How to Build Gambling Backlinks That Boost Your Rankings and Revenue?

By Markas Suika Updated on March 14, 2024

Does Google Still Care About Backlinks?

Building quality backlinks still pays off, although Google doesn’t put as much importance on backlinks as it did in the past. Content quality and relevance have become more crucial in search engine results, especially with the launch of Google’s Helpful Content update in 2022.

That’s not to say backlinks don’t matter — they’re still crucial, especially in gambling, casino, and sports betting marketing. There’s even a case study that proves how backlinks helped them post rank at the topmost position for the keyword “SEO stats.”

However, some misconceptions might harm your casino link-building strategy. When collecting casino links for your site, make sure that you implement these principles instead:

• Pay attention to quality over quantity
• Prioritize writing helpful content instead of just buying links
• Focus on building a casino link from relevant sites
• Stay active and continue to roll out quality content

Remember, it’s more beneficial for casino websites to gain valuable backlinks through natural content and relationships.

Why Backlink Quality Is Key in 2024?

It’s crucial for an online gambling site not to look spammy, especially from the perspective of search engines. In terms of link building, low-quality, irrelevant casino backlinks greatly contribute to your website’s spam score.

The mass link-building scheme is over. The newly released March 2024 Google core update implements new spam policies, scrutinizes low-quality backlinks and deemphasizes their value in search results.

In 2024, the quality of your gambling and casino links is more important than ever. Here are the indicators that Google uses to assess backlink quality:

• Domain Authority (DA)
• Organic traffic
• Brand reputation
• Content quality
• Link placement
• Anchor text
• Linking the site’s audience

Relevance to your online casino website is crucial, from the linking site to the content and anchor text. You can target relevant niches like sports betting, gaming, lifestyle, finance, and technology.

Different Types of Gambling Backlinks Explained

Diversifying your gambling backlinks is not synonymous with exploring different niches. Instead, backlink diversity refers to the categorical types of backlinks you get from relevant sites.

Backlink diversity can help avoid raising red flags in gambling link-building efforts and expand your reach and visibility. This is a big help in your casino link-building strategy, especially if you naturally receive backlinks from high-authority websites.

Here are the different types of gambling and casino backlinks that you should be aiming for:

• Editorial backlinks: These are the best backlinks to aim for, particularly when a website owner naturally uses your content as a valuable reference for their blog or article.
• Guest post backlinks: You’re tasked to write helpful content for a high-authority site in your niche while placing a link back to your casino or gambling site.
• Directory backlinks: A link to your casino site is included in an online gambling directory that lists gambling and casino companies.
• Forum and community backlinks: When referencing a forum topic, you and other users should include a link to your online gambling website.

Editorial backlinks are the gold standard for link-building strategies, with guest posts coming in second for their targeted organic traffic. Directory backlinks are a great source, although these might not move the needle if the online directory is not reputable. Finally, be careful when placing promotional links on forums, as this can come off as spammy.

As we always say here, crafting quality and informative content will go a long way in naturally earning high-quality links from other relevant sites.

How to Find Gambling Backlink Opportunities

Exploring backlink opportunities in the online gambling industry requires a targeted approach, starting with a backlink audit of your site.

Conduct a backlink audit

Gambling websites conduct backlink audits to analyze the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to their site. Search engine results favor relevant and high-quality backlinks, two important aspects a backlink audit can help you assess.

Depending on the age and size of your gambling site, it’s recommended that you conduct a backlink audit quarterly or biannually. Here’s an effective routine you can follow to do these regular audits:

• Gather enterprise-level SEO tools that specialize in link-building analysis, such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Majestic, or Moz
• Connect your site to the SEO tool and run a report on backlink volume and source
• Remove or disavow backlinks from sites with low domain ratings and high spam scores
• Optimize anchor texts to add more relevance
• Identify broken links and contact website owners

Moreover, a link-building strategy in the casino niche requires you to comply with gambling regulations in your target markets. We recommend following reliable sources in online casinos to stay updated on new rules in the industry.

Identify high-authority websites

Collecting a backlink is like getting a vote of trust from other casinos and gambling sites. That is if the backlink comes from high-authority sites relevant to the casino industry.

