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How iGaming Affiliates Can Mitigate Google’s Core August Update

It’s official, Google’s core August update is here.  This follows on from the March 2024 update as they continue their mission to ensure that they are serving users quality search results that are in-line with their search intent.  

They will be prioritising websites that are working hard to provide the user with valuable content, and deprioritising those who are acting purely on crafting content for search and attempting to manipulate search engines. What does this mean for affiliates and how can they make the best of the opportunities presented by the latest update by Google?

What is Google’s Core August Update?

This latest update is all part of the ongoing process to refine, and fine-tune the algorithm to reward those who are putting the work in!  There are some key takeaways that affiliates should consider from they update:

  • As always, content is king when it comes to Google. As per previous efforts in terms of updates, they want to give prominence to authorities on the niches they are creating content on. 
  • Google is keen to reward smaller and independent creators and give them the visibility they deserve.  They are incredibly important within the digital ecosystem which Google recognises. This gives smaller affiliates the chance not to be drowned out by the big players in the industry.  
  • There is also a focus on rewarding publishers and creators who are proactively making improvements to their site.  This is good news for affiliates who have been focusing on the overall user experience.

As an affiliate, it’s important you understand that SEO is progressing, and it’s no longer acceptable to simply keyword stuff your content and expect to be rewarded by search.  

What Action Can Affiliates Take?

SEO is often a huge traffic driver for affiliates, and where they get a lot of their players.  As such, it’s critical that there is a significant amount of time and effort put into your SEO strategies to truly achieve the results you need to make your mark in this space. Here are some key elements to consider if you are working on your SEO:

Make the Quality of your Content is Priority

Content needs to be the focus of your website.  Within the iGaming space, there can be a tendency to rely on repurposing site reviews that are provided by the operator – but there needs to be more authenticity than that.  Users (and search engines) – are sophisticated enough to tell whether or not this is a real-life experience of a brand, or not.  Your content needs to offer insight that’s original to you and your site.  Make sure it’s unique, human written and in-depth enough to provide value.

Don’t Forget about the User Experience

The general rule when it comes to building websites is never to make the user think.  They should be able to land on your site, and know instinctively where to go.  There should be clear signposts, it should be intuitive and you should always be looking to improve.  Look at your insights and analytics regularly and potentially invest in heat mapping software where you can mimic the entire user-journey and find bottlenecks within the site where the user might get lost in it. 

Although these actions may be reactive due to the core update, it’s important to recognise that as an affiliate they are things that you should be doing anyway. 

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