GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 48 - December 2020

The primary challenge the iGaming industry faces is public perception, in that many press outlets view gambling as immoral and are reluctant to condone it via links. That’s why it’s important to ensure the content you’re creating is informative, unique, and engaging—and is targeted towards the user rather than the search engine. That means avoiding keyword stuffing, poor structure and form, or irrelevant themes for the sake of churning out content. The other challenge iGaming brands face is fierce competition, as both sports and games are densely populated markets that are ontent marketing is the practice of creat- ing valuable, authoritative and relevant content to attract your target audience, improve brand awareness and increase engagement. It’s also a strategy regularly utilized by the world’s biggest brands to help get them — and keep them — ahead of the curve, particularly those who operate in highly competitive sectors like eCommerce, Tech, and iGaming. Although digital marketing faces unique challenges in the iGa- ming industry due to compliance concerns, regional restrictions and media perception, it’s critical that online casinos and sports- books invest in a solid content strategy to help get their brand in front of the right audience. Here’s how to make the most of your content marketing efforts: THE CHALLENGES AROUND MARKETING IN THE IGAMING SECTOR Many in the iGaming industry perceive link building to be incredibly difficult and instead, opt to pay for links. However, it’s important to remember that not only is paying for links unnecessary, it also harms the authority of your site. If you often pay for coverage rather than building it organically, you’ll be getting very low-quality links from sites that award them to multiple irrelevant sources for an inflated price. What’s more, THE ART OF LINK BUILDING AND CONTENT MARKETING if your brand is caught racking up a large volume of black hat coverage, you risk being penalized by Google and losing the rankings you would earn through paid links in the first place. Building coverage organically through content campaigns— ideally as part of a wider SEO strategy— is a great way to ensure your rank- ings increase due to authority passing from reputable and authori- tative publications that your audience actually respect. Although, the truth remains that it can be difficult convincing high-quality media outlets to link to iGaming brands, it’s certainly not impossible. It’s important to remember that not only is paying for links unnecessary , it also harms the authority of your site . If you often pay for coverage rather than building it organically , you’ll be getting very low-quality links from sites that award them to multiple irrelevant sources for an inflated price . G P W A t i m e s . o r g 40