So, the big question now lies in how to identify high-authority websites. These particular indicators will tell you if you should collect backlinks from certain gambling websites:

• Domain authority and rating
• Organic traffic
• Content depth and expertise
• User engagement metrics such as social media shares and user reviews
• Backlink profile
• Industry awards and recognition
• Website age and stability

You can assess the indicators above through backlink analysis tools like Ahrefs, Majestic, and Moz. Majestic offers a free backlink checker, while other tools provide free trials and demos.

Remember, not all backlink opportunities are for the better, especially in the online casino niche, where trustworthiness is of utmost priority. Protect your brand and invest only in high-quality backlinks.

Analyze competitors’ backlink profiles

Analyzing your competitors’ backlink profiles is more than just about your link-building campaign.

Looking closely into your competitors’ link-building tactics also helps you analyze their content strategy. What relevant topics are your competitors mostly getting backlinks for? Which buyer persona are your competitors targeting when they write blogs and guides?

Monitoring these backlink profiles can be a goldmine for SEO insights. After identifying who your competitors are, here are the next steps you should take:

• Leverage backlink checker tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz Link Explorer
• Identify their top-referred pages and high-quality links
• Use the backlink tool to analyze your backlink profile
• Compare your backlink profiles and pinpoint link gaps

A competitive analysis presents a holistic method of staying ahead of the curve when conducting a link-building campaign. Identifying link gaps and replicating top-performing content will help improve your website’s search engine rankings.

How to Create Gambling Backlink Content That Converts

Focus on writing helpful content and see your gambling backlinks attract conversions and boost your search engine rankings.

Focus on content quality

Link building is tricky because you don’t want your audience to see that you’re creating content just to boost conversions.

You can’t be too salesy or aggressive with your casino backlinks. For a gambling site to succeed in this strategy, it has to craft content that provides value to the readers.

Content quality should be a cornerstone of any casino link-building campaign. If you want a high-quality backlink from reputable online casinos, make sure that your content ticks all the boxes of these indicators:

• Address the current interests and pain points of your target gambler persona
• Offer unique insights and data-driven analysis
• Cover as many relevant aspects and potential questions about your topic
• Guarantee factual accuracy of statistics and descriptions
• Optimize for readability and visual appeal
• Check the mobile-friendliness feature of your content

To make your life easier, there are content tools that you can use, as we’ll discuss in the following section.

Use industry-tested tools

Get ahead of the game by utilizing industry-tested tools for your content writing process.

Digital tools and apps will help you optimize your keyword research or improve the readability of your writing. For your reference, we made a list of these content writing tools and the areas they specialize in.

• Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, Buzzsumo: tools for finding relevant keywords and content
• Grammarly: a tool for checking grammar errors and spelling mistakes
• Hemingway Editor: tool for improving readability and syntax
• Copyscape: a tool for detecting plagiarism
• ProWritingAid: a tool that offers writing style suggestions and word choices
• Yoast SEO: WordPress plugin for optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and keyword use

Online casino sites that use these writing tools have higher chances of boosting search engine rankings. These tools will help you naturally earn casino backlinks and get you in the good graces of search engines.

Focus on conversion tactics

According to Statista, link building is one of the most important focus areas in SEO, and it is higher in the hierarchy than content production, paid links, and social media.

One of the reasons why website owners invest in backlink strategy is the potential conversions it brings. Compared to sign-up or sale actions, your casino backlinks are not direct sources of conversions. But if your gambling links are placed in the right context, these could get you one step closer to a conversion.

To persuade your audience to take action in your gambling links, take note of these proven conversion tactics:

• Using emotional triggers like Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), positive testimonials, and user reviews
• Highlight social proof like relevant statistics, case studies, and social media shares
• Leverage urgency measures like limited-time incentives, promos, and exclusive updates

These conversion tactics will benefit your casino link-building campaign greatly, although be careful not to be too aggressive or promotional in your approach.

How to Outreach for Online Gambling Sites?

Building long-term partnerships through outreach is essential to your casino link-building campaign.

Role of personalization

When reaching out to another casino website, you need to answer only one question: How much value can you offer them?

Even if these websites are in the same casino niche, each caters to different target audiences and games. Personalizing your outreach to each gambling site makes much sense, as you must make your content relevant.

Try following these steps to make your outreach messaging more dynamic and personalized:

• Do a thorough research on your potential partner site and identify their audience engagement and content themes
• Mention one of their articles or content in your outreach email or message
• Personalize your communication style and tone based on the nature of the partner site
• Propose an ongoing collaboration to show a more genuine interest

Establishing long-term partnerships through personalization should be central to your casino link-building playbook.

