TRAFFIC
My favourite way of looking for
opportunities presented via these special
elements at scale is running a site (your own,
or perhaps a better-ranking competitor’s)
through the SERP Snippets tool in SISTRIX
(see Figure 3).
If a SERP does not yet have any special
elements but it looks like some element
would be a fitting addition, make sure
your site’s page ranking in this SERP is
best optimised to be considered a worthy
candidate. If a SERP already has some
element present, see what the site used in
the element is doing and then do it better.
Do they have a list? Have a more complete
and better-structured list, marked up with
schema. Do they have no image on the page
used for a featured snippet? Make sure that
your page does have a relevant image and
that the image is indexable.
Figure 4 is an example of a site making
the most of all available Google features. In
Google UK, in SERPs for “basketball odds”,
not only does oddschecker.com appear above
number 1-ranked operator Paddy Power in
a featured snippet, it also has its own image
appearing in this featured snippet, not letting
anybody else hijack it. Moreover, its organic
number 2 ranking looks more prominent
than top spot because of a rich snippet
with structured data showing upcoming
games and taking the visitors right to the
corresponding pages.
Google has recently announced that it
would increase the length of site descriptions
in the SERPs – and this example illustrates
the benefits this gives some sites as well.
Oddschecker.com has a description spanning
three lines compared with just one line for
Paddy Power. Why? Both sites have their
meta description tags set pretty short. For
Paddy Power, its meta description is exactly
what appears as the site description in this
SERP. For Oddschecker, however, Google
ignores the meta description and pulls up the
descriptive text from the page itself instead.
It can’t do that in Paddy Power’s case simply
because Paddy Power has no other content on
the page except for the table with games and
bets. It may or may not help their conversions,
but it surely does not help them look better in
Google, despite their perfect rankings.
There have been arguments in the SEO
community about whether or not longer
descriptions would mean less traffic from the
SERPs to the sites appearing in the SERPs if
the users get more information from the longer
descriptions. However, not all queries are of a
purely informational nature. Often, the users
need to accomplish a certain action (in this
case, place a bet) or get still more in-depth
Figure 3: The SERP Snippets tool in SISTRIX
Figure 4: Oddschecker appears higher in Google searches for basketball
than the number-one ranked Paddy Power
“If a SERP already has some element present, see what
the site used in the element is doing and then do it better”
information than appears in the description
snippet, in which case of course they are more
likely to click the result that reassures them
that they would get what they need on the site.
Oddschecker successfully embraces this new
Google SERPs reality – and wins. I would not
be too surprised if eventually it outranks even
Paddy Power because of the sum of factors
working in its favour.
Finally, there’s no need to place all your
bets on Google. As an affiliate, you can make
a great deal out of speaking in the first person
to your potential audience on the social
media they use. Not every operator can pull
this off, despite their budgets and dedicated
social media staff. Establish your presence
on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and/or
even Instagram or Snapchat – wherever your
audience is likely to be. It’s true that you have
fewer resources and probably have to handle
all these different channels yourself – but by
sounding more genuine, you’ll earn the trust
of your visitors and get a better understanding
of what appeals to them most.
Most likely, you do not even need to
do a lot of something new or different.
Simply reuse what you do already by better
adjusting it to the medium. An old client
of mine has been producing great content
for their Facebook page – taking the same
content and turning it into videos helped
them to reach a new audience via their
YouTube channel without spending much
extra time or effort on it.
JULIA LOGAN has been
involved in SEO and
online marketing since
2000, working on both her
own affiliate sites and client
projects in different markets
including igaming and binary options.
She has published a series of case
studies on gambling SERPs on her
blog at irishwonder.syndk8.co.uk.
Julia is an SEO consultant at
irishwonder.com. Her specialties
include on-site/technical SEO and
SEO security audits, link profile
audits, online reputation management,
negative SEO investigations and
private network consulting.
iGB Affiliate Issue 66 DEC 2017/JAN 2018
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