We don’t contest this at Profit Builder HD. This is how Google works.
However, despite your best efforts and how carefully crafted and innovative your content and digital marketing is, you find you can’t compete with the casinos on the Strip or in Downtown Las Vegas. And it surprises you. Their onsite pages are rarely 250 words. They don’t blog regularly, and it they do, rarely do they use anchor texts or keywords. They probably don’t even have alt-tags on those images they post on their unoptimized Facebook and Twitter page.
While it may seem unfair, it actually isn’t. Casinos on the Strip or Downtown focus their efforts on other digital marketing practices that boost them up on search engines. While there are many reasons why they reign supreme on Google, here are three of the biggest ones:
Massive Organic Searches
For most businesses or casinos starting out, it takes a while for their content marketing to take off. They need to post consistent quality content for Google to notice and rank accordingly. This is done for generating organic traffic and searches to their website.
But casinos and resorts in Las Vegas are unique in how they generate traffic. In a city whose economy bases itself on hospitality, tourism and luxury commodities, the city of Las Vegas markets itself to others through these casinos. This marketing is so effective that people outside of Las Vegas immediately associate the city with casinos, gambling, luxury, hotels, food, and “fun.”
This image seduces millions of people to visit. Meaning when they Google Las Vegas, they’re most likely googling a casino to book a room and bouncing around on the website for events and food. Imagine this process performed literally millions of times a day. When Google’s algorithm analyses this behavior, they will rank the casino higher due to relevancy.
This also benefits the casino’s marketing team. Due to the searches made, the company marketing analysts can check their casino data management system and see what generated the most traffic. This can make effective digital marketing strategies and make reaching their target audience accurate.
Extensive Backlinking
One edge massive casinos have over businesses is their ability to receive backlinks, not only on their own website but from others.
Did you and your friends have a nice vacation at the resort? Did you post about it on your blog and leave a link? Google will pay attention. Did you leave a review on the company’s Google page? Google will pay attention.
A casino’s backlinks also have an edge because of the scope and credibility of their backlinks.
Did some celebrity performing at the casino or resort tweet out a link for fans to find out concert info? Millions of fans are now rushing to said casino or resort’s site.
Did the local newspaper, government, or education facility publish an electronic document describing an occurrence at the casino, and did they include a link to the website? Regardless of whether it is good or bad, Google will boost them up.
What about websites that detail vacation and best deal sites? Yep, it’s a backlink, and Google will rank it accordingly.
Casinos have the benefit of their corporate structure. Most casinos and resorts on the Strip are sister companies managed by one large company. Corporate can provide backlinks to their other businesses with simple coordination. And due to the already massive heft of organic searches, Google will find this backlink the most “delicious.”
Shares on Social Media
Casinos on the Strip or downtown have more followers and likes than smaller casinos and business. Whenever they post a blog detailing some company feature or event on their social media, a sizable amount of customers will share it on their social media. Others will see the share of the customer’s social media, and they will share it again.
Even if they post something once a week, their share amounts typically outrank smaller entities.
Google will see this as rank the casino or resort as a credible source and relevant, and rank them higher.
What Does This All Mean?
Does this mean you should abandon your content marketing and digital marketing efforts? No, not at all. While casinos on the Strip or Downtown may have a strong backing, they are not excused from the rules of the internet or Google.
They still need to continue using digital marketing best practices, such as posting quality content that is relevant. Otherwise, Google will dock them.
For example, they still need to negate irrelevant backlinks to their site, or Google will rank them lower to their competitors. They still need to cater to their audience by providing what they want, instead of promoting irrelevant, negative content. Not only will it damage their website traffic, but Google will rank them lower.
Content marketing, whether you’re a massive casino or small business, still works. Massive casinos just focus their time on goals other than posting a keywords rich blogs. But just because they don’t focus too much on it, doesn’t mean your company should.
Content marketing is still vital to your digital marketing and your casino or company’s online presence. One of the overall goals of content marketing is to get the benefits the casinos and resorts experience. Content is the resource that allows hospitality industry analytics support companies like Profit Builder to help you.
While you many not have the benefit of massive organic searches, backlinks and shares on social media, it doesn’t mean you won’t ever. It just takes time and perseverance.
This article has been brought to you courtesy of Profit Builders HD. Profit Builder HD provides data-driven marketing solutions and analytics to better your company, casino or hotel.