Data: Ranking fall for top slots spots hits big brands

The slots market might not be one of the most glamourous online search markets in gaming, but there is no denying its value to the industry. Online slots games are a key staple of the egaming sector, and the way in which many brands market their slots offerings allows them to differentiate themselves from the perceived cuteness of online bingo fixed odds games, or the high roller perceptions that typically come with online casino branding.

And when it comes to the online slots market, there is traffic to be found; the top 251 keywords that we assessed account for an estimated 526,000 searches a month in the UK, meaning that a brand ranking in position one for each term could expect an estimated traffic of 47,700 from organic search.

And the slots market is a competitive one, with many brands clustering together to compete for the prime keywords in this sector.

In our analysis, it’s Slotboss.co.uk that is the most visible brand, securing an estimated 13,328 by ranking for 111 keywords – 44% of the keywords in our sample. It’s followed by Freeslots and Grosvenor Casinos, but behind these three brands there is relatively little to choose between them.

But what is interesting is the lack of many of the big names that we often associate with the slots and casino market and, when we take a look at last year, we actually see that the search market hasn’t been kind for some of the established names in this sector.

Virgin Games loses visibility on top slot

One of the leading brands from our index is Virgin Games. It was the second most visible brand in 2016, yet it is only the 25th most visible brand in 2017. Our estimates suggest that the brand could have seen its clicks fall from 9,885 to just 2,083 in that period, so why is this?
Virgin Games only ranks for 64 of the 251 keywords in our index, which gives us one lead to follow. Was the brand’s visibility based on high rankings for the main traffic-driving, but most competitive, keywords?

Back in 2016, Virgin Games had top-five rankings for 26 keyword terms, including position one rankings for ‘slots online’, ‘online slot games’, ‘slots games’, ‘online slots games’, ‘slot games’ and ‘slot games’ – as close to a full house of ‘Hollywood term’ position one rankings as they could possibly get. Fast forward 12 months, and it’s a different story. The brand now has just seven top five rankings, with the only number one position being for ‘online slot games’.

And it’s a similar story with many of the other brands that we have seen lose big traffic – losses on big keyword terms, without having a broad keyword coverage to mitigate the risk. We have seen bgo.com lose all of its 21 top five rankings in 2016, reducing its visibility from 2,553 to just 53. Paddy Power, with 41 top five rankings and 10 position one rankings in 2016, has just 26 top five rankings and just one position one ranking when we run the same analysis in 2017.

Keyword coverage counts

Brands chasing after the big ‘Hollywood’ keyword terms is something that we see regularly in the gaming sector. It’s where the traffic is, and so that’s where brands want to rank.

But while it’s often easy in an analysis such as this to look at the biggest winners and losers, it is worth looking at the stable brands – the brands that are consistently visible, to see what they have in common. And the answer is keyword coverage.

Sky Vegas, the fourth most visible brand in 2017, ranking for 106 keywords. Slotboss, the most visible brand in both 2016 and 2017, ranking for 111 keywords. And brands like William Hill and 32Red, while not appearing in our top 10, generating strong levels of traffic from 155 and 202 keywords respectively. While these brands may not see the big traffic gains in the short-term, they also don’t see the big swings when a Google algorithm hits – which can prove costly in the long-term.