Skip to main content
matteo

SEO in Gaming: Key Success Factors – Matteo Monari, BizUp SRL

So why is SEO so bloody damn important?

Lets look at the traffic stats:
 

  • "Online games" get 2 200 000 monthly searches
  • "Free games" -1 800 000 
  • "PC games" - 450 000
  • "Online casino games" - 200 000
     

.... and there is room for pretty much everybody.
 

2012 holidays resulted in 35% total searches from mobile devices

Should you succeed with your SEO strategy, you better be ready to welcome your players or competitors. Be ready to fight off clones and affiliates that may start stealing your users. 
 

Technical details

Search engines crawl the web and generally want to index the website of your game. For this you need to make sure that the site is in the right language and generally follow the ordinary SEO step-by-step guidelines.

Your site`s technical structure needs to facilitate such crawling and make sure search engines can easily reach all pages of your site.

Search engines classify websites and pages based on their content and that content is used to determine if your site is relevant to the search phrases or not.

After the engines have crawled your site and accessed the content, they will start ranking your site. This is the time for the search engine to stop and think why you are the best in your business and why your site is more relevant than others. Links to your page demonstrate both trust and quality.
 

Make sure your site

  • can be correctly and easily crawled
  • is perceived as a trusted source of information
  • is perceived as the best possible answer to relevant searches
     

9 most important tech checks

  1. Do not force content that is based on the IP location or browser
  2. Make URLs as talkative as possible
  3. Avoid Flash, frames, iframes and Javascript
  4. Avoid drop-downs, filters and search boxes on key areas and navigation
  5. Avoid text in the form of images and flash
  6. Check the possibility to customize title and meta tags 
  7. Check the possbility to add custom text areas to all key pages
  8. Do not protect key login areas of the site
  9. Do prevent the abuse of UGC areas
     

10 most important content checks

  1. Do extensive reseaerch on the keywords used by your potential players
  2. Make sure each topic has a clear page and each page a clear topic
  3. Do not mix different languages on the same page
  4. Make sure that each page contains at least some unique text
  5. Use the relevant keywords for each page on the HTML title...
  6. ...Meta description...
  7. ...Header...
  8. ...Text
  9. Make sure you copy is persuasive!
  10. Make good use of videos: Google loves them!
     

10 charecteristics of a good link

  1. It is not an affiliate link
  2. It is on a relevant on topic site..
  3. On a highly trusted site
  4. On a site ranking for relevant keywords
  5. On a relevant page
  6. Within the main area of the page
  7. Points towards the most relevant page of your site
  8. Anchor text is related to the topic, but is not artificial
  9. Good not only for SEO, but also for traffic
  10. Spontaneous!
     

Main gaming SEO assets

Typical gaming sites feature a global appeal and a easily scalable model. They have a wide user base and are very active on the web. Viral game mechanics and a sexy topic will almost always lead to a high level of link virality.
 

8 internationalization tips

  1. Think of each local version as a new site
  2. Clearly seperate the languages in yur URL
  3. If you`re not commiting 100% then just use the /it/ solution
  4. Keep the architecture seperated
  5. Keep the layout flexible
  6. Do not translate keywords, translate ideas
  7. Do not be cheap: use high-quality translators
  8. Do not translate, LOCALIZE: currency, measures and payment systems
     

Give them something newsworthy!

  • Beta-test codes for bloggers (ask them for a review!)
  • You own exclusive videos for online magazines, release trailers and previews via your own embeddable player
  • Infographics based on game date for online magazines and fan sites
     

5 key takeaways from the presentation

  1. Do your research
  2. Make sure there are no tech barriers 
  3. Make sure your content is good and search engine friendly
  4. Get your internalization right
  5. Work on turning your players into volunteer linkers
     

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.