iGB Affiliate Magazine - Issue 43 (March & April 2014)

iGBAFFILIATE
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
BUILDING YOUR SEO
STRATEGY FOR 2014
THE COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE
MOBILE TRACKING
EMERGING MARKETS: AFRICA
PARTYPOKER SIGNS US
SPORTS DEAL
GOOGLE ON POST-CLICK
OPTIMISATION
INFORMATION, INSIGHT AND ANALYSIS FOR THE BUSINESS OF INTERACTIVE GAMING

3iGB Affiliate FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
As I prepare for LAC, I have an
overwhelming feeling that the iGaming
community is about to get a whole
bunch bigger. This isn’t just because I
can see that LAC visitor registrations are
at a high, or that LAC has moved to
Earl’s Court to accommodate all the
affiliate programs. It’s because Google
has levelled the affiliate playing field with
its recent updates, and provided
an opportunity, once again, for new
affiliates to gain ground in this market.
Google will always reward sites that
offer genuine value to its SERPs, and
that gives me hope that we will be
seeing more entrepreneurialism, more
ingenuity, more fresh ideas, and new
opportunities in the iGaming Affiliate
market; and that makes me smile.
Michael Caselli, Editor in Chief
FREE SUBSCRIPTION email: alex.pratt@igamingbusiness.com
Printed in the UK by: Pensord Press, www.pensord.co.uk
Published by: iGaming Business,
St Marks House, Shepherdess Walk, London N1 7BQ
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www.iGamingBusiness.com
© iGaming Business 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without
prior written permission, except for permitted fair dealing under
the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Application for
permission for use of copyright material including permission to
reproduce extracts in other published works shall be made to the
publishers. Full acknowledgement of author, publisher and source
must be given. iGaming Business Affiliate Magazine is published
by iGaming Business Limited St Marks House, Shepherdess
Walk, London N1 7BQ. The views expressed by contributors and
correspondents are their own. Editorial opinions expressed in this
magazine are not necessarily those of the Publisher.
The Publisher does not accept responsibility for advertising
content. Cover image: istockphoto.com. ISSN 2041-6954.
Editor in Chief: Michael Caselli
michaelc@iGamingBusiness.com
Editor: James McKeown
james@iGamingBusiness.com
Publisher: Alex Pratt
alex@iGamingBusiness.com
Designer: Kyle Young
Production Manager: Craig Young
craig@iGamingBusiness.com
Head of Business Development: James King
james.king@iGamingBusiness.com
Senior Sales Executive: Ed Grundy
ed@iGamingBusiness.com
Sales Executive: James Harrison
james.harrison@iGamingBusiness.com
CONTENTS
http://tinyurl.com/igbaffiliate
@igbaffiliate
Events Calendar 04
Webmaster News 06
SEO Authority Through Digital PR 12
Against the Odds: Content Marketing 17
SEO, Design and Conversion Case Study 21
Mobile SEO in 2014 26
Avoiding Google’s Filters 31
Interview: Eddie Matthews, Affiliate Marketing Manager, bet365 36
Building Your SEO Strategy for 2014: the Comprehensive Guide 39
Mobile Tracking 44
Building a Mobile-First Strategy 46
Reputation Management 48
Winning Through Skill Gaming 52
Guest Blogging and Content Strategy 54
Mobile Marketing Strategies 56
The European Online Poker Market: Not Such a Full House 58
How to Improve your Email Marketing Campaigns 60
Talking Heads: What to Expect from Mobile in 2014 63
Google’s Eli Uzan on Post-Click Optimisation 67
Emerging Markets: Africa 71
Interview: Daniel Eskola, Head of Gaming at Unibet 74
Interview: Scott O’Neil, CEO of New Jersey Devils on PartyPoker Deal 77
Data Centre 80
Market Place 94

AFFILIATE EVENTS CALENDAR
4 iGB Affiliate FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
Due to their popularity and wealth of information, analysis and discussion, conferences have become
an integral part of the affiliate industry and a key communications bridge between affiliates and affiliate
managers. Whether used for networking, education or just an excuse to meet up with friends, the
affiliate conferences listed below provide all the tools you need to improve your business.
I-GAMING FORUM 2014
GRAND HOTEL, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
APRIL 8 – 9, 2014
www.i-gamingforum.com
MGAMING AND MPAYMENTS SUMMIT
DEXTER HOUSE, LONDON
MAY 15, 2014
www.mgamingsummit.co.uk
AMSTERDAM AFFILIATE CONFERENCE
AMSTERDAM RAI
JUNE 24 – 27, 2014
www.iGBwaffiliate.com/events
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS
BARCELONA, SPAIN
FEBRUARY 24 – 27, 2014
www.mobileworldcongress.com
iGAMING NORTH AMERICA 2014
PLANET HOLLYWOOD, LAS VEGAS
MARCH 19 – 21, 2014
www.igamingnorthamerica.com
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CONFERENCE
THE BREWERY, LONDON
MARCH 31 – APRIL 1, 2014
www.socialmedia_forum.com

WEBMASTER NEWS
BWIN.PARTY CEMENTS NEW JERSEY
POSITION WITH DEVILS SPONSORSHIP
BWIN.PARTY HAS officially ‘broken the
ice’ in relations between US sports teams
and the online gaming industry, by securing
the very first sponsorship deal between the
two sides. The ground-breaking partnership
was announced on January 9, 2014, as
PartyPoker became an official sponsor of
the New Jersey Devils ice hockey team, and
the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team.
The multi-year deal will also see
PartyPoker branding and presence within
the Devils’ Prudential Center home. “We are
proud to welcome PartyPoker to our family
as we embark on an exciting journey with
an innovative, global leader in the digital
marketplace,” said 76ers and Devils Chief
Executive, Scott O’Neil. “As an organisation,
we will continue to align with brands that
aspire to grow with us, in true partnership.”
bwin.party Chief Executive, Norbert
Teufelberger, pledged to offer fans of both
teams a range of digital content and exclusive
game-day experiences, while both the NHL
and NBA are in favour of the partnership.
“As long as the gambling site doesn’t
include sports gambling or sportsbetting,
it’s now allowed within our rules,” NBA vice
president Mark Tatum said in a statement
released to the Associated Press news agency.
In other news, bwin.party’s New Jersey
land-based partner, the Borgata Hotel
Casino and Spa, has launched two free
mobile gaming applications for iOS
devices to complement its online gaming
websites. The apps allow players in New
Jersey to access the land-based operator’s
BorgataCasino.com and BorgataPoker.com
websites whilst on the move.
Both apps are supported by iOS 4.3 or
later and can be access via Wi-Fi networks
on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The
BorgataCasino.com app allows players to
access slot games, jackpot promotions
and variety of table games such as blackjack
and roulette.
The BorgataPoker.com app enables
players to select a range of different poker
games including real-money, fast-forward,
play-money or preview poker. In addition,
the 'Quick Seat' feature on the BorgataPoker.
com app allows players to choose a certain
seat from hundreds of real-money Texas
Hold’em tables on the website.
“With unique and original iOS apps
available now for both BorgataCasino.com
and BorgataPoker.com, and the expansion
of our mobile platform to include support
for Android applications and 3G and 4G
networks in the coming weeks, online users
will have the ability to try their luck anytime
and anywhere in the state,” said Borgata’s
vice-president of information technology,
John Forelli.
HMRC TO REVIEW BITCOIN TAXATION RATE
THE UK’S HMRC is considering
alternatives to the current 20 percent value
added tax rate on purchases of Bitcoins due
to fears that the virtual currency could be
used for tax evasion and money laundering.
According to the Financial Times
newspaper, traders have complained that the
VAT made their business uncompetitive on
a global scale and was forcing them to look
at moving to more favourable jurisdictions.
The announcement comes as tax authorities
around the world seek to capture more
revenue from the virtual currency and lower
the risk of tax avoidance and evasion.
In the last year, the value of Bitcoin has
grown significantly from $150 million
(€110.8 million) to $10 billion and regulators
are keen to clarify its status.
For the UK market, HMRC said that one
option was to follow in the footsteps of
Germany and reclassify the virtual currency
as ‘private money’, which would limit the
VAT on transactions to the commission
charged by trading exchanges. HMRC
said that it had listened to calls from
the industry, but not yet reached a final
decision on the tax.
“We have held constructive meetings with
stakeholders but this is a complex issue, and
we will continue to listen to arguments for
alternative VAT treatments under existing
VAT law,” HMRC said.
Policy makers in the UK have ruled out
classifying Bitcoin as an official currency but
have highlighted other ways of viewing the
virtual currency with parallels being drawn
with unofficial local currencies, property,
barter and gold, each of which have a variety
of tax treatments.
The UK virtual currency market has
been held back from developing partly
because of the uncertainty surrounding the
currency and the difficulty in obtaining
bank accounts.
Richard Asquith, Head of Tax at advisory
group TMF said he expected Bitcoin to be
given the same status as gold, which itself
has been exempt from VAT since 2000.
Earlier in January, the value of Bitcoin had
topped $1,000 (€743.4) after social gaming
company Zynga announced it would start
accepting the virtual currency as a payment
option for gamers that buy tokens for
virtual goods.
DELAWARE GETS OFF TO SLOW START
DELAWARE OFFICIALS HAVE
announced that online gambling in the
US state generated just $253,000
(€185,048) during its first two months
of operations.
According to the Delaware Online
news website, the figures leave Delaware
well short of its goal of generating
$5 million in revenue during the first
year of online gambling.
The state will collect 100 percent of the first
$3.5 million generated in online gaming
revenue, meaning that casinos in Delaware
are yet to receive any of the income.
As of January 23, Delaware was
averaging just 18 players online at any
given time during the previous seven days.
Popular websites in Nevada and New Jersey
record an average of several hundred players.
In addition, as of the end of December 2013,
only around 4,000 people had registered for
online gaming in Delaware.
Despite the slow start, Delaware
officials remain optimistic about online
gambling’s potential.
“In and of itself, it’s not going to be
the thing that solves everybody’s financial
issues,” said Delaware Lottery Director,
Vernon Kirk. “It’s a piece of the puzzle, and
it’s got a lot of potential.”

