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Footprints in the Market | Influencing iGaming Episode 3: Martin Calvert

footprints in the market

On this week’s episode of Footprints in the Market | Influencing iGaming, we are absolutely thrilled to welcome Martin Calvert, Marketing Director at ICS-digital. Martin sat down for a chat with Digital Footprints Managing Director Sharon McFarlane and the two touched on various topics in this wide-ranging discussion.

The Impact of Google Updates on SEO

Google’s Core Updates can strike fear into the heart of any marketeer. The way in which the Google algorithm works is the subject of endless debate, and updates to the system can have far-reaching implications for SEO and search engine ranking performance.

First, Martin spoke about the Core Update that rolled out back in March of this year. Despite Google maintaining that the quality of individual website pages is more important than a site as a whole, March’s update seemed to assign a higher value to websites rather than pages, making it difficult for operators to improve their site’s ranking health even through the creation of effective SEO content.

However, a more recent update rolled out in August appears to have addressed some of these issues, and platforms that suffered as a result of March’s update are beginning to show signs of recovery.  

Link Building Strategies

Link building has long been a fundamental cornerstone of digital marketing, but does it still hold the same relevance today? Given the technological advances and continued algorithm development we’ve seen, has link building become something of an outdated practice?

Martin gave his thoughts:

I think links are still intrinsic to rankings, certainly to site discovery, indexation and all these things that are really important. In terms of setting a strategy, we would do it based on what it feels like is needed to compete. So, just like everybody else, we can look at different tools, the level of competition, the topicality of links and the strength of links using third-party metrics.”

At Digital Footprints, we understand the importance link building still holds and, crucially, how to approach link acquisition in an effective, efficient way that adheres to the ever-changing requirements and idiosyncrasies of today’s algorithms.

SEO Monitoring Tools

SEO monitoring is an involved process that calls for the use of advanced tools and technology. For some marketeers, the tools they use are closely guarded secrets, but Martin was kind enough to disclose some of the software platforms he uses to monitor and analyse campaign performance.

SEMrush, Ahrefs and Majestic were the three Martin named. However, he stressed the importance of avoiding overreliance on these tools and highlighted the importance of actually taking a look at a website for yourself and imagining how it might be perceived by a potential customer. There are certain things that automated software can’t pick up, so it’s vital that marketeers take a step back from these tools once in a while and judge things with their own eyes.

Martin and Sharon also discussed:

Emerging Markets and Trends in iGaming (jump to 05.27)

The Challenges of Multilingual SEO (jump to 11.00)

The Role of AI in Content Creation (jump to 16.45)

A huge thanks to Martin for sharing these insights, and thanks to all who tuned in. Watch this space for episode 4!

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