#5: The Great Google SEO Reset

The recent Google updates have shown us how fragile the world is.

Yes, the entire world. And most definitely our industry. The impact of these changes affects everyone. Was I? Of course. I’m no Superman (hey, Scrubs fans).

I’ve always advocated for diversifying traffic sources, and I’ve pushed heavily for it in Already Media. But of course, change doesn’t happen overnight, not only because of how long it takes to implement but also because of the change in mindset needed to begin that process.

So it’s safe to say we’ve suffered. But our business hasn't burned to the ground because we are already on the path to change. I’m not jumping for joy, though, because we didn’t show the growth I expected. I have high standards for everything I do, so my ego has taken a hit.

So let’s protect ourselves from this shitshow from happening again, yeah? Or at least limit its impact when it does. In this essay, I’m going to dive into what happened, what we can do to navigate through these times, and what I think is coming next.

Is SEO really dead this time? Maybe…for some.

Hi, my name is Dmitry, and I am an SEO addict. I’ve been addicted to SEO since I was 17, when I first started building websites. At 19, I sold my first website, and my addiction deepened. I learned SEO hard: buying backlinks, writing text (yes, I wrote a lot), and experimenting.

Over all the years I’ve been involved with it, I’ve heard that “SEO is dead” hundreds if not thousands of times. SEO has had more lives than a cat, if you believe it. But honestly? I’m still confident in SEO (an addict would say that I know). But if you don’t adapt, it may be dead for you.

The latest Google search engine update showed that no matter how good your SEO is, you’re going to suffer to a varying degree. Or you may be one of the lucky ones who jumped to the top of the rankings, and you’re cashing in big time. But in many cases, there’s no rhyme or reason. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next… maybe even Google.

Here’s my take on what happened here…

First off, the Google update wiped a lot of websites from the top of the rankings. Gambling affiliates suffered a lot here because of this:

When California Dogs dot Com ranked number 2 in the online casino search category for California, it didn’t feel right. Clearly, Google felt the same way. Using these sites as PBNs also lost a lot of weight. 

Their measures also fought to eradicate “low-quality, unoriginal content.” As anyone who has produced affiliate content will attest, it doesn’t matter whether you use William Shakespeare to write an article about the best casinos in the UK; the content will be deemed unoriginal:

Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme because that’s actually pretty original. But it’s the extreme you’d have to if you want to make a “Best UK Casinos” SEO article sound original. And if you’re producing 1 million words of content per month, you can’t afford the world’s best writers to do that for you; it’s not cost-effective. So producing “content at scale” is the other thing they’re at war with because they know that content at scale and quality don’t mix.

Google have a hungry AI engine to feed in the AI gold rush. They don’t lack data, but they’ve probably realised that feeding it with zillions of low-grade articles doesn’t make their AI tool the brightest at the AI university. But raise the bar for quality content? It gives them a fighting chance.

So, what’s going to happen to affiliates now?

I’m probably not going to sound like Nostradamus when I say that a lot of affiliates will lose their revenue and their business as a result. But it’s going to happen if it hasn’t already. But this is always the danger when you have a single point of failure in your business. And SEO isn’t a trustworthy single point of failure, given how random it is. 

Besides, a one-page website making millions always felt weird to me anyway.

But what I hate the most here is that Google, despite making the right noises, is still dumb as fuck. They’re prioritising 25-year-old domains without any UX. Just awful, plain text and no real value to the user over new, cool, valuable websites. 

There’s no net benefit to the user. They’ve just stopped punching you in the face with their right hand and decided to punch you in the face with their left hand instead. 

And as for Operators?

As I keep saying, our industry is too focused on short-term results. SEO is too out of reach for them; they’d rather invest in a few more FTDs via a CPA model.

There are only a few operators whose SEO I love. Betway is one of those few examples. Maybe I can even write another essay (request, please) and explain why their product is so good with SEO (and it’s not just because of their SEO techniques).

To display my point, I want to examine operators in three different markets and their attitudes towards SEO:

#1: White markets: They don’t have enough knowledge (in the main) to fight against the big affiliates. Their business metrics aren’t conducive to investing in linkbuilding/content to make it a viable business and marketing strategy, so it’s a no-go.

#2: Grey markets: They’re afraid of investing in SEO. They’re here for the short term, and they target a payback of 3-4 months (or sometimes less). SEO isn’t going to fly for them.

#3: Black markets: Domains are getting banned frequently. You need to protect your brand traffic—it's the only thing you wish for. And returning players, obviously, too.

In summary? Operators won’t feel a direct impact; they don’t care about SEO. So that’s why this essay will mostly focus on affiliates.

Parasite SEO, however… is probably DEAD

Nobody likes it when I call it that. But let’s be real, that’s what it is. I’m not on the corporate side anymore, so I can call it whatever I like… and it’s what the forums call it also.