WEBMASTER NEWS
7iGB Affiliate FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
ILLINOIS LOTTERY
LAUNCHES MOBILE APP
The Illinois Lottery has launched
a new mobile app that it claims is
the first in the US to allow players
to purchase lottery tickets.
Customers will be able to purchase
Mega Millions, Powerball and Lotto
tickets from their Smartphones, as
well as check all winning numbers
and jackpots. Players can also
use the app to locate nearby
lottery retailers via their phone’s
geo-locater.
The app also features messages
about playing the lottery
responsibly and information on
counselling and a self-exclusion
hotline. Users are also able to
manage their online and app
spending limit.
The lottery app is available to
adults aged over 18 in the US state
with a minimum purchase set at $5.
In March 2012, the Illinois Lottery
also became the first US-based
lottery to allow players to
purchase tickets online.
REAL MONEY ZYNGA POKER
APP HITS FACEBOOK
Social gaming company Zynga has
launched its Zynga Plus Poker
product on social networking
website Facebook. The product,
which is currently only available to
Facebook users in the UK, utilises
the network and software of
PartyPoker, the Internet poker
brand of online gaming company
bwin.party.
Zynga announced plans to launch
the application on Facebook when
it unveiled web and download
versions of its Zynga Plus Poker
and Zynga Plus Casino brands for
UK players back in April 2013.
Zynga, which struck its original deal
with Facebook to launch real
money games in 2012, had initially
targeted a launch date of late
2013 for the application on the
social network.
SPORTINGBET AGREES NRL
STADIUM DEAL
Online betting operator Sportingbet
is to become the new naming
rights partner of the Penrith
Panthers rugby league club’s home
stadium in the Australian National
Rugby League.
Sportingbet will replace its
subsidiary Centrebet as the naming
rights partner, with the venue set to
be known as ‘Sportingbet Stadium’
under the new deal.
ODDSCHECKER LAUNCHES NEW BETTING APP
ODDS COMPARISON WEBSITE
Oddschecker has launched a new app that
it claims will ‘revolutionise’ the mobile
betting market by offering punters access to
the best value odds whilst on the move.
The free-to-download app allows users to
compare the best prices from seven betting
companies including Bet365, Betfair,
BetVictor, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Sky Bet
and William Hill, with plans to add others
in the future.
Once the desired odds from a chosen
bookmaker have been selected, the user
can then place a bet within the app, which
features a selection of markets across 42
different sports, and enables all types of
bets to be placed with any of the featured
betting companies. Reality TV, showbiz,
politics and novelty bets are also available.
Users can also access a tool to compare
the best accumulator odds and view all
of their bookmaker account balances on
one screen.
In addition, those that download the app
will also have access to various bookmaker
special offers and horseracing form guides.
The app is available to download on both
iOS and Android devices.
“This app is truly set to revolutionise
the mobile betting experience for punters
across the UK,” said Oddschecker’s head
of marketing, Andy Lulham. “It’s human
nature to seek out best value, and customers
can now ensure they get best price, the best
promotions, and place bets with several
bookies, all within the one app.”
LEANDER GAMES TO PROVIDE FULL TILT
GAMING’S CASINO CONTENT
THE RATIONAL GROUP, holding company
of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, has selected
gaming company Leander Games to provide
a casino gaming platform and game content
for the Full Tilt Poker brand.
The companies have already started the
technical integration to leverage Leander’s
LaGa gaming platform to launch games as
well as a selection of titles from Leander’s
partners. Full Tilt Poker now plans to
leverage the LaGa platform in order to
launch third-party content from a range of
boutique game developers.
The website, which boasts more than
21 million registered players, is currently
in the test phase of rolling out blackjack
and roulette on the Full Tilt platform. The
Leader platform and selected games
are expected to go live on Full Tilt Poker
this spring.
Steven Matsell, Leander’s Chief
Executive Officer, described the agreement
as a “landmark deal” for the company and
one that could significantly enhance its
presence in the industry. “This partnership
will change Leander’s position within the
marketplace from ‘new kid on the block’ to
a serious contender,” he said.
“We are a small but dedicated team who
live and breathe delivering the best games
possible and this deal is testament to the
quality of our offering. We are excited about
the next few months as we work on our
biggest venture to date.”
PROBABILITY RELEASES UK
MOBILE GAMBLING SURVEY
MOBILE GAMBLING COMPANY
Probability has announced the results
of a survey that suggest 87 percent of
players would recommend playing mobile
entertainment gambling games to friends,
family and colleagues. The survey also
suggested that 26.9 percent of participants
play and bet on their mobile device more
than three times a week.
“Real money gambling on mobile is
now a mainstream and social activity in the
UK where 70 percent of adults are already
known to participate in gaming and betting
activities regularly,” explained Probability’s
Chief Commercial Officer, Michael Byrne.
“With that level of ubiquity amongst
consumers, it’s no surprise that real money
gaming is attracting increased attention
as a low risk opportunity for non-gaming
businesses to increase revenues, engage
and entertain customers. Doing this on
mobile through Smartphones and tablets
is now the preferred entry point for the
majority of players in the UK.”

WEBMASTER NEWS
888 SEES REVENUE GROWTH
888 Holdings has cited its
progress in newly regulated markets
as the main cause behind a ten
percent year-on-year revenue
increase in the 13 weeks through
to December 31, 2013.
The firm posted revenue of $107
million (€79 million) for the fourth
quarter of 2013, up from $97 million
in the corresponding period in the
previous year.
The company is due to publish its
preliminary results for the year
ended December 31, 2013 on
March 25, but in a trading update,
888 said that group revenue for the
full year had increased by seven
percent to $401 million.
All of 888’s B2C divisions enjoyed
an increase in sales in the fourth
quarter, with casino, poker and
general customer revenue
increasing by 15 percent, two
percent and eight percent,
respectively.
The operator also said trading
during the first 27 days of the first
quarter of 2014 had “started well,
continuing the strong trading during
the previous quarter”.
888 chief executive officer Brian
Mattingley said: “Our strong result
has again been driven by the
progress we have made in newly
regulated markets as well as a
continued excellent performance in
casino and further market share
gains in Poker, where we are now
ranked Number 2 in the Poker Scout
global rankings.”.
OFFSIDE GAMING LAUNCHES
MOBILE SPORTSBOOK IN
AFRICA
Sportsbook technology provider
Offside Gaming has expanded an
existing sportsbook and mobile
partnership with Worldstar Betting
Uganda as part of a move to build a
presence in the African market.
Under the partnership, the two
companies have worked together to
develop mobile and desktop
solutions for Worldstar’s betting
shops. Offside Gaming has
developed a specific version of its
mobile website to support Opera
Mini, a browser that is used on
many mobile devices in the region.
Offside Gaming has identified the
African market as one of potential
growth, citing an increase in Internet
and mobile penetration on the
continent in 2013 as its reasons
behind plans to boost its presence
in the market.
OPAP REVEALS SHORTLIST
GREEK GAMBLING MONOPOLY
OPAP has unveiled a shortlist of online
gaming providers ahead of the launch of its
iGaming product this year.
According to the Capital.gr website, the
shortlist includes the likes of online casino
software supplier Playtech, online gambling
operator 888 and online gaming software
provider Openbet.
The website also reported that OPAP is
likely to confirm its Internet provider within
the next few days.
ALIBABA TARGETS MOBILE GAMING SECTOR
CHINESE E-COMMERCE GROUP
Alibaba has announced plans to move into
the mobile gaming market as part of a new
strategy. According to the Thenextweb.com
website, Alibaba is to set up its own mobile
gaming platform in order to challenge
Chinese Internet firm Tencent.
Tencent has recently been stepping up
integration of its games into messaging
service WeChat, which brought 570 million
downloads in the first three months. To
compete with this, Alibaba is providing
its mobile gaming platform service free of
charge for the first year to game developers
that work on single-player standalone games.
Any revenue that a game makes will
be split into 70 percent takings for the
developer, a 20 percent cut for Alibaba and
a ten percent donation to rural education.
In addition, developers and players
will also be able to utilise Alibaba’s unified
account where they can manage payments,
virtual currency and statistics, as well as
access the firm’s ‘Aliyun’ operating
system. Alibaba said it would “fully
support” mobile games created on the
platform by marketing and distributing
games to its 700 million users on shopping
website Taobao.
The plans come after Alibaba’s Chief
Executive Officer Jonathan Lu announced
last year that the firm would continue its
series of big investment to maintain its
focus on boosting its services for mobile.
The company has already upped its efforts
to promote its chat app, connect with mobile
shoppers by offering free data and by giving
free Smartphones to retailers in China.
UK ISPS REJECT CALLS TO BLOCK
ILLEGAL GAMBLING WEBSITES
INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS
(ISPS) in the UK have rejected an attempt
by the government to obstruct access to
unlicensed gambling websites in the country.
According to the Financial Times
newspaper, the UK Gambling Commission
regulatory body met various broadband
providers in January in the hope of inserting
warning pages on unlicensed websites to
alert the customer of their illegal status.
The ‘splash pages’ would put the gambling
websites on the same level as harmful
pornographic content, which often carries
warning about illegal images.
Despite the effort, the companies
refused the Commission’s attempts and
instead insisted on a court order or primary
legislation to ratify such a move. The talks
have been prompted by legislation that will
introduce new licensing and tax regimes for
online gambling, which will switch from
being based on where an operator is located
to where the consumer lives.
The Gambling Commission regulates
commercial gambling in Great Britain but
has no jurisdiction over offshore websites
and is keen to gain more power in order to
clamp down on unlicensed sites. “We have
been exploring the Internet service providers’
approach when faced with clear evidence that
sites are unlicensed and engaged in illegal
activities,” the Gambling Commission said.
“At this stage, we are just exploring back-
up options as we do not expect illegal sites to
be a major issue given the attractiveness and
width of the legal offer.”
Despite the breakdown in talks, the
government has already agreed a deal
with ISPs to impose mandatory ‘opt-out’
filters for broadband access to content like
pornography and self-harm websites, as well
as filters for gambling websites. The filters
will come into effect this year.
Content owners have also attempted to
convince ISPs to block copyright-infringing
content from streaming or peer-to-peer
download services. However, ISPs have been
hesitant in blocking such content until a high
court order is issued. Due to this stance, the
government may opt to fall back on existing
measures to halt illegal gambling websites,
such as clamping down on illegal advertising.