Try different channels

With so many digital communication platforms today, you can launch your outreach and casino link-building campaign through multiple channels. This will increase your chances of getting a response, building rapport, and closing a deal.

While emails are still the gold standard for professional backlink outreach, some casino brands might be more present on other channels. For instance, a certain gambling website could have built a large base on social media, which means that they might be more responsive on this platform.

You could also look into forums and communities, email, and social media. There are casino sites that have a wide following on these forums, and you can also research the personas of their audience.

Most importantly, be genuine in your messages, and never use over-aggressive tones or words.

Establish relationships with key players in the industry

The gambling industry is filled with many moving parts, including key figures who greatly impact the market.

You can’t be a hermit when you’re doing casino link-building strategies. Even the biggest online casinos like BetMGM and DraftKings have partners all over the industry, which emphasizes the value of building mutual relationships within your niche.

These partners could be other websites or gambling companies, or they might be social media influencers and bloggers. Just make sure that they are credible and trustworthy so as not to negatively affect your own brand.

Guest Posting 101: How to Do It in the Gambling Industry

Naturally, getting backlinks from other websites gives you the best chance to boost your search engine rankings. However, it might be challenging to come by, particularly if you compare it to guest posting.

Other websites consider guest posts a more viable partnership, as you provide them with free, relevant content in exchange for a backlink. Guest posts are nothing short of a very effective casino link-building tactic.

When proposing a guest post to external websites, the secret lies in the value you’re providing. Here are steps you can follow in writing a valuable guest post that will earn you high-quality backlink opportunities:

• Identify casino websites that have higher DA and niche relevance
• Write a personalized email and be patient in getting a response
• Pitch a specific article that shows your expertise in current industry trends
• Use content tools like Answer The Public and Google Trends to come up with relevant keywords

Most importantly, comply with all guest post regulations and guidelines to avoid penalties in search engine results.

Leveraging Social Media for Organic Backlinks

Organic gambling backlinks happen when website owners link to your content as a credible source of information. These are high-quality backlink opportunities that can have a big impact on your search engine ranking.

One way to earn this type of gambling link is through social media. Leveraging your social media influence is a great opportunity to earn quality backlinks, especially if you consistently engage with your audience.

Here are several strategies that will help you in acquiring links through social media:

• Create shareable, valuable, and high-quality content
• Connect with influencers in the gambling niche
• Identify relevant hashtags and trends in the online community
• Encourage people to participate in contests and giveaways
• Respond promptly to comments and feedback
• When you focus on the quality of your social media content, getting quality links will come naturally.

How to Track and Measure Gambling Backlink Performance?

When you collect backlinks from relevant pages, you want to see how these links are impacting your gambling site’s search engine optimization strategy. This will help you identify quality casino backlinks and spot potential issues.

There are key indicators in measuring the performance of your gambling link-building campaign, as you can see directly below:

• Organic traffic increases in search engines
• Direct referral traffic
• Ranking improvement in search engine results pages
• Domain rating and domain authority of referring sites

You can use tracking and analytics tools to measure your backlink performance to make this more efficient. There are free tools like the Google Search Console and paid tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz Link Explorer.

Caution: Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Black Hat Techniques

A backlink strategy may take time to produce results, and some webmasters get impatient. After all, you’re doing all these resource page link-building efforts and not gaining anything for your hard work.

Several gambling sites fall into black hat techniques to fast-track their link-building campaign. This may lead to improved search engine rankings, but it’s always for a temporary period only. These black hat techniques come in the form of the following:

• Investing in paid links from link brokers
• Manipulating your referral traffic through Private Blog Networks (PBNs)
• Leaving spammy links on forums and online communities
• Hacking websites to place external links

You can look at Google’s guidelines and ethical standards for building a safe resource page link. In addition, you can tap into the casino link-building services of reliable digital marketing agencies like Fortis Media.

Gambling Backlinks: Key Takeaways

A link-building strategy is the way to go for gambling sites that need a boost in search engines. Successful online gambling companies make efforts to write high-quality content and guest posting on websites with high domain rating

You’d also want to know that these prominent gambling websites collaborate with external link-building services. For instance, a full-suite digital marketing agency can help you acquire quality backlinks while optimizing other aspects of your SEO campaign.