SEO Tracker: Mecca Bingo retains lead as searches fall for bingo sector

As was the case in September 2021, the last six months has seen a decrease in organic searches for terms across the bingo sector. While search volume has gone down by 13%, one constant has been Mecca Bingo’s presence as the most visible brand in the sector.

The brand still leads the way and is in a strong position ahead of Foxy Bingo, receiving an estimated 22,729 monthly clicks from 261 keywords.

Mecca Bingo still leads comfortably

On the face of it, Mecca Bingo looks like it has had a particularly bad few months, with its 16% loss of traffic representing a slightly worse performance than the market average. The brand has also seen the number of terms for which it holds position one rankings fall from 27 to 16, and the number of keywords it ranks for decreasing from 319 to 261. These changes in ranking of course then serve to compound the traffic loss from the overall decrease in searches across the industry.

Despite this, Mecca Bingo still finds itself as the most visible brand in the industry, 8,772 monthly clicks ahead of its nearest competitor, and holding position one for ‘bingo’, which, with a search volume of 60,500, is far and away the largest keyword in the sector.

Complacency with their position in the market, however, would be a significant mistake from the brand, as the vast majority of the additional clicks that Mecca Bingo receives over Foxy Bingo come from the keyword ‘bingo’, as position one for this term receives an estimated 7,115 more clicks than position two. With Foxy Bingo occupying position two, if the brands were to change places for this one term, then the market would look very different.

As a result, Mecca Bingo will of course be looking to hold on to their coveted position for the industry’s largest search term, but also to improve its overall keyword rankings after seeing negative changes in the last six months, with the aim of avoiding over-reliance on one term with high search volume.

Promising signs for chasing brands

Despite an improvement from position three to position two for ‘bingo’ as well as strong rankings for the three next largest keywords; ‘bingo sites’, ‘online bingo’, and ‘bingo site’, Foxy Bingo has also seen traffic fall to a greater extent than the market average. However, there are some promising signs for both Foxy Bingo and the other brands looking to gain ground on Mecca Bingo.

Both Foxy Bingo and the third most visible brand Gala Bingo have seen improvements in their average keyword positions, and now have better average positions than Mecca Bingo. This is likely due to both brands dropping out of the rankings for a number of keywords that had previously been affecting their average position, with both now ranking for 214 keywords compared to 287 for Foxy Bingo and 244 for Gala Bingo in September. However, a strong average position gives both brands a good foundation to build upon, and if they can increase the number of keywords they rank for without seeing too much of a fall in their average positions, they can certainly close the gap to Mecca Bingo.

Majestic Bingo suffers more than most

While the market as a whole has suffered a decrease in search volume, one brand that has seen more of an impact on its visibility than most is Majestic Bingo, which has seen a 48% decrease in monthly clicks as the brand has slipped from being the fifth most visible in the sector to now sit 10th in the rankings.

A significant amount of this lost traffic has come from the terms for which the brand previously ranked highest for, with only two out of the 79 position one rankings from September 2021 remaining. The most notable of these was for ‘free bingo no deposit’, which Majestic Bingo now ranks in position for three though, losing 787 monthly clicks. While the majority of these were lower-volume search terms, that quantity of high-ranking keywords meant that the total traffic was significant.

Overall, brands will be hoping that demand for online bingo providers increases and bucks the trend of the last 12 months. However, given the number of brands that have seen decreases in traffic that are greater than the average experienced across the sector, there is clearly room for improvement that could result in considerable changes in visibility.