TRAFFIC
SEO Authority Through Digital PR
Producing the Right Content
It is a common opinion in the gaming world that the only way to acquire SEO authority is to buy links or
adopt black hat techniques. In this new article series, we will see why this is not necessarily true and how
Digital PR activities can (and should) be used as an alternative to traditional link building methods.
Link building and Digital PR
2013 was definitely a harsh year for link
building. Apart from a few updates of
its Penguin algorithm1
, the year also
saw Google penalising two well-known
networks2
as well as some prominent
sites3
, all for acquiring links in ‘black hat’
ways. Apart from this, 2013 was also the
year in which for the first time Google
clearly stated that conservative link
building techniques such as widgets,
infographics, guest posts and press
releases were also to be considered black
hat techniques, hence potentially putting
your site’s rankings at risk4
.
Considering how Google is extending
its war on links to include traditionally
white hat methods, several SEOs and
webmasters may wonder if link building
– if not SEO – is dead. The answer is, of
course, no, but just like animal species
need to evolve following changes in their
ecosystem, link building techniques also
need to evolve in order to survive.
The natural evolution of (formerly)
white hat link building techniques is
Digital PR. Similar to the SEO concept
of ‘link bait’, Digital PR means getting
external sites to spontaneously mention
(and link) your site, giving you the SEO
authority you can no longer get with
outdated link building methods.
The Digital PR process
In order for a Digital PR campaign
to succeed, it is important to follow a
well structured process, based on a
carefully researched strategy. A typical
PR campaign is composed of the
following steps:
1. Site audit
2. Content planning and research
3. Content creation
4. Targets scouting
5. Launch and outreach
Here, we will focus on the first three steps.
Site audit
Before even thinking of how to promote
your site or a specific section of it, you
should make sure you clearly know what
the values and targets of your site (and
brand) are. Considering some examples
from the gaming world, you can see how
brands like Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars
focused more on the idea of online poker
as a sport, associating their brands with
this value; PKR looked at online poker as
a computer game and PartyPoker as a fun
form of entertainment, not so different
from casino games.
Apart from different values, different
sites also have different targets: while
sportsbetting and poker sites have a
predominantly male audience, casino sites’
visitors are more mixed, and bingo sites
are mostly composed of females. Ethnicity,
gender, lifestyle and yearly income are
other factors that characterise your target.
Before planning any PR initiative, you
1
See http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
2
See http://searchengineland.com/did-google-just-penalize-another-link-network-sape-links-150843 and http://
searchengineland.com/google-may-have-penalized-another-major-link-network-ghost-rank-2-0-172567
3
See http://www.seroundtable.com/rap-genius-google-penalty-17877.html
TRAFFIC

13
TRAFFIC
iGB Affiliate FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
4
See http://youtu.be/z6p7vO04Vsc , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xEu_VzVU3s and http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=PvR_8aGEc98
5
See http://moz.com/blog/widgetbait-gone-wild
6
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4034787.stm
should write down your values and your
target audience to make sure that what you
are to communicate in your PR will fit your
audience and support your brand values.
As an example, let’s say you are running a
sportsbetting site approaching betting from
a statistical point of view: your values may
be sports, reliability and accuracy, while
your target audience are males in their
late twenties and thirties. These are the
elements you should keep in mind while
planning and executing your Digital
PR campaign.
Content planning and research
Once your values and targets are clear, you
can start brainstorming ideas for the topic of
your PR campaign. When doing so, a typical
dilemma arises between your marketing
goals and how newsworthy and interesting
your site really is. Of course, we would all
like to get other sites to talk about the new
section we just launched, the new games
we started promoting or the redesign we’ve
just undertaken, but while these topics may
be of interest to us they would hardly be
interesting for our target websites. In order
to get other sites to talk about your site, it
will be necessary to associate it with some
interesting facts, statistics or surprising news
– possibly as the source of such exclusive
material. If you do not have any exclusive
data or do not want to release confidential
information, a possibility is aggregating
available data in a new way that makes it
interesting for a broad range of people.
In the online gambling world, an
additional obstacle in getting your PR out is
the fact that webmasters and editorial teams
of most sites covering gambling topics are
very competitive and well aware of the SEO
effects of mentioning and linking to your
site. Because of this, you may be tempted to
go off-topic, focusing your PR on a theme
not directly connected to your site. This is a
temptation you should resist, as in the past
Google has clearly showed that off-topic link
bait is a black hat technique and may lead
your site to a penalisation5
. However, an
alternative possibility is to extend the focus
of your PR to broader topics still related to
your site, without going completely off-topic.
For example, if your site is about online
poker, you may talk about online games or
gaming communities (see Figure 1), while if
your site is about sportsbetting you may
focus on sport facts and data (see Figure
2). Going back to the sportsbetting site we
used as an example, a good topic for a PR
campaign could be the release of stats on
football players’ performances, possibly
aggregated in a new or controversial way.
For example, graphs could be produced
comparing the performance of married
versus single players.
Content creation
Once you have decided the topic of your
Digital PR campaign, it is time to decide
what format your content will take. The
most typical formats used to convey
information online with the purpose of
obtaining links are:
● Press Releases
● (Video) Infographics
● Interactive widgets
● White papers
Press releases
Independently from the format your
content will take, you will always need to
craft some form of press release to launch
it. In some cases, however, a press release
may also be enough to convey your whole
link baiting information, without the need
Figure 1:
Infographics
dedicated to online
gaming in Europe,
by texashold-em.it.
Figure 2:
Infographics
dedicated to Italian
football players on
Twitter, by BetClic.
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for further content. If your website makes
a bold statement on a delicate matter,
arranges an exclusive event (see Figure
3), releases surprising financial results, a
bizarre competition or buys toast for an
insane amount of money6
, a press release
may be enough for you to get the attention,
mentions and links you are looking for.
(Video) infographics
Infographics and video infographics are
the ideal format to release numerical data,
especially if such data is aggregated and
analysed in a compelling way. One of the
advantages of releasing information in
the form of infographics is that due to
their format, most sites will not be able to
integrate the full version, and will most
likely embed a preview and link to your
site for the full version. This action can
be facilitated by accompanying the (video)
infographics with an embed code ready
for fellow webmasters to use. Considering
our sportsbetting example, an infographic
would probably be the best format to
display stats on players’ performances.
However, be cautious: infographics
have been abused more than once for SEO
purposes, so their use can also be seen as
an aggressive SEO technique. To stay on
the safe side, make sure you are not tricking
the sites embedding the infographics into
linking to you in an aggressive way and that
the data presented is related to your site and
not too off-topic.
Interactive widgets
When used to deliver information,
interactive widgets can be seen as the
evolution of infographics. Just like
infographics and videos, interactive
widgets can be embedded by external sites,
facilitating mentions and links. Moreover,
their interactivity makes them ‘sexier’ than
infographics to share (see Figure 4).
White papers
White papers are the ideal format to use
when the information to deliver has a
significant volume and needs in-depth
analysis and commentary. The results of
research, the analysis of market trends
and step-by-step guides are all examples
of information best conveyed in the form
of white papers. From a technical point of
view, white papers can be made available as
downloadable PDFs, eventually requiring
users to leave their email address to
receive them. In this way, white papers can
also be used for lead generation. Having
compiled the results of your research in an
interesting format, it is now time to find
the best sites to target with your Digital
PR campaign. In the next instalment of
this series, we will see how to quickly find,
analyse and contact the best sites and news
outlets. In the meantime, good luck with
your Digital PR campaigns.
MATTEO MONARI is the
COO of BizUp, a results-
driven Internet marketing
agency specialising in
competitive segments and
international link building
(http://www.bizupmedia.com).
With a background in Languages
and Human Computer Interaction,
Matteo has been a successful Internet
marketing specialist for more than six
years. During his career, he has worked
for some of the biggest affiliates and
operators in the iGaming world, helping
them to successfully expand their
businesses across Europe.
After heading the SEO department of
Europe’s leading content-on-demand
company, Matteo is now leading
BizUp’s link building team, providing
links in five languages to clients in more
than fifteen different countries.
You can follow him on Twitter as
@matteo_monari and contact him at
m.monari@bizupmedia.com.
Figure 3:
PokerListings’
press release
announcing their
Battle of Malta
event.
Figure 4: An
interactive widget
illustrating
the growth of
online poker, by
PokerStars.
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C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K