The above is what a random first link on Google says. That's what consumers trust - right? First clicks on Google, so do I /sarcasm.

All of our favourite independent gambling reviews are published on Forbes. Yeah, right. This famous technique brings some 20-30%+ of revenue to all of the most well-known affiliates.

Well, it did. Because what Google previously classed as the most trusted / authority / valuable plain text 2000 words reviews... are dropping like a stone in the rankings.

And I think that's for the best, to be honest. People work on building UX, stories, and investing in content while someone publishes a piece of dumb next on Forbes and ranks it. 

So it's for the best that this one is damaged, right? (unless you are one of those affected, of course)

And Google PPC, too?

Many affiliate teams relying on PPC figured out that there is a big shake-up going on there, too. Running blackhat ads is tough, but turbulence with SERP also negatively affected PPC guys.

Massive account bans and a change of undocumented random moderation policies are preventing users from using the old schemes to farm and create accounts.

One of the things I don't understand now is how Google is going to embed its Ads into AI-generated searches. What if I want to find a recipe for boiling eggs? Honestly, I recently searched for one. Is Google going to suggest that I buy this egg machine (I bought one) instead of giving me a recipe? Or is Google going to embed the recipe? It's still unclear. Let’s see how it goes.

Anyway, I don't think this will affect Gambling ads any time soon. Moderation is going to become tougher, of course. AI will create patterns on how to spot blackhat sites and accounts. But people will find a workaround. We did for so many years. I don't think Google will become dramatically smarter so quickly.

For now - bans will continue, turbulence will stay. For how long? Only Google knows.

Google AI: A big step forward? Or back…?

Google has recently released its AI overviews. An AI-generated answer is presumably based on the best results for a user's query. However, it’s often not comprised of the best results—far from it.

Google’s AI seems not to know sarcasm or a joke when it reads one. So, it’s creating summaries for answers based on junk data. Such as joke answers within Reddit threads, where AI cannot discern whether an answer is legitimate or if someone is acting like a fool.

What next? Google AI powered by 4chan? Actually, maybe they’re there already:

See what’s going on here? Google has rushed into the AI game. As one of the major tech company in the world, they couldn’t be seen as lagging behind on AI. But because this is a valuation game, they need to say they are competing. This has resulted in a pretty dumb product that wasn’t fit for release.

This is GOOD news for iGaming

I wrote some time ago when AI Overviews were announced that I don’t think they’ll be a threat to iGaming. And I still believe that perhaps even more so. Let me tell you why:

The second Google recommends an offshore operator in the UK/NL/SE, etc., they will be slapped with a mega fine. You know how the regulators roll in these countries.

Google prefer to stay away from dodgy or highly regulated niches. They either ban them outright or limit them. So, I decided to do an experiment:

Recommending a NASDAQ-listed sports betting company to play in a blackhat territory? Good job, Google. What’s next? Sending a self-excluded person a guide on how to play with a credit card?

I think this terrible product launch will make them retreat and limit the potential for damage. Because, shock horror, artificial intelligence isn’t that intelligent. At this stage, while you can do some wonderful things with the technology, it’s a glorified predictive text tool.

The irony of it all…

Google is pushing its low-quality AI-generated summaries while simultaneously trying to prohibit people from ranking with low-quality, generic AI-generated content produced at scale. But truth be told, when it comes to content, I don’t think most people’s use of AI is good for the internet. Before long, we’re all going to be dreaming of seeing a spelling mistake.

After spending a lot of time publishing on LinkedIn, I’ve come to love people making spelling mistakes. The use of AI to replace human conversation is killing me. I’m now seeing people who cannot speak English using perfect English and grammar. The problem is that they think it sounds good. But often, it looks unusual and unnatural, and the tone of voice is distinctly “Chat GPT.”

Maybe that’s you, as a reader. I’m sorry for saying this. Please be careful. Anyone paying attention can tell that you’re using generic ChatGPT.

I love a human being a human. Falling in love, making mistakes, experimenting, being curious, and yes, playing stupid online casino games and losing money.

I’m extremely excited about AI's potential applications. It can make all of our lives easier. But if we’re not careful, the internet will be one big automated mess of our AI bots talking bollocks to each other. 

Authenticity is going to become more valuable than ever.

So as far as SEO is concerned. Yes, I can see the value in wiping low-grade, mass-produced AI content from the search listings. But don’t then replace it with another AI tool that is even more low-grade than the content its’s replacing. 

It’s time for us to focus on quality and provide the users (humans) with quality experiences that add genuine value to their lives. AI content can exist, but it needs to be done correctly in a human-centric way. I hope that these are the websites that are shown in the Google rankings.

P.S. I’m obviously not the world’s top SEO expert, and I’ve not done SEO manually for more than 10 years now. What you see here are the musings of where I think the industry is headed from an investor and entrepreneur.