This is a retrospective of the 2018 world cup from the view of SEO. We analyse 5 top sportsbooks and look at what they do regarding their technical seo, landing pages, content marketing, link building strategies and PR in order to optimise for the world cup. What you'll learn: 1. What the biggest operators do to maximise their SEO during the biggest sporting event in the world 2. What methods worked best

1. WORLD CUP
2018
SEARCH TRAFFIC
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Alexandra Tachalova

4. Saint-Petersburg, Russia

6. FiFA World Cup 2018,
after Nigeria vs. Argentina match

7. Nigeria vs. Argentina match
Nigeria Argentina
1 2

8. In SEO you never know
when Google starts
singing “it’s not coming
home”
#seocup

9. WORLD CUP SEARCH
TRAFFIC CHAMPIONSHIP
AMONG THE SPORTS
BETTING SITES IN THE UK
WINNERS AND
LOSERS

10. What I’ll share today:
World Cup traffic champions in the UK (getting
the most search traffic and visibility in Google)
across:
 Top 5 sports betting sites
 Sports betting niche
SEO strategies that the top performing sites
had been using to reach outstanding results

11. ONLINE SPORTS
BETTING INDUSTRY
IN THE UK

12. Sports Betting Niche Traffic Share

13. Mobile vs Desktop Traffic

14. Share of respondents interested in online
gambling in the UK, by type of activity

15. EACH 4TH
ONLINE
GAMBLER PUT
A BET ON THE
WORLD CUP

16. Top 5 Sports Betting Sites:
WORLD CUP TRAFFIC
ANALYSIS

17. Top 5 Sports betting sites
Monthly Visitors
26,34M 19,77M 11,58M 7,6M 4,81M

18. Share of traffic owned by each of the top 5
sports betting sites

19. Desktop vs. Mobile Traffic

20. Total search visits generated by keywords
related to World Cup

21. Bet365.com
SEO strategy
isn’t just a
lucky penalty-
kick.

22. FACT 1
BET365 RECEIVES
THE BIGGEST
NUMBER OF SEARCH
VISITS

23. Search visits across the top 5 sports betting
sites

24. FACT 2
BET365 GETS TONS
OF MOBILE TRAFFIC

25. Bet365 share of mobile traffic
reaches 92%:
Bet365 search traffic comes from mobile
devices (6,8M) vs. desktop (476,6k)
In sports betting, the average share of mobile
traffic exceeds 80%, and for Bet365 this
number reaches 92%

26. Statista Data

27. FACT 3
BET365 HAS THE
BIGGEST SHARE OF
PURE SEARCH
TRAFFIC

28. Search traffic generated by branded vs.
non-branded keywords

29. Search visits generated by non-branded
keywords related to World Cup

30. SPORTS BETTING NICHE:
WORLD CUP TRAFFIC
ANALYSIS

31. Methodology:
Took a set of 250 keywords related to the
World Cup and betting with a total monthly
volume of 156,5k based on the SEMrush
data
Used SimilarWeb Keyword Analysis tool

32. Who is
a winner?

33. The winner is…
Mobile
Desktop

34. SPORTS BETTING NICHE:
WORLD CUP SERP
ANALYSIS

35. Methodology:
Took a set of 250 keywords related to the
World Cup and betting with a total monthly
volume of 156,5k based on the SEMrush
data
Used SEMrush Position Tracking tool

36. The most visible sites in both desktop and
mobile SERPs
Desktop
Mobile

37. TRANSACTIONAL
KEYWORDS BRING
TRAFFIC ONLY TO
THE TOP 3 RESULTS

38. Oddschecker.com SEO
strategy:
1. Optimizing the same URL for both mobile
and desktop SERPs
2. Keeping the same URL since 2013
3. Using interactive content
4. Generating links from top notch sites
5. Supporting pages with internal links with
the right anchor texts (site-wide links in
navigation)

39. Reusing the URL

40. Interactive Content

41. High quality referring domains

42. 101greatgoals.com SEO
strategy:
1. Creating multiple content pages
that are sharing World Cup news,
make predictions and give betting
tips
2. Focusing on the analytical pieces
3. Using AMP

43. Multiple content pages

44. Using AMP

45. Sportytrader.com SEO
strategy:
1. Creating content that is
delivered in the form of
betting tips
2. Using infographics heavily
3. Optimizing their search
snippets

46. Utilizing infographic

47. Optimizing the search snippets

48. Want to deliver a similar
research?
1. SimilarWeb
2. SEMrush/SpyFu/Searchmetrics
3. Ahrefs/Majestic
4. SEOquake plugin

49. bit.ly/alex-linkedin
@AlexTachalova
alextachalova@gmail.com
Alextachalova.com / DigitalOlympus.net
Thank you!