As a busy iGaming professional, you may wonder if it's worth the time and investment to maintain a blog on your sportsbook – or what the value would be in introducing a blog to your team’s already busy workload.
At Digital Fuel Marketing, we are advocates for blogs on sportsbooks (and casinos for that matter) and we have seen the investment pay off for clients multiple times. If you want to increase the visibility and credibility of your sportsbook to potential and existing punters, regularly posting quality content on your website that is interesting and useful to them is a great way to do this.
Our content team manages the content strategy and blogs for a number of iGaming brands, they’ve put together the top reasons why you should consider investing in a blog for your sportsbook.
4 reasons why your sportsbook should have a blog:
1. A blog provides regular, fresh content for your sportsbook
Blogging is valuable for websites for many reasons. Chief among them is the regular addition of fresh content. When most people think of optimising their website for search, they think of the technical aspects such as enhancing metadata and URLs. However, rich and relevant content is crucial to improved SEO. Google and other search engines love to see new content added regularly as it keeps your site fresh and encourages visitors to return regularly.
2. Blogs enable your sportsbook to target long tail keywords
Blogging also gives you a far greater breadth of opportunity to attract traffic from topics and keywords you wouldn't otherwise be able to target. For example, if your sportsbook offers little more than odds on upcoming fixtures then nobody would ever find your site if they were seeking longer tail keywords. Longer tail keywords are key to growing organic search traffic, as they make up over 70% of all searches. Whilst a list of horses running in the Gold Cup may address the query Latest Gold Cup Odds, it is unlikely to be found by anyone seeking to better understand the merits of the confirmed runners or anybody interested in form guides, historical trends and owner/trainer/jockey stats. A series of blog posts covering historical Gold Cup trends, an overview of all jockeys’ previous statistics and a review of the historical trends leading up to this year’s race would.
To give you a real-life example, we employed this strategy for one of our clients recently. Ahead of the Cheltenham Festival, through detailed keyword research, we identified that Chelenham Day 1 Tips, Cheltenham Day 2 Tips etc. were well searched terms that our client had a realistic chance of achieving competitive search visibility for. Digital Fuel Marketing created a number of well-researched posts that were published on our client’s sportsbook. These articles did their job, and the client now has visibility across all of the associated search terms. This has put them in a great position to gain new customers for future Cheltenham Festivals.
3. Increased customer retention and brand loyalty
A blog gives users a reason to come back to your site again and again if you provide content they want to read. Odds might tell you part of the story, but they don't give you the full picture. Additionally, your blog can act as a tool to educate because there will always be beginners unsure of much of the terminology and actual processes involved in placing bets. From reverse forecasts to each way yankees, a novice in the world of punting can find it overwhelming. More seasoned bettors aren't going to be put off just because you're also targeting less experienced users who may be keen to learn more. In the hyper-competitive sportsbook market where customers can often be enticed by free-bets and other promotional offers, relevant and interesting content that your customers enjoy helps to build brand loyalty.
4. Sportsbook blogs increase organic link opportunities
Finally, your blog gives you a great opportunity to earn links organically. And in the world of SEO, links are everything. The better and more original your content, the greater the likelihood that it will be referenced elsewhere online. If you're seen as a valuable source in the eyes of other blogs and news sites, you'll soon be considered the same by Google et al. Improved SEO equals more and higher page rankings, which in turn leads to more organic acquisitions – increasing the volume of customers you are attracting.
The above reasons for why your sportsbook should have a blog also apply to casinos and any other iGaming sector website – and we have seen great success when we have assisted online casinos with a strategic approach to their blogging. When done correctly, a blog can humanise your brand - enhancing customer perception and loyalty, increase SEO performance and organic acquisition and provide a multitude of social media content that links back to your website.
At Digital Fuel Marketing, we have an in-house content and SEO team that are on hand to help with blog setup, strategy and ongoing content delivery. We can also audit existing blogs and support with reviewing and updating content as well as providing technical onsite and offsite SEO activity. If you would like support to start or reinvigorate your website’s blog, please get in touch with us at Digital Fuel Marketing.