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on your referrals

17
TRAFFIC
How I built white hat gambling links, by Sam Miranda, Head of Content Strategy and Marketing at
Right Casino Media.
“GAMBLING’S CRACK COCAINE:
They’re the disturbing new face of
gambling – betting machines that enslave
the poor and earn bookies BILLIONS”,
reads the Daily Mail’s latest indictment1
of
roulette machines.
This sensationalist rhetoric is part of
a relentless smear campaign against our
industry. Psychologist and gambling
authority Dr Mark Griffiths provided me
with an explanation for such headlines.
“Editors believe stories of misery and
addiction sell newspapers. We as human
beings like to compare ourselves to other
people – it’s called social comparison
theory in psychology terms. When you
read about the misery of somebody else, it
makes you feel better.”
The media’s hostile stance presents
a massive challenge for gambling
marketers: how can we execute PR and
content marketing, build links and drive
shares when there is such a stigma
attached to our industry?
For those marketing ‘hard gambling’
– a term attributed to high-frequency,
high-variance casino and slot games – it’s
especially hard. Sportsbook and poker
boast a strategic, social element, but casino
games rank behind only pornography and
pay-day loans as the Internet’s biggest
taboo. For years, gambling affiliates gorged
on black hat methods to manipulate
rankings: spamming article directories and
paying for guest posts with over-optimised
anchor text. But Google’s 2012 Penguin
Update penalised these tactics, reducing
rankings and slashing traffic.
These developments demand a new
approach to link building – something
the gambling industry is finding difficult
to digest. In iGB Affiliate’s December/
January issue, Nick Garner, CEO of 90
Digital, qualifies a good link, but not a
risk-free method of obtaining one. Whilst
distancing himself from some of the
black hat tactics of old, he still advocates
paying an editor “£50 to £70” to place a
link. This is a violation of Google’s Quality
Guidelines2
. Returning to risky practices,
especially given the hard work that goes
into disavowing toxic links and overcoming
manual penalties, seems reckless and
unsustainable.
I hope to outline a safe and effective
strategy for acquiring white hat links.
Step one: lead generation
Before any campaign, you need leads –
websites that will be happy to host your
content. Search engine queries3
such as:
keyword + intitle:’write for us’, are good
ways to start identifying guest posting
prospects. Gambling has a lot of crossover
with entertainment and travel (Las Vegas,
Macau, etc), so these are useful niches to
plug in. I highly recommend using ‘lists’ as
your keyword – they’re fun, digestible and
websites love them because they provide
more page views and impressions. It’s easy
to incorporate gambling-related content
into a list – I got an article entitled “Top
Ten Ridiculous Wagers Through History”
on ListVerse.com, which has a powerful
Page Rank 6. Search engine queries can,
however, produce undesirable leads. Sites
that advertise ‘write for us’ or ‘submit a
guest post’ are often run by SEO-savvy
webmasters who know you have an ulterior
motive and will charge you upwards of £150
for a contextual gambling link.
This is why you shouldn’t be afraid
to target bigger, more respectable
publications. Their content is often in the
hands of journalists and editors, rather
than webmasters and SEOs. They don’t
understand the value of a link, and are
more likely to accept one if it credits a
source and furthers reader understanding.
I’ve had success targeting major sites such
1
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2533538/Gamblings-crack-cocaine-Theyre-disturbing-new-face-gambling-
betting-machines-enslave-poor-earn-bookies-BILLIONS.html
2
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
3
http://www.seotakeaways.com/10000-search-engine-queries-for-your-link-building-campaign/
AGAINST
THE ODDS
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as the Bleacher Report and BuzzFeed who
offer advanced contributor programmes.
Step two: creating compelling
casino content
I challenge the assertion that gambling
affiliates are starved of ideas for interesting,
linkable content. Gambling has a crossover
with several industries and disciplines:
psychology, sport, entertainment, travel
and business to name but a few. Gambling
behaviour, addiction and strategy, along
with casino design, tie in with psychology.
Contemporary debates over fixed odds
betting terminals, operator taxation
and regulation have corporate and
political resonance.
Viral scientist Jonah Berger provides
a question formula4
that can help you
generate ideas. Take the term ‘roulette’;
very mundane and uninspiring on its own.
But once you start asking questions such
as, ‘What types of roulette are there?’;
‘What can we learn about the type of
person who plays X version of roulette?’;
‘Are people from region X more prone to
gambling?’; ‘Are men playing the ‘live’
version more?’; ‘Is this because they are
physically attracted to the croupier?”; then
you begin to spawn more intriguing and
contentious ideas for content.
Another simple formula I use is
‘subject + random category or buzzword’.
‘Roulette + films’ brings me to the iconic
Russian roulette scene from The Deer
Hunter; ‘roulette + social’ brings me to the
webcam-based phenomenon chat roulette;
‘roulette + magic’ brings me to Derren
Brown’s Russian roulette trick, and so
on. This is all ammunition for linkable,
shareable content.
For guest posting to work, you
need to develop your website’s linkable
assets. Depending on your budget, there
are a multitude of content types to
explore: surveys, infographics, videos, apps
and even quirky on-site features5
such as
funny 404 pages and team descriptions.
There are a number of affordable services
such as Sparkol (videos), Appy Pie (apps)
and Google consumer surveys that
make these viable. To create compelling
content, you need skilled writers, and I feel
affiliates should look beyond copywriters to
journalists and feature writers. Copywriters,
in my experience, are adept at re-writing
existing content and tailoring it for SEO,
but they aren’t necessarily proficient at
sourcing original stories. Journalists,
meanwhile, are conditioned to source their
own stories. They have the initiative to
arrange interviews with authority figures,
and know how to forge emotive human
interest stories that get shared. Rather than
scouring affiliate forums and freelancer
websites, I suggest posting on Gorkana.
co.uk, Journalism.co.uk or StudentGems.
Step three: outstanding outreach
Historically, guest post outreach attempts
have been nothing short of tragic. One
particular post6
outlines some of the
worst, characterised by poor spelling and
grammar, zero credibility and explicit
mentions of the need for a link.
A well-constructed outreach email
should contain the following: an explanation
of who you are and why you want to
contribute, examples of your published
work, and most importantly, an article
attachment. The latter reflects urgency
and commitment, and when coupled with
flattery, can be the start of a fruitful editorial
relationship. Should the editor accept my
article but remove the link upon publishing,
I’ll politely ask for it to be re-instated as it
credits some of my previous work.
If I’m content marketing around a
newsworthy linkable asset, I use PR service
MuckRack to pitch journalists. For $99
per month, you get access to a database of
journalists – who you can filter through by
industry and territory – along with their
contact details. It’s less risky than paying
£300 for a single press release on PR
Newswire, which is never guaranteed to
receive traction and links. Jess Champion
from Distilled suggests emailing
journalists7
before you release your story to
pique their interest and make them feel like
they’re getting the scoop. I like to stockpile
satellite articles around a linkable asset,
each with their own angle, and offer them
to journalists and editors to prod them in
the right direction.
Limitations and concluding
thoughts
Given that gambling affiliates continue to
pay upwards of £150 to £200 for mediocre
gambling links, my approach is certainly
worth considering. In my first few months,
I was executing all the aforementioned
processes by myself.
But there are limitations to my strategy,
and it might not be practical for all
affiliates. You’re at the mercy of editors
and editorial calendars, and there is never a
guarantee of a link. Lending your name to
articles on lots of different sites, spanning
several different sectors, can undermine
your reputation as an industry specialist. It
doesn’t make sense to pour resources into
writing excellent content for other websites,
when the content on your own sites is thin
or sub-par. Remember, there are successful
affiliates such as PokerStrategy, tradimo
and Oddschecker who have developed
such large, diverse content bases that they
acquire natural links, and this diminishes
the need for manual link building.
Going forward, my team has recognised
the need to make this link building part of
a holistic content and marketing strategy
that incorporates social and supports a
legitimate brand. Google is attributing more
authority to proper brands, which is why
we’ve switched our focus from game-specific
gambling domains such as Roulette.co.uk
to a brandable domain name,
RightCasino.com.
SAM MIRANDA is Head
of Content Strategy and
Marketing at Right Casino
Media, having started his
career in iGaming working as an
editor for PokerStrategy. Follow him on
Twitter @samjazzed or connect with him
on LinkedIn.
4
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/science-of-virality/
5
http://www.hitreach.co.uk/blog/how-to-make-your-website-more-interesting-and-linkworthy/
6
http://www.searchable.co.uk/revealed-outreach-campaigns-from-some-of-the-biggest-seo-firms/
7
http://moz.com/blog/8-step-plan-to-get-pr-driven-links

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SEO, DESIGN AND CONVERSION CASE STUDY
CASINOBONUSESTODAY.COM
SEO consultant and afﬁliate coach, John Wright, runs the rule over the rebranded casino afﬁliate site,
CasinoBonusesToday.com, to see how changes to the site have impacted its SEO, design and conversion.
CASinoBonUSEStoDAY.CoM was
launched on October 31, 2013, and was
rebranded and redesigned from the
previous casino portal, grem.net, which
launched in 2010. The changes to the
site were fairly drastic but were done
for many reasons which cover SEO,
design and conversion. The site wasn’t
performing up to expectations and
with the changes to Google’s search
engine, it became clear a re-work of the
site was necessary to give it a better chance
of success. The original idea of the casino
portal was to have it as a generic casino
site that covered many aspects of online
casinos; you could call it a casino guide
for starters, which there are definitely
hundreds of in existence. For a site like
this to be successful and compete, it has
to be very good and for this reason, I
recommend that most new webmasters
focus more on niche topics as a means of
getting started and having some
type of short-term success in gaining
search traffic. So, let’s dig deeper into
the work that went into the new portal
and the reasons behind the decisions to
change things.
SEo
Domain switch
Switching from an old domain to a new
one was, perhaps, one of the tougher
decisions to make. The old domain had
age and history while the new one, in the
eyes of many, would be considered an
exact match domain (EMD). When it
comes to domains, it is probably better to
focus more on branding. At this point
when looking at some of the top casino
portals, many have their keywords in
the domain but they also have a focus.
Examples include askgamblers.com, casino-
lemonade.com or casinoanswers.com.
The domains almost tell you what the
site is about whereas a domain like
grem.net doesn’t tell you anything at
all. Therefore, there is an element of
conversion that can be in the domain; if
you were looking for information about
an online casino, would you trust and
click on grem.net over the other three
domains? Probably not, if you had a
choice. With those three domains, you
can probably identify the unique selling
point (USP) faster than grem.net as well.
I’m not advising to chase after exact match
domains, especially ones that look tacky like
‘keywords1-keywords2-keywords3.net’, but
try to find some middle ground. Building a
brand and identity can take many years. A
casino portal will probably never become a
household name, so make it easier for new
visitors to understand you faster, whether
they stumble upon your site or find you
in a search engine.

