TRAFFIC
casino sites. The methodology used for
the study was as follows:
• Ten non-branded keywords related
to the UK online casino vertical were
selected, each with a monthly search
volume of at least 1,000.
• For each of these keywords,
the top 20 organic results were
then collected.
• Next the number of times each
domain occurs in these SERPs
was counted.
• Then the technologies used by the
top 17 sites occurring four or more
times in the SERPs were analysed.
(Admittedly this is a very small
number, but focusing on this quantity
gives us a chance to look in-depth at
each site.)
The top sites were checked for the
use of SSL certificates; the presence
of Google Analytics and Google
Tag Manager; page speed; and the
framework or CMS used by the site.
Not all of these technologies directly
impact the rankings of the sites in
question, but they give us a glimpse
into how these sites operate.
For the record, the tools used for
the study were Sistrix for picking the
keywords and collecting the SERPs,
Google PageSpeed Insights for
checking the page speed score and
BuiltWith for collecting the data about
technologies used by the sites.
Key findings
The results led to some interesting
conclusions, which can be summarised
as follows:
1.UK online casino SERPs are heavily
dominated by casino brands (often
belonging to the same owners), with
only a handful of affiliate sites able to
compete successfully (Figure 1).
2. Brand casino sites underperform
greatly in terms of page speed, with
an average page speed score of 21
12
iGB Affiliate Issue 72 DEC 2018 / JAN 2019
Affiliate
Brand
35%
65%
Figure 1: Presence in the SERPs: brand sites vs. affiliate sites
Affiliate
Brand
49
21
Figure 2: Page speed score for brand sites vs. affiliate sites
compared to 49 for affiliate sites
(Figure 2). Neither is perfect but
brand casino sites in this case are
unforgivably slow. Surprisingly, it
doesn’t seem to affect their rankings,
even though page speed is one known
ranking factor.
3. Using SSL certificates seems to be
an industry standard as I didn’t find
a single top ranking site without one.
However, I didn’t check for possible
problems with their implementation
(such as subdomains with incorrectly
set up certificates etc.) so this doesn’t
necessarily mean that there are no
issues with secure connection. This
is something to keep in mind, as
most popular browsers now warn
their users if they are visiting a site
without a secure connection. Not
having an SSL certificate may not stop
a site from ranking, then, but it will
certainly have a negative impact on the
user experience.
4. Google Analytics is popular but not
universal so this definitely puts to rest
the urban legend that if you don’t use,
or stop using, Google Analytics it may
negatively affect your site’s rankings.
Rather, it’s a question of available