A matter of contention

Content remains one of the biggest buzzwords in SEO and digital marketing, but is its impact on the business overstated or are low content sites simply

Heading into the latter half of 2015 and SEO already seems like a dangerously unfashionable term. At XLMedia the SEO division has been renamed ‘publishing’ while SEO firms are falling over themselves to rebrand as digital PR or content agencies. It’s been a long time coming. Google’s Panda update, first released in 2011, with its aim to down-rank low-quality sites has gradually driven a conceptual shift that is only now really beginning to be felt in egaming.

“It’s phenomenally important that your content is strong from an SEO point of view,” Stacey MacNaught, head of search at Tecmark, says. “Quick win links like directories were really clamped down on. And what that means is that people are now having to find increasingly creative ways to build links through content that engages people, makes them want to share.”

This has led to an industry where SEO teams have become more like content agencies, producing infographics, videos and bespoke digital projects as the lines between content marketing and SEO become increasingly blurred. Betfair has been one of the firms at the forefront of this move to place content at the heart of its business, as SEO marketing manager Ryan Murton explains.

“Good content matters; it’s as simple as that. Whether you define the effects of good content as direct or indirect ranking factors, they still matter. Just look around at any UK focused sportsbook operator and you’ll see that they’re all focused heavily on content marketing,” Murton says.

At Betfair this involves a broad approach, led by its betting.betfair blog but supported by a strong social media presence and one-off attempts at virality such as the Finding Neymar game released for the World Cup. But Murton is a realist and says content’s role in the SEO mix needs to be a balanced one.

“Links are still the main factor. Please don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. This will change over time but it’s here to stay for the moment. However, there’s a chance for affiliates to rank well in certain niches without any links – they just need to find them,” Murton adds.

A false dawn
For long-term US-facing affiliate marketer Chris Grove – who has won awards for the quality of his content on his onlinepokerrreport.com site – the mix is still heavily weighted in favour of links. And the moves from Google to downgrade sites haven’t quite had the impact many predicted, or indeed many currently state.

“I’d say that Google updates of the last few years have pushed the bar not to ‘good’ content as much as ‘good enough’ content. And by that I mean content that is good enough to pass a blunt, machine-based test of quality. But that, of course, can be a much different thing than genuinely good content from a reader’s point of view,” he says.

“The question of links versus content is an awkward one. Part of the direct (and implied) value of good content is that it will attract links,” he adds. “But if you’re asking me if I’d rather start from scratch with 10 great links or 10 great pieces of content (and little else), I’m taking the links.”

MacNaught agrees and says the complexity required in acquiring high-quality links is what is leading the march for better content. “I still believe off-page factors are a bigger part of the algorithm than on-page factors. Make no mistake, links still lead the pack. There’s a huge correlation between sites with large volumes of good links and their search visibility. But I think brand mentions and other brand signals like that are playing a bigger role in the algorithm than they did. Links are still very much a leading factor. But content is now a key player in how those links are acquired in many cases.”

What we have seen within egaming during the past two years is a genuine split in terms of a reliance on content or links to drive traffic. Some affiliates and operators have invested in daily, in-depth and even long-form content while other sites wouldn’t look out of place in 1999. A simple search for some classic gambling search terms is all you need to see that content is certainly not king in 2015.

But there is no shortage of firms betting the slow march to search rankings that accurately reflect what users want to read, as well as the add-on benefits of quality, shareable content will ultimately see them win out. “We spend a considerable amount of money and time publishing engaging and interesting content,” XLMedia CEO Ory Weihs says. “As Google gets better at doing its job, people who go by the book, and do things correctly on a big scale like us will benefit. That’s something we’ve seen so far,” he adds.

But Grove doesn’t quite see it that way. “It’s tempting to assume that Google will just inevitably march toward that sort of improvement, but that assumption ignores the reality that, as long as there’s a lot of money to be made ranking well for online gambling terms, there will be a nearly limitless pool of time, ingenuity and related resources pursuing strategies to subvert Google’s improvement and find shortcuts to the top of the rankings.”

A matter of time
The issue of using content as a pure SEO function risks undermining the entire process. The internet is full of high-production costly digital content that languishes unloved and unshared. Producing content for its own sake is never a solution, especially as marketers begin to push more heavily at content crafted with the intent of attracting links not readers.

“There’s a hell of a lot of crap content out there at the moment and failing content marketing campaigns, so it’s easy to understand a cynicism towards ‘content marketing’ as a term on the whole,” MacNaught says. “But operators have to compete in a marketplace that’s hugely competitive and a good content marketing campaign can be a differentiator.

“Look at Paddy Power. It is dominating the search and social space and it’s so content led. Even if it’s just a witty two-line comment, it’s still content. Those guys have absolutely nailed small content pieces to drive social traction and brand reach. It’s impressive.”

For affiliates, however, the picture is more mixed, and Grove suggests it’s far from a level playing field. “We’re talking about a handful of high-quality sites that have to remain financially viable in the face of unending waves of new competitors, each willing to lose money in their attempt to win a particular term,
and some willing to employ blatantly unethical tactics.”

MacNaught agrees, and says that while Google’s algorithm is improving all the time, low-quality sites will always find loopholes to exploit. “I don’t think for a second that we will ever get a situation where only great sites appear in search. But we will see fewer poor sites in search and the window for success on manipulative techniques will continue to get smaller and smaller until eventually it’s commercially unviable.”

Grove adds he doesn’t think we will see the end of low-quality sites clogging up search term results any time soon, however. “When you consider that the concept of quality is inherently slippery and arguably not universal, I think that Google closing the door on low-quality content in the near term is a tough case
to make.”

But for the likes of XLMedia’s Weihs it’s just a matter of time. The old-school models are dying and they will be replaced by firms and affiliates who focus on great content and not just great links. For Murton, it’s even more simple. “I think it’s just the usual scenario, where Google hasn’t caught up with the egaming industry yet. The time is coming and will dawn upon us soon.”