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Content
The new design of the site encouraged
more content on the pages; the less content
the site had, the less appealing it looked.
An example would be the casino reviews.
Rather than leaving it open to just blocks of
paragraphs without titles, the content now
has dedicated sections. Any time a casino
review is now being produced, it makes it
difficult to have a review that is too thin on
content, where the previous site was full
of thin content.
Since the new USP of the site was to
focus on casino bonuses, this is another
aspect of content where more bonuses
create more content throughout the site.
The bonuses themselves act as more
dynamic content that can keep the review
pages, homepage and bonus pages more
up-to-date. So, if fresh content is important,
then the backend and design encourage all
pages to be constantly updated.
rich snippets
Some rich snippets were previously
integrated into the site, but on a minor
level. What has changed are Google Plus
profiles for the authors of the articles, five-
star rating for the casinos and video rich
snippets which are currently in production.
Design
The design was the main focus behind the
changes to the site, starting with the USP
and building out from there. As much as
USP is important, so is conversion and
it helps to have previous analytics data
to know what the users were doing; or
rather, not doing. For a site that has more
information and more directions to offer
players, good navigation is important, so in
comes User Interface/User Experience (UI/
UX) design. The important pages of the
site are the homepage, casino review page,
blog posts and bonus listings. Perhaps the
toughest part of the design work I carried
out was trying to make the site feature-rich,
providing good value but not having too
many features to the point where things
get cluttered. Since the site is about casino
bonuses, this is what users might expect
to find when they are on the site, so this
is what they can find no matter what page
they are in.
responsive design
Mobile traffic is probably more important
for a sportsbetting portal than a casino
portal, but it is still traffic nonetheless, and
you want to make sure you are converting
it. The old site wasn’t formatted for mobile
phones at all. In the last three months of
the original site, the traffic was nine percent
mobile with a bounce rate of 72.5 percent,
an average of 1.7 pages per visit, and an
average time on site at one minute 10
seconds, which is fairly short, and half the
time users spend on the desktop version.
The new site currently has the same
percentage of traffic, a lower bounce rate
of 58 percent, time on site slightly higher
at one minute 22 seconds, with 2.29 pages
per visit. The new design is responsive so
at least mobile users have an easier time
viewing and reading the content, and
navigating to other pages. There is still
more work to do
in terms of targeting mobile phone
users over tablets, but at least employing
responsive design is the first step towards
converting the traffic.
Social media
Some elements of social media are
incorporated into the site but more has to
be done to make it easier for users to share
more pages. The plan for social media is to
use it as a means to acquire followers, as

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most social media sites can act like feeds
which followers either get via email, or
on their Facebook wall (for example). All
of these social media networks can rank
within Google’s search engine, and these
sites are also search engines themselves.
The relevant platforms the site is focusing
on are Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter,
YouTube and Pinterest. Receiving emails
is probably the best bet, but this isn’t the
safest means of acquiring followers as
emails can end up in spam filters. When
you add this all up, social media should
be a good source of new traffic and return
visitors. For a three-month period on the
original site, social media represented one
percent of the traffic and 16.5 percent of
traffic was from referrals. The new site
has six percent social media traffic and 16
percent referral traffic. This is
despite barely making an effort with social
media for the new site, as many campaigns
are still to come, especially for
Pinterest and YouTube.
Authorship
The days of anonymous content are fading
very fast. Google is obviously pushing
its social network very hard, and many
webmasters are taking advantage of it.
However, today it is becoming too difficult
to have anonymous content and authors.
Some webmasters are either creating fake
Google Plus profiles or making them
somewhat anonymous by using an alias,
cartoon pictures and even stolen images.
If you don’t want to be your own author on
the site, then you should consider someone
that doesn’t mind being a public author.
There are many major casino portals still
not doing this and there is likely to be a
major shift soon; so, if you want to stand
out from your competition, use Google Plus
the way Google wants you to and you will
probably get rewarded in the process.
Conversion
Definitely the core reason behind any
redesign should be conversion, and this
was the case in the redesign. Looking at 18
months’ worth of data was enough to
signal a change:
Bounce rate: 69 percent
Average visit duration: 1m 36s
Pages per visit: 1.87
How does this compare with some longer
established and properly created casino
portals? If you have networked with other
affiliates, they might be willing to share
basic data with you but in general, the
better sites tend to have bounce rates under
60 percent and can be much lower, an
average visit greater than three minutes,
and over three pages per visit. How can
this be achieved? The answer is somewhat
simple and straight forward. It starts first
with design and is followed by good content
and lots of content to navigate to. If you
have less content, then your users run out
of reasons to stay on the site.
Follow me
Collecting followers of any form is very
important for any site these days, and this
is one of the core focuses in the design
to make it important, always visible but
also not so dominating that it distracts
the user from why or how they got to
that page on your site. In this case, this is
done from the bonus newsletter form and
on the homepage there are social media
widgets to collect followers. Where many
webmasters make the mistake with social
media is by putting their social buttons
on the site that link back to Facebook or
Twitter or whatever the account is. I’ve read

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some authors that say this is better than
follow buttons but I personally disagree.
If you have a user on the site and they are
a Facebook user as well, they are probably
already signed into Facebook so if they
have a choice of a Facebook icon which
they might know will take them to your
Facebook page or a like button, which
one would they click on and what would
happen? If they want to ‘like’ you then the
‘like’ button is the easiest way to get that
like, and they are still on your website. If
the user clicks on the Facebook page and
goes to your fan page, they might forget
about your site and do other Facebook
activities like chat with friends or play other
ridiculous games like Candy Crush or
FarmVille.
Geotargeting
The old site didn’t have geotargeting, but
this is too important to ignore these days.
If you are a WordPress user, there is a
geotargeting plug-in which you can get at
epikmedia.com (user code gaffg for $10
off). So, for all you WordPress users, you
should have some plug-in to make sure
you are sending the right pages, offers,
and links to match it up with the country
of your users. Here, we obviously match
up casinos with users to let them know if
that casino is accepted for players of their
country and location.
Unique selling point (USP)
Does the site have any value to users?
Is this the type of site they would consider
liking on social media, bookmarking
to come back to it, sharing it with their
friends or even emailing it because of the
value it provides? A redesign is one thing,
but having a good solid USP was very
important both in terms of a domain name,
logo and the message it sends when users
get to the page.
People should know what they are
getting into when they find your site and
the old site did a poor job of relaying that
message as a casino guide. The new site is
fairly clear as to what it is about when users
visit the homepage, or indeed any page.
As the site grows, provides more value
and gets more traffic, this is where it
can shine in terms of getting more users
following the site, people linking back
naturally and getting social media
shares or even email shares.
When your site provides good value, you
will see people sharing your site in many
ways. When you start to add this up, this
is one way of becoming less dependent
on Google’s search traffic; but, of course,
in being this good, this is one way of
generating natural links and demonstrating
to Google you are a legitimate site with
value that deserves a high ranking.
John Wright is an SEO
and design consultant at
horseshoeagency.com, and is
also the editor and affiliate coach
of Gaffg.com. He has been in the
online gambling industry for over
ten years. He can be reached at
john@horseshoeagency.com.
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SEO FOR
MOBILE AND TABLETThe step-by-step guide to nailing mobile SEO in 2014, by Janet Plumpton, SEO Strategist at Latitude
Digital Marketing.
2014 IS looKInG like a big year for
mobile SEO. The latest quarterly Walker
Sands Communications mobile traffic
report indicates that traffic from mobile
devices now accounts for 28 percent of
total website traffic, which is a huge annual
uplift of 67 percent. Smartphones and
tablets now drive one out of every three
minutes spent with digital media. Growth
in tablet shipments reported a 53 percent
uplift in 2013 – if these stats show anything
it is that mobile search has to be a crucial
consideration of any successful digital
campaign in 2014. What pointers should
affiliates be aware of to ensure their mobile
and tablet offerings perform optimally in
2014? We will be looking at a number of
best practice considerations in addition
to how best to capitalise on traffic to your
website across all devices, including tablets.
What does your site look like
across all devices?
Have you had a good look at your website
across all devices to get an understanding of
user experience? If not, why not? You may
already have a mobile website or you may
still be deciding what the best option is.
Your site will likely fall into one (or a
mixture) of the following categories:
1. Separate mobile website
This method requires additional
technical recommendations to ensure that
search engines understand that your site
has a mobile offering and that they can
find it and index the pages accordingly.
Mobile sitemaps are required and
canonical/alternate tags are needed.
Whilst there are additional
recommendations, the separate mobile
site can often be the more straightforward
solution from a development standpoint.
Check list
●● Google Analytics (or tracking of choice)
to be implemented on the mobile
subdomain/domain.
●● Implement Google Webmaster Tools on
the mobile subdomain/domain.
●● Canonical and ‘rel=alternate’ tags need to
be created on like for like pages.
●● Mobile site map required.
2. Responsive mobile site
This is what Google recommends.
There is no need to make changes to the
structure or mark up, and you don’t need a
site map for mobile or additional tags.
The site simply adapts to the device.
Smarter yet, many responsive designs will
adapt for desktop, tablet and mobile.
The downside is that this can be
complicated from a development
perspective and some responsive sites are
not all that SEO-friendly.
Check list
●● Set up mobile traffic segments.
●● Some responsive sites are not
SEO-friendly despite being
recommended by Google.
●● Could be slow to load due to file size.
●● Avoid Flash as search engines
cannot crawl it.
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3. Dynamic mobile site
If you want to present your visitors with
different information on the same URLs,
this is where a dynamic site comes in.
You may have specific offers that you only
want tablet viewers to see. There have
been concerns that this could be seen as
cloaking; however, as there is a specific
Googlebot for this, this is not the case.
Ensure that you present to Googlebot-
mobile exactly what you display to your
visitors (you can check this in Google
Webmaster Tools, opting for
Googlebot-mobile).
Check list
●● Set up mobile traffic segments.
●● Not considered cloaking.
Mobile users want results and they
want them fast: speed is key. The speed
that a website loads is a very important
consideration, even more so for mobile and
tablet websites. These devices are portable,
they are used out and about, so not only
do we need to consider that users will not,
in most cases, be connected to Wi-Fi, but
that they actually want to find what they are
looking for, faster.
Mobile users have far different
expectations with how fast a website
loads. They are not doing heavy research
– something that may be expected at a
desktop – rather, they want the answer to
their query and they want it fast. 85 percent
of mobile searchers expect their mobile
experience to be just as fast, if not faster,
than that performed on a desktop.
Be very aware of the load times of your
mobile and tablet offering. Don’t frustrate
visitors who are after fast content by
making them wait, as they will invariably
give up, impacting your bounce rate. A
very slow loading site will be negatively
impacted with ranking performance.
Make sure that you make full use of the
‘site speed’ section in Google Analytics,
which is found in the behaviour section.
Here, you will be able to take a look at the
average load time for mobile visits. Look
at the most popular pages and look out for
inconsistencies, as popular pages
that take a long time to load will certainly
need investigation.
Google Analytics now also now provides
page speed suggestions which, if you are
accustomed to implementing page speed
recommendations on your desktop site,
will be very useful. In most cases, they will
follow the standard recommendations you
will be used to, such as optimising images
to reduce their file size.
Search queries
Pay attention to your search queries. While
there are keyboards on phones and tablets
and styluses are available, it is still more
difficult to effectively type across these
devices. Users are more conversational with
their queries across mobiles and tablets,
as these devices are often used for quick
queries, such as ‘where can I find…’
Google released its latest algorithm
update in October 2013. While the search
giant described Hummingbird as “a
new engine”, the algorithm is in fact a
mishmash of elements from Panda
(related to content quality) and Penguin
(related to spam and linking attributes).
The key new Hummingbird feature
revolves around search query types;
Google is now viewing certain search
keywords and search phrases differently.
Rather than analysing search phrases
in a more traditional boolean (word-by-
word) manner, Google is now evaluating
all keywords together within a search
query phrase to understand the context
of the search phrase, therefore
enabling better quality search results
to be returned.
mobile and tablet user behaviour
mobile
Often, those on mobiles are looking
for contact details, opening hours and
directions – they want answers fast
whilst on the go; purchases on mobile
are still at a lower volume as many are
wary to make purchases, especially large
ones on a mobile handset although
this is changing.
●● Fingers, thumbs and screen size
The average size of a click on a
Smartphone is 44pixels. Make sure that
you factor this in – if you have small
buttons, then look to utilise padding with
CSS to increase the clickable area.
●● Search queries
Searchers on a handset are frequently in
a rush, they use short-tail search queries
27
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mGAMING

