high-volume keyword, which then leaves the brand vulnerable to an equally sudden decrease in traffic if its ranking for that keyword changes again.

This doesn’t seem to be the case for Arkadium, though. Solid foundations were already in place in April and improvements have been seen across the board as the brand ranks for eight new keywords, and it has seen its average ranking position improve from 18 to 7. The largest single source of new traffic is the position one ranking for ‘poker games’, which has generated an extra 3,683 clicks, but as this makes up 63% of new traffic, we can see that a considerable number of new clicks are being generated across the board. Strong rankings for ‘poker game’ (8,100 monthly searches) and ‘poker play’ (12,100 monthly searches) have also helped Arkadium’s cause. If the brand keeps heading in this direction, then it’s entirely feasible that it could become the most visible brand in the sector.

Zynga continues unwanted trend

Zynga Poker is another brand to have seen a notable change in the last six months as it lost 48% of its traffic and fell away from the top group of competitors that we can see in the bubble chart. This results from a range of losses across terms for which the brand used to rank highly. The number of terms that it ranks in the top three for has decreased from 20 to eight, with these keywords only generating 282 monthly clicks compared to 4,215 in April.

This loss of position for keywords that were driving a large number of clicks has hit Zynga Poker’s overall visibility as the brand now sits as the sixth most visible brand in the space, having been close behind PokerStars as the second most visible brand a year ago.

Ranking for significantly fewer keywords than some of the brands above it does suggest that a broader approach to keyword rankings could benefit the brand, rather than relying on recovering rankings for the keywords that have seen changes over the last year.

Brands overtaken in ‘poker’ rankings

Despite the 16% increase in monthly searches for poker-related keywords, brands in the top 10 are actually receiving less traffic than in April. This may suggest that there are other brands lurking outside of the top 10 which have gained considerable traffic in an increasingly competitive sector; but the reality is that most of the shift in market share away from brands in the top 10 is down to Wikipedia.

Wikipedia and Wikihow have now secured the top three positions for ‘poker’, hoovering up a large amount of traffic that would previously have been available to brands. Given the volume associated with these positions, this alone has had a large influence over the more compact nature of the current top 10.

Instead, the highest-ranking brand is now 888poker, whose presence in position four has helped continue the growth it saw prior to our last review in April. With 1,992 additional monthly clicks, the brand’s steady growth in the organic rankings is showing no sign of slowing down, while being the most visible brand for ‘poker’ is a valuable position to be in.