International digital marketing agency Stickyeyes reports that a change in Google’s search engine algorithms has caused many online gambling sites to lose “significant organic visibility” in Google searches last year.
The search engine updates sought to penalize brands that use what Google says is aggressive or unnatural link strategies. The study said that the updates had already hit a number of gambling companies.
Online gambling operator 888 Holdings fell from being one of the most visible brands in the casino sector to as low as 17th in Stickyeyes’ index in the space of just one month. Online gambling website Gambling.com fell from fifth place to outside of the top 100 in just two months.
The report also revealed that consumer spending in the UK on online gambling sector was about $4.1 billion in 2013.
Bookmaker William Hill remained the market leader with online net revenue growth of 18 percent in the first half of the year. Online search volume for sports betting was also up 18 percent on the previous year while searches for casino also grew 15 percent.