TRAFFIC
and rely on Google Suggest. On average,
searches via handset are 25 percent
shorter than desktop search.
Tablets
Tablets are seen as more of a leisure device,
with many users shopping on their tablets
whilst watching television. More users visit
retail and automotive sites through tablet
search, a higher number of pages visited
in e-commerce sites are from a tablet,
and tablet visitors are more valuable for
retail clients than Smartphone visitors.
Tablet visitors spend 50 percent more than
Smartphone visitors and 20 percent more
than desktop searchers.
●● Finger, thumbs and screen size
Users on tablets use double thumbs,
although many users can still find typing
on a tablet more difficult than typing on
a Smartphone due to it being heavier and
cumbersome to hold. Holding with both
hands and typing with thumbs can make
it difficult to reach certain keys.
●● Search queries
As to be expected – because a tablet is
larger – we do witness search queries
being longer in length compared to
mobile. In addition, the environment
the tablet user is in usually means they
are in less of a rush. Typing is still more
difficult than on a desktop, but with
the use of styluses and Google Suggest,
tablet users are able to type more
complicated queries and be more specific
in their search style.
Reporting
Figures do not lie. If you have not set
up custom reports in your tracking, you
really need to by using filters in Google
Webmaster Tools. If you have a responsive
or dynamic website offering for mobile
and/or tablets, then you will need to set up
custom reporting for each.
The mobile default setting in Google
Analytics includes tablets, which means
that you will need to set up a custom
segment. You can easily import segment
configurations such as ‘mobile – no iPad’
into your profile. Take a very good look at
user behaviour. If a large chunk of visitors
is dropping off at a certain section of your
site, ask yourself why.
Take a look at the site on your mobile
and tablet and ask whether they are
getting what they are searching for;
and if not, provide it.
Site search
As mentioned in the best practice section,
well optimised mobile sites will invariably
utilise a search feature. This helps to avoid
the pitfalls of frustration when a visitor
to your website cannot find what they
are looking for.
Don’t overlook the additional insight
you can gain by enabling site search in
Google Analytics – this is easy to set up and
provides a whole extra layer of insight into
user behaviour.
Take a look at the top searches and be
objective – is it easy to find? Are the results
even relevant to the search? If not, make
the objective readily available.
Contact information
It is important to remember that mobile
users search with intent and they want
information fast. It is important to ensure
that contact information, including
telephone numbers, email addresses,
physical location and maps are readily
available. Take a look at your mobile
site and check that this information
is easy to find.
Google Suggest
Remember that it is more difficult
to type on a handset and many searchers
opt for a suggestion provided – take
a look at the most popular
recommendations and ensure they
are applied in your strategy.
Common mistakes
●● Avoid the use of Flash: you may
be surprised at how often this is
forgotten. Flash will not work on certain
Smartphones and Google cannot
crawl it.
●● Don’t send all of your users to the
homepage. Remember, we are trying
to avoid frustration. If your visitor has
typed in a very specific search query
and has found a listing for your specific
detailed desktop page only to be sent to a
homepage, they will not be best pleased.
●● Mentioned before, but worth repeating:
site speed is so important. If your site
is slow to load, your visitors will not
wait. Analyse the site speed section in
Behaviour within Google Analytics.
●● Do not force mobile users to view the
mobile site; not everyone likes them.
Many handsets have large enough
screens now that can handle optimum
viewing of the full site which may have
more information that the users needs.
●● Do not present your mobile site to
tablet searchers. This may sound like a
straightforward recommendation, but
you will be surprised at how many
times this is witnessed.
Janet Plumpton is
SEO Strategist at Latitude
Digital Marketing. Janet’s SEO
experience reaches over three
years. Before joining Latitude as a
SEO Executive, she worked as an SEO
Consultant for Pagehog. Janet was
promoted SEO Strategist in 2012 and is
a key contributor to Latitude’s quarterly
Mobile Report.
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31
TRAFFIC
Avoiding Google’s Filters
How to avoid link anchor text filters and other flightless birds, by forensic SEO specialist, Paul Reilly.
Just the other day, my eldest
daughter, India, was telling me she has to
make a decision as to which subject she will
choose for her GSCEs. She was considering
history, something which I encouraged;
while I was never a fan of history at school,
I’ve come to realise in later life that history
is such an important tool. In any evolving
ecosystem, understanding the past enables
us to accurately predict the future.
If there was one crucially important skill
in SEO it is this: you must instinctively and
accurately anticipate Google’s next move.
So as well as a brief delve into the recent
historical algorithm archives, this article
will provide you with insight into how I
approach link strategy as well as providing
you with fresh (at the time of printing)
information from the MediaSkunkWorks
data set which will help you in your link
building efforts.
How to avoid triggering an
excessive anchor text filter
In order to help you understand the
method used, I’ll cover the first step. In
order to make sense of large quantities of
data, a simplified link profile is required.
This requires us to group all page-specific
anchor text data into the following groups:
●● Brand – e.g. www.examplecasinobrand.
com, example casino brand
●● Exact Match – the exact keyword/term,
e.g. ‘online casino’
●● Phrase Match – keyword as part of a
larger phrase e.g. ‘the best online casino’
●● Other – none of the above (often call-to-
action or non-transactional query e.g.
‘click here’, or ‘visit site’)
Before we get into more of the analytical
method, here’s a little piece of history.
The first time I came across any solid
evidence of an unnatural anchor text
filter was around April/May 2010.
This filter appeared (based on my own
observations, which I must also caveat
citing Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle)
to punish specific pages, for specific
keywords, where anchor text repetition
appeared in abnormal proportions.
This coincided with the release of an
optimised crawling infrastructure, code
name: Caffeine, and just to make the
algorithm changes even trickier to isolate,
Google also introduced something called
the ‘May Day’ algorithm on May 1.
Google messing with our minds
We know this May Day algorithm wasn’t
related to the filter I had been observing
due to the timing. Rather than seeing the
impact on or around May 1, it was clear
that there had been two whole months of
increased SERP volatility starting in early
April 2010 and finishing late in May 2010.
Within a large SERP dataset, I had
observed numerous single keyword,
page-specific ranking drops; these drops
varied in severity and appeared to take
into account the commercial impact of
the positional change in order to limit the
volatility of the results.
If the observations were true, it was a
significant change in policy for Google’s
spam team. Previously, there had been
fixed penalties such as 30 position, 60
position, and brand-based penalties.
Previously, Google had a big problem when
it came to punishing spammers. In highly
monetisable SERPs such as ‘Online…
Casino/Poker/Bingo’ as well as the usual
tricky suspects, ‘Cheap Flights’, ‘Holidays’,
‘Car Insurance’ etc, everyone was cheating
the system.
Some agencies would even dominate
entire SERPS, yet Google still wasn’t in any
position to punish all the spammers.
Hidden in the crowd of spammers
Given that every major brand continued
to buy links, punishing them all would be
harmful to Google users. Not seeing the
big brands on page one would lead to
more users moving to alternative
engines, like Bing.
It was the presence of those big brands
which indicate to the user that Google
was returning the best results. We know
this to be true based on another history
lesson. Only a year earlier, when Google
implemented the ‘Vince’ update, an
artificial boost applied to big brands.
According to Google, this ‘update’ only
impacted a small number of queries and
was never referred to by Google as an
algorithm change.
It turned out to be an introduction of
a ‘white list’ to boost some big brands,
who by the very fact they were playing
by Google’s rules had been displaced by
the aggressive brands and an increasing
number of thin affiliates.
Google had previously denied the use
of such lists, but it was only when Eric
Schmidt admitted under oath to the DoJ
that white lists were in fact used, that it was
widely accepted by SEOs. Previously, it had
been a point of contention.
Now, everything had changed…
Google had finally solved the problem
by punishing sites on a granular level
(page-specific, keyword-specific), and now,
the severity of the punishment appeared
variable based on commercial impact. More
recently, Google has referred to this type of
penalty as a ‘granular penalty’.
The first iteration of the
granular penalty
The filter appeared to trigger a granular
penalty in cases where abnormal exact
match anchor text had been used. I
also made a second observation. It now
appeared that keywords or phrases either
in isolation or in broad-match groups – i.e.
‘casino online’, ‘online casino’ – could also

