Reduced search volume in the slots market has triggered major changes to the brands that are the most visible in the sector. Previously dominant leader 32Red has seen its organic traffic cut considerably, as Ladbrokes has overtaken it to become the sector’s most visible brand.
Meanwhile, growth in organic traffic for Paddy Power and William Hill has resulted in a much more competitive top five brands than we have seen in previous analyses of this market. Fluctuations in searches across a market tend to shake up brand visibility, and the 9.5% decrease in monthly searches has certainly done that.
Average ranking positions and average ranking keywords have remained steady among the top 10 brands. This shows that the main causes of these changes in organic traffic received by the brands are search volume shifts and ranking changes for individual terms. As opposed to these brands increasing their grip on the top-ranking spots, or increased challenges from those outside of the top 10.
32Red sees significant traffic decrease
Previous market leader 32Red has seen its considerable lead cut in the past six months, with Ladbrokes the main beneficiaries. The 46.5% decrease in organic traffic can broadly be attributed to the brand now ranking for fewer keywords, as well as ranking further down on average for those search terms.
Sometimes when we see brands rank for fewer keywords it is the result of brands no longer appearing for a term where they were already way down the rankings, and therefore there’s no impact on monthly clicks. However, the weakening of 32Red’s average ranking position suggests it has lost ground for some of its more prominent keywords.
Now ranking in position one for 20 terms instead of 38 has had a large impact on overall visibility, with the loss of its position-one ranking for ‘slots’ a particular blow. The joint most searched keyword in the market, an increase in search volume means the impact isn’t as great as it could have been, but the slide to position two still represented a loss of 3,650 monthly clicks.
Being the second most visible brand in the sector means 32Red is still in a very strong position, but it will be looking to reverse its fortunes at the top of results pages to regain its lead in the market.
Ladbrokes doubles visibility to lead sector
While overall search volume has contracted in the last six months, new sector leader Ladbrokes has increased its monthly organic clicks by 103.2% to become the most visible brand.
As is often the case, an improved ranking for a highly searched keyword, in this case ranking in position two for ‘slot’ has boosted the brand’s traffic significantly, but Ladbrokes’ overall organic traffic has benefitted from improvements that go far beyond one term.
Now ranking for an additional 20 keywords compared to March, yet maintaining the same average ranking position, shows how the brand has balanced adding new search terms to its keyword profile while also improving for existing rankings.
The result of this double-ended improvement has been growing from two to 14th position for one-keyword rankings, also ranking among the top positions for a host of new medium and high search volume terms. Even with wider market challenges, Ladbrokes shows it’s possible for brands to widen keyword profiles and improve existing rankings simultaneously.
Different methods drive traffic elsewhere in top 10
Other brands in the top 10 that have gone against the market trend include Paddy Power and William Hill, whose traffic growth have made for a far more competitive top five brands than we saw six months ago.
Paddy Power’s traffic has increased by 43.4%, thanks in part to a 14.2% increase in the number of keywords it ranks for, while William Hill’s growth comes from different improvements.
Having ranked well outside the top 10 brands in March, with an average ranking position of 27 generating 406 monthly clicks, William Hill now receives 16,990 monthly clicks from the same number of keywords as a result of its average ranking position improving from 27 to 15.
This improvement across such a wide range of keywords shows a concerted effort to improve rankings across the board, and William Hill has been rewarded through becoming the fourth most visible brand in the sector and driving many times more organic clicks than it did previously.
Overall, here are three key takeaways from what we have seen in the slots market:
- Market contractions don’t guarantee reduced traffic – while there’s always a risk of brands being hit by industry-wide reductions in search volume, there are still opportunities to increase visibility at times where interest is lower, as Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and William Hill have done here.
- Focused strategies can produce noteworthy results – whether that’s through improving the number of keywords your brand ranks for, like Paddy Power, or focusing on improving rankings for the keywords your brand already shows up for, like William Hill. Concentrating on improving one aspect of your organic results can result in large traffic increases.
- Where possible, work on multiple improvements at once – while these brands benefitted from focused improvements, Ladbrokes showed that through simultaneously improving ranking keywords and average ranking positions, brands can make significant progress and boost overall visibility, even when a market is challenging.
To find out more about how Stickyeyes could help your brand to establish and maintain organic growth in the slots market and beyond, please reach out to William Conboy, director of iGaming by Stickyeyes at William.conboy@stickyeyes.com.
The post Large fluctuations in slots market search visibility shake up top brands first appeared on EGR Intel.
Stickeyes’ analysis for September discovers a sharp fall in organic traffic for 32Red, as Ladbrokes becomes the sector’s “most visible brand”
The post Large fluctuations in slots market search visibility shake up top brands first appeared on EGR Intel.