TRAFFIC
VOICE SEARCH:
THE NEW FRONTIER
OF IGAMING SEO
Voice search is a massive opportunity, especially for challenger brands and affiliates with ambitions to take
on the major operators in search engine rankings, writes Blueclaw’s marketing director, Martin Calvert.
ACCORDING TO AMAZON, Echo devices
are being sold at a rate of “thousands per
minute”, with Google, Microsoft, Apple
and more all getting in on the action to
make voice search a part of our daily lives.
In the home or on mobile, voice search
has become the norm for millions of us –
and that includes betting customers.
Mobile searches already outnumber
desktop and tablet searches, and by 2020,
20% of mobile searches will be voice
searches, according to Comscore.
That’s a lot of searches. igaming
companies need to act now to take
advantage of how voice and mobile
search differs.
The new frontier of search
We all know that people search differently
across different channels. At a keyboard,
we’re accustomed to typing in just a few
keywords like ‘racing tips Ascot’ or
‘betting odds Chelsea’, trusting that search
engines will understand what we’re after.
With voice search, be it on a
freestanding device such as Amazon Echo
or Google Home, or a mobile/tablet
voice assistant like Siri or Cortana, we’re
happy to give the search engine more to
work with.
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iGB Affiliate Issue 64 AUG/SEP 2017
Using full sentences and, more
specifically, asking full questions such as
‘what is the weather forecast?’ or ‘who
is the favourite for the Grand National?’
comes naturally to us when speaking, and
often results in follow-up questions, e.g.
‘what will the temperature be?’ or ‘what are
the odds that the favourite will win?’, and
all this affects how we must think of SEO.
As much of a headache as this may be
for SEO analysts and betting and gaming
marketers who had become comfortable in
their strategies, it’s also a big opportunity
to dominate what is still an under-
optimised channel.
voice search, so having ample website content
in questions, and answer format is key.
This content must reflect the
conversational approach used by customers
with no ambiguity about the answer – quote
back the question in the answer if need be.
The rise of voice search gives new life
(and value) to FAQ pages.
Grouping together common questions –
for example, around a particular sporting
event or type of game (e.g. ‘how to play
online poker’- type queries) – to anticipate
follow-up questions is a great approach that
helps voice searchers, but also people who
are already on your site.
“This content must reflect the conversational approach
used by customers with no ambiguity about the answer –
quote back the question in the answer if need be”
The new frontier of search
At Blueclaw we’ve settled on two key areas
that we consider to be fundamental to
optimising for voice search in gaming.
1. Answer customer questions – and their
follow-up questions
Question-based searches are the norm in
An additional benefit to increasing this
type of content is that it makes betting
more approachable to audiences who might
never have placed a bet or played a game
and not know how to get started.
If first time depositors are a priority for
your gaming brand (as they should be) this
is very significant.