Link Building for Gambling in 2024
Online gambling sphere remains a highly nuanced domain of digital business and it is only natural that SEO marketing for casino and gambling websites in general and link building in particular follow its own set of rules and trends. This is due to a dense competition in the sphere, the industry’s specific regulatory environment and audience behaviors and general market dynamics. In this article, we will look at what’s up for casino link building in 2024: what are the main trends and challenges, what aspects deserve special attention and how to make your link building strategy for a gambling business a success.
Which Niche Specifics Affect Link Building for Gambling
As we have already mentioned, online casino and gambling is a highly specific industry. There are distinguishing factors for this domain that can play a decisive role in shaping of your SEO strategy. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.
1. Regulatory compliance
Admittedly the most important aspect, as the legal landscape of gambling industry can widely vary between geographical locations and jurisdictions. Even within the same country there could be zones specifically designated for gambling. Your SEO campaign must adhere to specific regulations that govern advertising, content, and user engagement when it comes to gambling. Non-compliance can result in penalties, including being blacklisted by search engines or facing legal action. For instance, in many countries, gambling content is considered adult content, so keep in mind that g-rated resources will not be able to host gambling backlinks.
2. Geo-Targeting and Localization
Gambling laws differ quite a bit from one region to another, websites often need to tailor their content, offers, and SEO strategies to specific geographic locations. This can become quite a pain for SEO marketers, but it has to be done. This includes using local languages, understanding regional gambling preferences which can be quite peculiar and specific, and complying with local laws for SEO and content marketing.
3. Highly Competitive Market
The gambling industry is known for its extreme competition. For instance, SEO-wise, gambling-related keywords are some of the most expensive ones out there, with high costs per click in paid search campaigns. The same can be said about backlink prices, since not all sites are willing or allowed to host backlinks to gambling resources, those who do may tend to charge higher prices. Organic SEO strategies must be particularly savvy, focusing on long-tail keywords, user intent, and niche segments to compete effectively.
For instance, in the graph above you can see that just in the US alone, marketing budgets are absolutely exorbitant in gambling even if there was a little downward move with the pandemic.
4. Content Quality and User Engagement
The gambling audience has its own peculiar behavior patterns. It generally responds well to engaging, informative, and trustworthy content. High-quality, original content that offers value, for instance through gaming tips, insights, or the latest industry news can help improve search rankings by increasing user engagement, time on site, and sharing. It can also score better if you want to do guest posting, influencer integrations and content marketing.
5. Tailored Link Building
Due to the controversial nature of gambling, some websites may be hesitant to link back to casinos, poker rooms or virtual slots, making link-building efforts more challenging. Creative and strategic approaches, focusing on high-quality, relevant links are necessary if you want to build a natural-looking link profile for a gambling business.
Develop a Targeted Link Building Campaign
As we have already established, link building for gambling industry has its specific challenges and required tailored approach. The most important aspect of it would be accurate targeting. Even within the online gambling crowd, audiences can be so distinct that they will barely overlap.
For example, the image above illustrates that the majority of gambler users prefer sports and other betting or online casinos. While these two audiences are both clearly gamblers and have similar user personas, the interesting fact is, people usually tend to prefer one or the other. This means that if you are marketing slot games, you may want to consider that the sports betting crowd is not exactly your audience. At the same time, sports betting is usually viewed more favorably than downright gambling, and when marketing a sports betting resource, you will have more link building opportunities amongst more generic resources.
Defining your target audience is only one objective. The next thing you need to decide is how are you planning to reach that audience.
This is where a link building platform like Serpzilla comes into play. When one of your biggest challenges is finding link building opportunities in a niche and highly specific domain, Serpzilla can offer you an excellent choice of high-quality resources. Even if your niche is as demanding and has as many limitations as gambling does, Seprzilla offers quite a wide choice.
We also keep our resource database up to date so you are safe from acquiring toxic links at all times. Serpzilla offers a finely configurable search for link building perspectives, so you can count on your suggested selection of website to be always relevant. The link placement process is fully automated and you are in control of many parameters such as anchor text, page selection, etc.
Serpzilla features sites for link building with various domain authority and citation, so you can opt for collecting a very diverse and natural-looking profile, try out different DA and source combinations and see what works best for you! Sometimes, the best solutions aren’t the most obvious ones.
The Importance of High Quality Content Marketing for Gambling Industry
Link building for gambling poses many challenges and one of the biggest ones is the social stigma and controversy about the domain which closes many doors. However, the good news is that the community itself is still huge and you can find many niche-oriented resources to place your links with. Obviously, the competition is high, so this is where your ability to create unique, high-quality content comes into play.
Even though gambling is often viewed by mass audiences as easy mindless entertainment, there is plenty of serious research and room to deliver in-depth engaging content about it. For instance, serious poker tutorials, case studies and professional tournament reviews can become viral among the poker-playing crowd and gather many high-quality natural backlinks.
Gambling audience is also well known for its high expectations towards seamless user experience, so make sure that all of your content is easy to navigate, isn’t clickbait, features fast loading pages, and clear calls to action. A positive UX can reduce bounce rates and improve the chances of conversions, which are positive signals to search engines.
Leveraging Social Media and Forums in Your Link Building Strategy
Gamblers are a highly interactive and communicative crowd. There are plenty of places that host heated discussions, brainstorming sessions about various gambling strategies and general virtual hangouts. Your strong social media presence can lead to increased brand visibility, traffic, and indirectly to higher page authority as well. For the gambling industry, leveraging social media platforms can also help engage more with the community and promote your content. Make sure you participate in the discourse, follow it, capitalize on trending memes and events and are active on your social media accounts.
Outreach Strategies for Gambling Websites
When conducting outreach, it is important to remember that just like all gambling-related SEO activities, it also has its challenges and specifics. Here are a few tips that will help you to better organize your outreach campaign.
- Responsible Gambling Messaging
Include responsible gambling messages in your outreach content. This not only complies with many regulatory requirements but also demonstrates your commitment to player safety and ethical practices.
- Sponsorships and Events
Engage in sponsoring players or teams in tournaments or generally sponsor events. This is a great opportunity to make your brand more visible with the audience and showcase your scale, trustworthiness, and build partnerships.
- Leverage High-Quality Content
Create compelling, unique, and informative content that naturally attracts links and social shares. This can include industry reports, betting guides, infographics, or interactive tools specific to gambling. High-quality content can encourage organic outreach.
- Influencer Partnerships
Partner with influencers who have a strong following in the gambling, sports betting, or gaming communities. Choose influencers who align with your brand values and have an engaged audience. Luckily, the gaming media world often rotates around big name players, teams or experts.
Conclusion
Creating a successful link building campaign for a casino, a sports betting or a gambling resource can be challenging and has a lot of limitations and specifics. However, following these guidelines you can overcome those obstacles and conduct your link building activities in a safe and responsible way, acquiring a solid link profile on a budget.
