Search engine optimization (SEO) is absolutely essential to the success of online-driven businesses in every industry, and that includes the world of sports betting. We’ve learned a lot about SEO through the process of building our affiliate platform Dimers up as a sports betting brand. In this article, I’m sharing four of the most important lessons that we learned throughout this process.
Lesson 1: Keyword Research Is Always Evolving
Keyword research is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy, let alone one in the highly competitive world of sports betting. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush can help you to identify keywords that people are entering into search engines related to your niche – in our case sports betting. Researching keywords is important for several reasons.
First is understanding your target audience. Some sports bettors are searching for free sports betting picks while others are searching for the top sign-up offers and promotions available in their area. With a better understanding of what sports bettors are searching for, we can make adjustments to our content to deliver to our target audience.
Also, it’s important to continually Improve the visibility of your website. You can do this by organically including useful and relevant keywords in your content, titles, headings, and URLs. This will give search engines like Google a better understanding of the type of content that you are producing, which in the long run will turn into better visibility in search results.
You also need to measure the success of your SEO efforts. When you monitor how your website is performing in search engine results across various important keywords, you are able to see exactly how much ground you are gaining or losing against your competitors.
The sports betting industry is always evolving, and that means that our keyword research strategies must always be evolving as well. Being proactive and ranking for keywords that will be valuable in the future is just as valuable as reacting to the current market.
One example of this is the evolution of the various promo codes and sign-up bonuses that the sportsbook is offering. As this space gets more competitive by the day, our content needs to evolve continually in order to protect the rankings that are driving strong outcomes for our business.
Lesson 2: Establish Domain Authority
Domain authority is a metric used by search engines to determine the relevance and credibility of a website. It plays a key role in determining the ranking of a website on search engine result pages. Multiple factors go into measuring domain authority.
The first is relevance. To prove that you are an authority in an industry, you must consistently be delivering content and information to your customers that is relevant and useful to them. Trust is also important. Websites with high domain authority are typically considered trustworthy by search engines and are more likely to rank higher in search results.
Building and maintaining a strong domain authority takes time and effort. Proving that you are trustworthy and can consistently provide relevant and high-value content doesn’t happen overnight. Doing things the right way over a long period of time is critical to building up your domain authority.
Lesson 3: Mobile Optimization
Back in 2015, less than one-third of all website traffic came from mobile devices. That number has skyrocketed to over 50 percent in recent years, and new studies in 2023 have indicated that over 60 percent of all internet traffic now comes from people using mobile devices. Optimizing your app for mobile has become essential for a handful of reasons.
First, you need to customize your mobile experience for your audience. Our audience is sports bettors, and we have found that they tend to bet on their phones. With easier access to their favorite sportsbooks, users expect a seamless experience on their preferred mobile device while on the go, and we need to make sure that we provide it for them. Mobile optimization is important for both SEO and customer satisfaction alike.
With the global shift towards mobile devices as the primary way many of your website visitors will be accessing your site, your goal should be to make the mobile user experience as smooth as possible. Clean interfaces and quick load times improve the user experience and increase the likelihood of returning customers.
Search engines including Google now use mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor. Websites that are optimized for mobile are more likely to rank higher in search results on mobile devices, which can result in increased traffic and conversions. This means websites that aren’t properly optimized for mobile may not have their content displayed in the most optimized format when users visit your site on their phone, thus hurting your chances of securing a conversion from that potential customer.
Lesson 4: Content Quality
When you are constantly monitoring and updating your SEO efforts to survive in a highly-competitive industry, it’s easy to get lost in the numbers. But at the end of the day, it is important to always remember that the quality of the content that you provide to your users matters more than anything else.
After all, even the most perfectly optimized website will only retain customers and help you to build your brand if there is actual substance underneath all of those keywords and optimizations. SEO drives new users to your website through organic search traffic, but only the quality of your content and the value you provide those users will keep them coming back for more.