For those investigating Google SERPs in the gaming industry, it would probably be interesting to look at an example from search results for keywords related to bingo in the UK. During the recent lockdown and especially after Google’s search algorithm update in May, many industries that are somehow related to online have suffered from a sharply decrease in websites’ traffic. Gaming sites were not an exception – some have lost positions in the TOP and some, including sport betting operators and affiliates, have faced a decrease in the number of visitors by up to 70%. Against this background, the case with UK bingo sites is interesting, since many of them have experienced an increase in the number of visitors – due to the fact that online bingo halls were closed until recently (and some remain closed still).
Let’s go over the main points regarding “online bingo” Google SERP in the United Kingdom as of summer, 2020. If you search for the keyword, you’ll see that search results are dominated by brands such as Mecca Bingo, Buzz Bingo and Foxy Bingo. Google algorithms become more and more user-oriented - every single update is aimed to understand search intent better and offer better sources (sites) to meet the real search need. Gaming is not an exception – short-tailed keywords are considered by Google as transactional, thus, the Search sends a visitor directly to a site that can meet his or her needs – bypassing all intermediate sites. In our case, these original sites are bingo operators – not the affiliates or aggregators.
On the one hand, this seems to be better for users, who are invited to join real bingo sites and start the game right away. In fact, there are several pitfalls behind this obvious conclusion. Consider the example of a user who has never played online bingo before. He or she will probably want to find some general information – about bingo brands, bonuses, etc. You can easily see the judgment may be true if you’ll type “online bingo” in Google and scroll towards “People also ask” section (again, all these is fair for the United Kingdom search results). You’ll then find out that the section consists of users’ search questions like “What is the best online bingo”, “What is the best online bingo site in the UK”, “How do you play bingo online” and other.

You don’t need to be an analyst to guess that all these questions have joint search intent. The user wants to get some general descriptive facts about online bingo, probably, afterward, he or she will want to get to go on to the real-money bingo site.
The section “People also ask” can become and actually is – a “gold mine” for bingo affiliate sites. Of course, if they have an ideally matching content to target users’ needs in the right information. Alluring that these answers do not always offer the best possible answer to a searchers’ question. And – that relatively “small” sites dominate the section.

Does this mean that a small site has a better chance to target Google’s TOP, than a big and trusted operator’s site? Can this make any sense? You’ll be surprised to hear “yes”. Under some conditions, of course. Affiliated sites are by far operated by small teams, that’s why they’re more flexible than big organizations, where there are a number of people and teams, as well as parallel processes. Flexibility gives this fast response to any changes in the user’s search trends. For big companies, it usually takes longer to implement novelties, as the decision making and approval processes take quite a lot of time.
To conclude, changes in Google’s SERP for bingo-related queries have demonstrated the importance of an accurate understanding of perspective search keywords a website’s team is willing and able to target. Another key point is that the ability to quickly detect and respond to changes in user’s search needs becomes a key competitive advantage for companies, operating in the online gaming industry.
The full article is available here https://bingo77uk.com/news/how-people-search-for-online-bingo-in-uk