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now be punished (at page level) where the
anchor diversity had an abnormally low
portion of ‘other’ types of links – i.e. not
containing the brand, or keyword and non-
transactional link text, often a call-to-action.
We always have to keep in mind that in
an increasingly variable environment where
we are unable to isolate all the variables,
much of the data, which ties together
cause and effect, is merely circumstantial
evidence, but over time, when the same
cause and effect appears to result in the
same symptom, we become more confident
in our theories, and this confidence drives
our strategy.
So we have identified two ways for
Google to find and punish spammers, and
by applying these filters using different
thresholds related to the norms within a
SERP, Google now had a way to punish foul
play based on entirely different, acceptable
norms. These vary from SERP to SERP.
Given that some SERPs are a cesspool, it
was once again game-on for the spammers,
simply a matter of spamming better than
the competition (which in the world of SEO
means: ‘business as usual’).
Google leaves trace evidence for
forensic seos to investigate
The wonderful thing about an algorithm
update is that a significant change provides
those observing with a large volume
of results which could be analysed and
accurately interpreted. One way to do this
is to group those sites which suffered and
those that benefited and understand the
common denominators of each group.
I have no doubt that this was the reason
Google had already begun making multiple
changes simultaneously making it harder
to isolate the variables and draw solid
conclusions. By the time Penguin was
rolled out, it seemed as if Google had also
involved its press office (I was hearing
about their shiny new algorithm on the
mainstream media).
Since there was now an increasing
number of Big Data-aggregating-forensic-
SEOs, new methods of dispersion and
misdirection were required. Propaganda
was driving an increasing number of
reactionary SEO decisions, which in turn
was messing with the data and making it
even harder still to isolate the variables.
There are two types of SEO:
1. Those who believe rumours, propaganda,
chatter and gossip
2. Those who analyse the data and make
decision based on facts
I had made it a personal policy to stay
away from the forums, and make decisions
based on facts. Penguin, in all its iterations,
appears to be a simple incremental
tightening of the thumb screw formerly
known as May Day (with the addition of
Disavow data), and since there have been
a few iterations, we have to assume it will
continue to tighten.
We can see from Figure 1 that the latest
iteration of this tightening of the threshold
occurred on Jan 24 2014.
Figure 2 shows one of the many domains
impacted on January 24 (casinoaction.com
for the phrase: play casino games).
As you can see, there is a increase in
volatility which indicates some harsh
punishment is being dished out, while
the increased thickness of the cyan band
indicates an abnormally large number
of sites are being punished. Figures 3
and 4 show another site to be affected:
oddschecker.com for the phrases ‘betting
online’ and ‘online betting’.
We have some compelling yet
circumstantial evidence of an algorithm
update on January 24, 2014, however, let’s
look at the simplified anchor profile data,
since we can’t rule this out as part of a wave
Figure 1
Figure 3
Figure 2
Source: http://my.reach.ai
Source: http://my.reach.ai – Oddschecker.com – ‘betting online’
Source: http://my.reach.ai - Casinoaction.com

33
TRAFFIC
of collateral damage introduced by disavow
or even something entirely unrelated.
Firstly, let’s look at how oddschecker.com’s
anchor profile looks in the context of the
rest of the ‘online betting’ SERP.
When performing a quick and simple
spectral analysis for exact match, we see
oddchecker.com on the far right of the scale
(Figure 5). That’s the safe zone. The worst
offender in this instance is Unibet.
However, a quick view of the ‘other’
anchor variants (Figure 6) shows
oddschecker.com to have the least amount
of diversity, which places it in the most
dangerous zone on our spectral chart.
The comparison view in Figure 7 shows
the differential, i.e. where the competition
is relative to oddschecker.com. The
numbers along the x-axis preceding the
domain names are the current ranking
position. While this is quite a crude
example, it gives you an idea of things to
consider when building your link profile.
This article has focussed on anchor text
variation and some of the techniques I have
developed along with a team of incredibly
talented individuals to make interpreting
complex big data as easy as child’s play.
Obviously there are far more complex
scenarios which arise.
FULL DISCLOSURE: my.reach.ai is
a MediaSkunkWorks technology which
represents the beginning of us releasing
our in-house tools to the public. Feel free
to go grab a free account and let us know of
any features you’d like us to implement.
Remember…
●● Don’t believe the hype
●● It’s all in the data
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Source: http://my.reach.ai – Oddschecker.com – “online betting”
EDGE:report – source: http://my.reach.ai - Oddschecker.com – ‘online betting’
EDGE:report – source: http://my.reach.ai - Oddschecker.com – “online betting”
PAuL ReILLY is the founder
of MediaSkunkWorks, an
Innovation Lab based at the
University of York. He specialises
in large scale, business critical link
building for the iGaming industry and
uses big data to avoid the many traps
set by Google. Paul is highly regarded
in the world of forensic SEO and is
the ﬁrst port of call for most of the
world’s largest iGaming brands. paul@
mediaskunkworks.com, or follow me on
http://twitter.com/paulreilly.

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INTERVIEW
To reflect on events of 2013 and look forward to where the industry’s
advancements may develop over the next 12 months, iGB Affiliate spoke
to Eddie Matthews, Affiliate Marketing Manager at bet365.
When reflecting on 2013, what are
the principle events and trends that
have had the most impact on the
affiliate sector of the iGaming industry?
2013 has been a very interesting year
for both the affiliate industry and for
bet365. We’ve witnessed some key
developments across some really
important marketing channels and
such influences have helped to
future-proof both the industry and the
modern day affiliate.
For the affiliate industry, search
engines like Google have grown to become
incredibly influential in recent years,
and 2013 has cemented their place in
any stakeholder’s thought process.
Google has continued to optimise, and
in order to maintain any real chance
of landing traffic success, affiliates in
particular have had to learn and mature
with the ever-evolving requirements set
out. Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird
all spring to mind, and all of these updates
have helped to shape the modern day
affiliate site; focusing on elements such
as content quality, depth, unique text and
link building. bet365 has recognised the
importance of this for all stakeholders
and all Affiliates Managers have received
training in the field so that we continue to
be equipped when guiding our affiliates
on a daily basis, which has certainly helped
both us and our affiliates in 2013.
In the last year, player experience and
convenience has become heightened to a
new level with further developments made
in social media, mobile and the concept of
multi-screening. bet365 now caters for each
type of handset and tablet, with tailored
versions of the site on each device. The
continued uptake in Smartphone betting
has supplied a more trustworthy and
enjoyable experience all round, helping
to boost conversion and retention rates
for our affiliates. With such accessibility,
multi-screening has taken off too, with
users watching the game live or on the
television, whilst checking the latest odds
or promotions from a laptop and at the
very same time, placing a bet via a mobile
device. Along with the constant and
consistent updates secured from social
media usage, affiliates and operators have
an additional and valuable route to market.
As such, the betting experience has never
been so convenient and to some extent,
mobilisation has harnessed industry-wide
development for years to come.
How well has the affiliate industry coped
with the more challenging aspects to have
impacted the sector in the last year, such as
the Google updates you mention?
Most affiliates have coped very well
with Google’s updates, although there
have, of course, been long-term and
detrimental effects for others who found
themselves in the firing line once updates
had been rolled out. These issues have been
challenging to recover from in most cases,
particularly when search engine traffic had
been heavily relied upon.
It’s been a steep learning curve for all
stakeholders involved, but there has been
a great level of acclimatisation in the style
of affiliate site that Google has indirectly
moulded. The updates have been extremely
beneficial to many affiliates on the other
hand, rewarding well-established affiliate
sites that are unique and content-rich. This
won’t be applicable to all affiliates, but the
updates have facilitated greater conversion
rates for affiliates in many cases, with the
prospective player being won over with
unique text that is informative, well written
and personable.
These changes have also secured a
powerful sense of realism amongst affiliates
who now need to cater for the updates set
from such large third-party organisations,
like Google, as affiliates need to safeguard
their traffic sources. Such phenomenal
uptake in Google’s services has developed a
more competitive environment, and these
issues have heightened the importance
BUILDING ON A
YEAR OF SUCCESS
INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW
37iGB Affiliate FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
of retention and conversion rates. Other
channels to market have therefore
become increasingly important for our
affiliates; and as mentioned earlier,
two main developments being
social media and mobile.
Social media has been a great
way of securing retention and word-of-
mouth publicity, helping to boost
player communities where on-going
dialogue can be informally promoted.
Whilst social media usage in this sense
has been developing for years, 2013 has
supplied a growing sense of importance
surrounding mobile optimisation.
Reflecting further back than 2013,
how has the affiliate market changed
over the last five years? It has had to
deal with plenty of operational, regulatory
and technical challenges, but do you
think that iGaming affiliates are now
more astute and mature marketers?
Affiliates have certainly come a very long
way in the last five years. The affiliate
industry in itself is now a much more
challenging environment with a greater
sense of competition. Affiliates need to be
more astute marketers in order to relate
to the end user and provide them with
something that is not only associated
to betting, a particular product or sport,
but is also well presented, trustworthy,
compelling and personable.
In some senses, that’s the simple
part as gaining traffic via natural search
rankings is far from easy and without
paying for PPC campaigns, a niche site
component and strategy are of great
importance. Such industry knowledge
and information takes time to develop, so
it’s no longer a simple case of relying on
standalone banner advertisements, as such
forms of promotion have long since been
discouraged by Google.
In order to compete, affiliates now
need to be well informed in the product
area and the industry, as well as being
technologically savvy and intelligent content
writers. An abundance of dedication and
patience is also desirable, particularly for
newer affiliates who will need to remain
one step ahead in this industry in order
to secure a real chance of success. Over
the last few years, we have seen several
high profile regulatory challenges, Google
updates and technical changes, and it’s a
key reason for affiliates needing to evolve
and diversify in-line with the industry.
Affiliates who are better at evolving will
almost certainly go the distance in the
future, as they’ll be better prepared to deal
with any such challenges.
Where will the major developments
come from in 2014, and how will
affiliates potentially be impacted?
2014 will most likely be about further
development on 2013’s success. Mobile
betting in particular will continue to
improve and the bet365 platform will
become more frequently and commonly
used amongst all players. Affiliates are
therefore likely to push onward with
their efforts to produce mobile reviews,
optimised sites and applications (if they
have not already) in order to bridge the
gap with mounting interest for the
platform’s day-to-day usage. With such
growing demand and expectation,
affiliates who fail to adjust to such
measures may well fall behind with
mobile traffic becoming more difficult
to attract, convert and retain.
Further to that, 2014 is also likely to
see the continued growth in the number
of affiliates of all sizes producing their very
own applications. Due to the sheer volume
of people now browsing the app stores on
a daily basis, this movement could provide
the potential for an even more expansive
marketing channel from the mobile
platform. For affiliates who have large
communities or existing followers sat on
their doorsteps via social media or
other such communicatory spaces,
the uptake potential is made
even greater.
The (football) World Cup is a
fundamental priority for the affiliate
industry in 2014, and this is expected to
have an extremely positive influence over
sportsbetting for the foreseeable future.
Finally, what advice would you
offer an affiliate starting out in
gaming for the first time in 2014?
It’s incredibly important for new
affiliates to firstly plan out a website
that is unique in its offering and provides
the end user with something valuable,
interesting and memorable in terms of
content. Strategies need to be created in
order to outline a selection of partners, a
target market and any preferred products
before creating a website which must
then be continually updated to build on
depth. In order to help retain fans from
all devices and to develop on word-of-mouth
publicity, it would be wise for
new affiliates to incorporate mobile
optimisation and to promote a linking
social media page, or perhaps offer
membership. In terms of affiliation
partners, it’s essential that new starters
think for the future and side with a
program that is proven to deliver real and
long-term success.
All in all, 2013 has defined the
iGaming industry to be a prosperous
and progressive one for all stakeholders
involved. In recent years, there seems to
have been a form of evolution in the
type of affiliate site that bet365 now
more commonly works with, bound by
search engine requirements and new
player motivations. Such influences
have helped to shape the modern day
industry and with some key
developments made, the future looks
innovative and exciting.
“The World Cup is a fundamental priority for the affiliate industry in 2014,
and this is expected to have an extremely positive influence over sportsbetting
for the foreseeable future.”

