Ranking at the top spots for “online casino” keyword – Expectations, reality, rankings, and retention

1. Expectations & Reality
2. Rankings
3. Rankings Retention
4. Conclusion( let me sound like chatgpt)

I will start this blog article with the screenshot from our search console

This amount of traffic on this keyword doesn’t happen by chance.

SEO for the gambling industry is something that differs from the rest of the industries. You can’t play it white if the whole market is black, or the opposite( yes there are 2-3 white SEOs in iGaming, usually public speakers).

You have to adapt and think out of the box all the time. Static SEO doesn’t work here.

Expectations & Reality

If I had a dollar every time someone asked me if we could rank the new domain for the “best online casino” keyword in 2 months…

First of all, you need to know if you actually have any chance to do it with the existing domains and the second thing is to understand how fast you can do it ( if it’s doable at all).

Domain age, domain name, branding, authority, existing traffic, potential and most importantly – budget. In case you have it all I would consider you as a very lucky person, and already rich enough not to read this article.

If you are on the opposite side, just starting or working on a medium level, then I would suggest putting focus on less difficult keywords. Build it from the ground, squeeze the circle, and eventually big G will allow you to join the big fellas at the top.

There are shorter ways, and there are long-term ways. This is one quite important decision to be made at the start of projects.

If you ask me, I have no patience and I want results yesterday, but having stable long-term business I wouldn’t avoid it for sure. Probably a mix is the best, but not everyone can play on 2 sides at the same time. Resources are needed.

All in all, you need to know your limits before deciding to jump into this industry.

Rankings

This specific website got under our control last year, summer of 2023. It operates in highly regulated European tier 1 market

The first step we made was one huge audit in which we covered the most important metrics from the Tech, On-page, and Off-page sides. I mean, it’s obvious that a total scan is needed for such a project, otherwise, how would you know in what direction to move?

After the audit we started with execution. Redesign, rendering, on-page and off-page analysis. Luckily we had direct access to CMS for a smooth operation.

All of this was followed by high-quality backlinks from national TLDs and constant viral campaigns in order to gain more trust and authority from Google. Guest posts, PR, editorial links… brand mention and whatnot. You need to push from all sides, long gone are days were we used to do SEO by sit, rank and enjoy on the beach methodology. You need to push constantly and work on the assets.

April this year we got the spots #1-2 for the most lucrative and competitive keywords. Yes, took us some time but the starting point wasn’t that ideal and the budgets were tight at the start. To be fair we were getting reinvestments from the client in order to push more and more( that’s how you do the business).

Rankings Retention

So, here is a screenshot till the 23rd of April

Boom. Rulers of the world.

and then, just for everyone to understand what we are dealing here with, we got competitor’s attention:

Can’t remember who was it exactly but someone from the team pushed that red button in our Slack channels, the same morning that drop happened.

So we got attacked by the competitors on a high scale, and the attack was made at the right timing as at the same time we had Google update, which at first was our first thought as a reason for the drop.

This is just one keyword that I am showing, but the whole cluster is way bigger and on best days this website generates 20-30k clicks per day. Proper intent traffic. Attack was made on the domain level and every page disappeared from Google.

So you can imagine the damage done and how we all felt that morning.

I won’t discuss much about the way that we got attacked, but for sure it was one of the biggest attacks I ever saw in the SEO world.

1 month later, we managed to clean it all and put the website back on track. Don’t ask how much we slept, because I don’t think we did at all.

Of course when you get out of the attack like that you can’t expect #1 spots again that easily, but today 6 months after the disaster the overall traffic on the website is much bigger than it was. We also set the record one day with 35k organic visitors in 1 day. And most importantly, we learned a huge lesson about protecting your assets in this cruel world of gambling SEO.

Conclusion( let me sound like chatgpt)

SEO in the iGaming industry is not for the soft SEOs. It’s a high-stakes game where competitors don’t just watch but they act.
It’s a battlefield where strategies are changing overnight, algorithms shift without warning, and competitors will go to extreme lengths to knock you out of the SERPs.

The journey from audits to rankings, from competitor attacks to recovery, and finally to growth, is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and constant effort.

So, what’s the takeaway? If you are thinking about doing it in this industry, then better know your limits, play to your strengths, and above all, protect your assets.

And if you want those #1 spots without losing sleep? You know who to call.