For those considering starting a casino, sportsbook, or other iGaming platform, we have detailed below a list of basic requirements for these types of sites in relation to SEO. We normally send a document regarding this to any existing clients looking to change platforms or new operators looking to enter the industry.
Some iGaming platforms lack basic SEO functionality that is considered standard in other industries, such as e-commerce. This can be a problem for businesses that want to rank well in search results. In addition, changes to iGaming platforms can be time-consuming and expensive, so knowing what the platform can do is important before you start your business.
Hopefully, the below will help you decide which iGaming platform is right for you. iGaming SEO is tricky enough without you being on the back foot with one of the most effective channels for traffic.
Overview
Below is an overview of the functionality required to deliver an SEO campaign successfully.
Title Tags
Ability to change title tags to make them unique on every page. It would include the homepage, categories, sub-categories, game pages, event pages, custom pages, blog posts etc.
Meta Descriptions
Ability to update the page meta descriptions to make them unique for every page, including the homepage, categories, sub-categories, game pages, event pages, custom pages, blog posts etc.
Heading Tags
Ability to update page heading tags (H1 – H6) to make them unique for every page. It would include the homepage, categories, sub-categories, game pages, event pages, custom pages, blog posts etc.
Page Content
Page content will strengthen the page with search engines, providing additional targeted information for the user. Depending on the landing page type, we typically add up to 1000 words of content to a page. The ability to add content to pages is required. It can be positioned at the bottom of the page, and the search engines must be able to read and index content.
Anchor Text
The ability to add anchor text links to other internal pages on the website is required within the page content.
Static Landing Pages
Static landing pages on unique URLs for categories, sub-categories, game pages, custom pages, and blogs are required.
Some websites are created as single-page web apps or utilise Javascript frameworks. In such instances, server-side rendering (pre-render) must be employed so search engine crawlers can access html versions of pages.
Game Play Pages
Game pages are sometimes contained within iFrames (or similar) and can be difficult for search engines to cache and index. There would be a requirement for static pages where the URLs do not change so that they can be optimised and ranked organically.
URL Structure
The URL of each page throughout the site needs to be logical and descriptive. E.g. mycasino.com/table-games/lightning-roulette.
Images
The ability to add alt image attributes (descriptive text of the image) with each image.
Structural and Navigation Suggestions
If changes need to be made to the structure and navigation during the SEO process, it is important to have the flexibility to reorganise the navigation structure is useful.
Canonicalisation
Multiple versions of a web page or the same piece of content available on different URLs can present issues for search engines and result in ranking suppression.
Search engines need to ascertain which version of the content is the most appropriate to show to users. This issue also means that crawl resources may be used unnecessarily to crawl the same content multiple times, potentially resulting in indexing issues. Understanding if this can and does happen would be useful so that a solution can be implemented.
XML Sitemap
Sitemaps are crucial to ensuring that search engines traverse a website correctly. Sitemaps should be dynamically generated and updated when adding or deleting games and pages.
Page Speed, Desktop & Mobile
User experience is important, and a good page speed is essential. The site must load quickly and provide a good mobile and desktop experience.
Error and Redirect Handling
Control of redirects is important, particularly if content and structure are changing. The ability to apply 301 and 302 redirects is crucial. Understanding how 404 pages are set up and ensuring they are correctly configured is important.
Hreflang Tags
Often, websites target different territories to ensure that content language is targeting the correct region—the ability to add language tags is required for targeting multiple geos.
Blog Area
Blogs are important for several reasons in casinos and sportsbooks. The ability to add content or custom pages is required. This content would be relevant and designed to strengthen the site overall, promote and strengthen internal pages and attract clicks from long-tail keywords.
Pagination
Pagination tags enable us to describe the relationship between URLs in a paginated series to search engines, reduce the impact of duplicate content, and encourage the first page in the series to be returned within search results.
Goal Tracking, Google Analytics and Search Console
Tracking and monitoring are essential. Using Google Tag Manager, you can track traffic and monitor your site. At the most basic level, you can also set up tracking for important events such as registrations, FTDs, form failures, Ongoing deposits etc.
For SEO, you’d also require GA4 and Google Search Console. GA4 will allow you to understand the performance of each channel and decide on the strategy and where to allocate budgets.
Google Search Console will provide vital information about the site’s organic performance. And provide insight into which search queries perform well.