39
FEATURE
iGB Affiliate FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
FEATURE
THE COMPREHENSIVE
GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014
Leading SEO expert, Dave Naylor, provides an in-depth analysis of the SEO landscape for 2014, and
how affiliates will need to adapt to a whiter-than-white hat strategy.
SEO HAS NEVER been a static skill set.
Instead, the evolution and willingness to
adapt to suit your needs in the best possible
way, has always been the only way to be
able to hold those coveted number one
rankings within organic search. But 2013
was a tough year that saw almost everyone
have to re-evaluate their working practice or
risk being sent into the Internet abyss; the
coldest, darkest part of the Internet that you
could ever imagine.
Being found online has always been the
ultimate aim of search engine optimisation,
working to ensure that your website is
covered with enough stars and sparkles
to attract the search engine rankings
algorithms; to dazzle them with your
fantastic content, authoritative status both
as a website as well as the link profile that
your site has successfully created for itself,
and not to mention the bustling social
avenues that you have wide open, all in
the hope that your website is deemed to be
the most suited to hold the number one
organic ranking for whichever keyword you
are focusing towards.
Admittedly, being found is not as simple
as the fairy dust and glitter that I have
shared with you here, but the objective is
exactly the same: working towards showing
the search engines that your site is the best
possible website to display for that specific
term for that specific user. However, things
are not as clear cut as they have been in
previous years, not by a long stretch of
the imagination.
The fact of the matter is that search
engines are continuously looking to evolve,
enhance and empower their organic results
and the biggest of the select group, Google,
has taken huge steps towards improving
the quality of its user experience after
various updates to algorithm equations and
tolerance of manipulation in the most part.
Google 2013 –
the year of change
Google has never hidden the fact that
it makes changes to its search engine
algorithms, instead, it consistently reminds
us that it makes over 500 changes to its
algorithms every year, working towards
cleaning up the Internet to offer a better
user experience than ever before. Google
entered 2012 with big plans in mind,
and the results sent tremors through the
online community; tremors that continued
throughout 2013.
Knowing that ranking manipulation was
on the increase, the quality of some of
the websites that were holding higher
ranking positions for competitive and
non-competitive keywords were of the
lowest possible quality, and that users were
not getting the best return to their search
engine queries, Google issued its warnings
and headed into the spam warzone.
Determined to gain the upper hand
over the creators of websites that were
simply there to manipulate organic search
engine rankings in exchange for earning
money, Google brought two new updates
to its algorithms, one that would focus
on on-page elements such as duplicate
content, low quality content and black hat
techniques such as content cloaking, while
the other would start its own assault within
the off-page territory, targeting backlink
profiles that were deemed to be overly
optimised towards keywords or that hosted
large quantities of low quality links.
Referred to as Google Panda and Google
Penguin respectively, the sheer prospect
of being found to have violated their
checks sends shivers down the spine of
any website owner. Not happy with two
of the biggest automated changes to its
FEATURE
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THE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVE
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THE COMPREHENSIVE
THE COMPREHENSIVE
GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014
THE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVE
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THE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVE
THE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVE
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THE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVE
THE COMPREHENSIVE
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THE COMPREHENSIVE
THE COMPREHENSIVE
THE COMPREHENSIVE
GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014
THE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVE
GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014
GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014GUIDE TO SEO IN 2014
THE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVETHE COMPREHENSIVE

40
FEATURE
iGB Affiliate FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
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algorithmic metrics in recent times,
Google opted to alter the way in which
the two updates would operate, formerly
running on a periodic basis before
integrating the two updates into its
ranking algorithm, allowing more frequent
detection of infringing websites in its
mission to improve the quality of the search
engine rankings.
Just as website owners were beginning to
alter their working practices to ensure that
their websites were in compliance with the
new Panda and Penguin updates, Google
announced further changes to its search
results, introducing localised search queries
and a new Hummingbird update that was
designed to try to handle spoken language
queries better through the automatic
detection of keyword elements and showing
results based on them.
Was 2013 the death
of black hat SEO?
The lucrative reward of holding a top
position ranking for high value keyword
terms seems to be too much for some
website creators, and that means that they
are still willing to try to manipulate the
Google ranking algorithm at any given
opportunity, regardless of the release of
new rolling anti-spam updates.
Black hat SEO has never been
about complying with Google’s best
code of practice or even sparing a
thought towards the quality guidelines that
the search engine assures users it is looking
to enforce. Instead, the sole aim of black hat
SEO is to manipulate, and in many cases
dominate, within the organic search results
in order to benefit financially in some way
or another.
Over recent years, we have seen
Google displace itself from the fact that its
ranking algorithm operates with a specific
focus towards the backlinks that a website
holds; however, no matter how many videos
or blog posts they release, Google continues
to fail to identify websites that are ranking
in positions through pure manipulation.
Although black hat techniques are still
clearly evident today, Google is making
slow steps towards the elimination of
some of their more historic practices,
such as backlink purchasing, large link
schemes and use of low quality directory
sites in order to increase the number
of referring domains that are linking
into a certain website.
While Google is continuing to use
links as a metric within its ranking
assessment through its algorithm, black
hat SEO will always be just around the
corner and as these schemes and services
are being shut down, another one exactly
the same is being created the following
day, forcing Google to play a costly game
of cat and mouse in which its always
seems to be chasing.
Is SEO still relevant in 2014?
You will have seen hordes of articles,
news stories and blog posts that have been
designed to shock you with headlines
such as ‘SEO is DEAD!’ and others, but
the articles continue to offer compelling
evidence about the demise of search engine
optimisation based on one reason: they
have no evidence.
The reason that there is no evidence
is because search engine optimisation is
becoming a term that is known to be broad
in definition, being applied to various
practices that seem to be compiled under
what people conceive SEO to be.
Regardless of the changes that Google
makes to its search engine algorithms,
the basics of SEO will always be evident
and will always need to be addressed by
anyone that is looking to own a website that
ranks within a position that is designed to
generate traffic and income; after all, search
engine optimisation is about aiding the
search engines to find your site and better
understand the relation of that site to the
search queries they are trying to answer.
Smaller elements of what people believe
to be SEO, such as link building, could be
facing tough times at the moment but that
will continue to be the case, with keyword-
specific links becoming a thing of the past
as natural linkage becomes more proficient,
and generic and branded links become
more evident through the industry, so the
need to adapt and evolve as a website
owner becomes vital.
SEO is changing,
with diversity the key
Amid changes to search engine ranking
algorithms, search engine optimisation is
becoming about more than simply altering
FEATURE

iGB Affiliate Magazine - Issue 43 (March & April 2014)

iGB Affiliate Magazine - Issue 43 (March & April 2014)

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iGB Affiliate Magazine - Issue 43 (March & April 2014)